New York Life Long-Term Care Insurance Review
Long-term care insurance can help to lessen the cost of necessary services for the elderly and infirm. This insurance product pays out when you have to access long-term care facilities like nursing homes, hospice care and assisted living facilities. It may also help to pay for a nurse or aide to visit your home to assist you with daily activities.
New York Life is one of the largest insurance companies in the nation, with a history dating back to before the Civil War. Alongside its life insurance and investment product lines, it also sells long-term care insurance.
In this review, we'll take an in-depth look at the pros and cons of using New York Life's long-term care insurance.
Strong for Financial Stability
A company's financial stability ratings are a key indicator that it will be able to meet its financial obligations — such as paying claims in the case of an insurance company. New York Life Insurance consistently receives top scores from a number of leading credit rating agencies, including Moody's, Standard and Poor's, Fitch Ratings and A.M. Best.
New York Life Long-Term Care Insurance Pros and Cons
In this section, we'll cover a few of the reasons you might use New York Life for your long-term care policy and a few reasons you might choose not to.
- Offers a money-back guarantee on hybrid policies
- Nationwide availability
- Simplified claims process
- No option to request a quote online
Pros explained
New York Life offers several advantages over the competition, including its money-back guarantee for linked-benefit policies, nationwide availability and simple claims process.
Offers a money-back guarantee on linked-benefit policies
New York Life offers a money-back option rider on its linked-benefit product offerings. These policies are a type of hybrid insurance, which is coverage that combines life insurance with long-term care benefits. If you don't use any or all of the long-term care components, your beneficiary will get the death benefit.
Nationwide availability
In spite of its name, New York Life is a nationwide insurance provider with thousands of agents located across the country. Whether you're in Anchorage or Alabama, if you meet certain qualifications, you should have no problem purchasing a long-term care policy.
Simplified claims process
While New York Life maintains a physical address for claims made by mail, you'll probably want to use its simple and intuitive online claims portal. The online claim form is clean and easy to navigate. Simply provide your personal information, policy number and a few other pieces of key information about the care you received. The whole process should take no more than a few minutes.
Cons explained
The primary disadvantage to using New York Life’s services is that the company doesn’t offer an online quote procedure.
No option to request a quote online
In order to receive a long-term insurance quote, you'll have to call up a local New York Life agent. Fortunately, New York Life maintains a large network of insurance agents across the country. Still, people used to finding information online on their own may bristle at having to take this step. It also makes comparison shopping more difficult.
New York Life Long-Term Care Insurance Offerings
You can purchase two forms of long-term care insurance through New York Life. These product offerings include a traditional long-term care policy and a linked-benefit offering.
Traditional long-term care insurance
New York Life's traditional long-term care insurance provides quality service with pricing dependent on your age and other underwriting factors. This plan lets you choose between a 90, 180 or 365-day elimination period. Elimination periods act like insurance deductibles for long-term care plans by providing a buffer between when you access care and when your policy starts to pay out. Longer elimination periods lead to lower premium payments and vice versa.
You'll choose between a monthly maximum payout of $1,500 and $12,000 from a range of two, three, five or seven years. Unfortunately, New York Life does not offer a benefit plan for unlimited periods of time. However, it's rare for individuals to need more than five years of long-term care assistance.
New York Life's long-term care insurance will cover in-house care, adult day care, assisted living and nursing home expenses. You can get coverage for hospice living, but only if you have six months to live or less. This policy also offers up to $4,000 in medical equipment coverage, which can increase if an inflation rider is chosen.
Finally, you can choose from a range of optional inflation protection rider options to ensure that your payouts keep up with the rising costs of long-term care.
Combination long-term care and life insurance
This linked-benefit policy combines life insurance and a long-term care benefit in one policy. It includes a money-back guarantee if you don't use the long-term care benefits before you die; in that case, your beneficiaries will get the death benefit.
One benefit to this policy is that your premiums will never increase. With a standard policy, you may see a premium hike after your initial three-year rate lock expires.
New York Life Long-Term Care Insurance Pricing
New York Life's long-term care insurance policies offer standard pricing among insurers, starting at a reasonable $50 per day. However, you'll need to shop around and get several quotes for a fuller idea of how it stacks up. That's because many variables go into calculating a long-term care policy, including your various underwriting factors and the type of care needed.
