[January 21, 2014]

New York Life Introduces a New Way to Address the Financial Demands of Chronic Illness

New York Life, America's largest mutual life insurer, today introduced a new way for consumers to use their whole life policies to help fund potential chronic care needs.

New York Life has responded to the fact that today seven in ten Americans over the age of 65 become cognitively impaired or unable to complete at least two activities of daily living over their lifetimes.* The company developed the new Chronic Care Rider for its whole life product line so policyholders would have the option of accelerating their policy's face amount to help pay for chronic care needs.

"New York Life is pleased to offer a way for whole life insurance to do more for you. Many understand the value of whole life insurance for its ability to protect a family's financial future through the death benefit which can help pay off mortgages, fund college educations, take care of final expenses, or offset the loss of the insured's income. With this feature, there is even more value to the policyholder in the form of additional protection for their family in the case of a chronic illness," said Craig DeSanto, senior vice president, New York Life. "As a life insurance consumer is planning their whole life coverage, the availability of this rider is another way for consumers to take advantage of the flexibility and value of their whole life policies if they need to, and to create additional peace of mind that their families and loved ones will be taken care of in the future."

The Chronic Care Rider is a flexible, low-cost addition to a whole life insurance policy with a premium that is guaranteed to stay level. If a policyholder does not need to use their benefits for chronic care, those funds remain intact as life insurance benefits for heirs or as cash value that can help supplement retirement icome as their life insurance needs decrease. The Chronic Care Rider is also very easy to use once the insured is certified as permanently chronically ill. Policyholders are not required to submit receipts or a care plan for claim reimbursement, and policyholders can decide how their monthly claim payments are spent. The benefits may be used - for at-home care, a nursing home stay, or even to help