New York Life offers two types of life insurance care products. The first is a traditional long-term care insurance policy with a three-year premium rate lock. After three years, your premiums may adjust upward based on prevailing market conditions and other factors. The second product is a linked-benefit policy, which lies between long-term care and life insurance and offers a stable premium for the life of the insurance.
Married couples receive an automatic 25% discount on long-term care policies.
New York Life Financial Stability
New York Life has received top scores from several of the nation's largest credit rating agencies. These include:
- A.M. Best: A++ (Superior)
- Moody's: Aaa
- Fitch Ratings: AAA
- Standard and Poor's: AA+
These high scores reflect a healthy balance sheet and sound business practices. If you're a New York Life customer, you're unlikely to run into a policy claim payout issue in the near future.
New York Life Accessibility
Availability
Residents of all 50 states can purchase a New York Life long-term care policy. However, individuals over the age of 79 and those afflicted with some chronic conditions cannot purchase coverage. To see if you qualify, you'll have to call a New York Life insurance agent or visit a branch office. Even if you're under the age of 79 and relatively healthy, it's always possible that you may be denied.
Contact Information
You can reach out to New York Life online, via mail, over the phone or in person. Use one of the following methods to contact a representative.
- Phone: Call 1-800-225-5695 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday ET.
- In-person: Locate your nearest agent through New York Life's online agent locator tool.
- Social media: Reach out to a company representative on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or LinkedIn.
- By mail: Mail general inquiries to 51 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10010 United States.
While New York Life's contact webpage lists two email addresses, neither is intended for general-purpose customer support.
User experience
New York Life Insurance's lack of an online quote generator and purchasing options makes it less accessible than some of its more tech-savvy competitors.
However, it wins points for its solid online claim submission form. The application process will require you to speak with a New York Life agent who will guide you through the required paperwork and answer any questions. Once you need to submit a claim, you can do so via mail or through New York Life's convenient online claims portal.
New York Life Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction ratings for New York Life are mixed. The company scored modestly above average on J.D. Power's 2022 U.S. Overall Customer Satisfaction Index Ranking with a score of 775 out of 1,000 (the industry average is 774). The Better Business Bureau (BBB) gives it a 1.2/5 star average rating with 68 customer reviews. In the past year, it closed 85 complaints; in the past three years, it closed 185 complaints, which is a good sign. The BBB itself gives New York Life a B- rating. Users on Trustpilot give the company an average rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars.
Common complaints include poor customer service and wrongly denied claims. Positive reviews remark on New York Life's quality offerings and wide variety of rider options.
New York Life Long-Term Care Insurance FAQ
What's the difference between long-term care insurance and life insurance?
What does New York Life long-term care insurance exclude?
How does the New York Life insurance claims process work?
Is New York Life a reliable insurer?
How We Evaluated New York Life Long-Term Care Insurance
We evaluated New York Life's long-term care insurance with a number of key metrics in mind. These include:
- Financial stability ratings by leading credit agencies
- Price of plans
- Coverage options
- Available discounts
- Accessibility of the company's customer service and programs
- Availability of New York Life by location
Summary of Money's New York Life Long-Term Care Insurance Review
New York Life offers quality long-term care insurance with typical monthly premiums ranging from $150-$200 per month. With a New York Life long-term care policy, you can receive coverage for a broad range of expenses, including in-home care, nursing home expenses, assisted living costs, adult day care and hospice care. It will also defray the cost of medical equipment for your home.
You can customize your policy with a range of optional riders, such as inflation protection. New York Life deserves credit for its stellar financial stability and its nationwide network of insurance agents. However, its lack of an online quote generator and purchasing options puts it behind the competition.
New York Life makes it easy to submit a claim with its intuitive online claim form. You can pick up the phone or reach out via social media to get in touch with a customer service representative. Its customer service track record is mixed, with slightly above-average results on a recent J.D. Power survey and below-average results on the BBB website.
You can choose between two types of life insurance from New York Life: traditional and linked-benefit. Ultimately, New York Life might be the right fit for you if you value financial stability and a solid range of coverage options. If you'd like to learn more about this company, check out our complete New York Life insurance review.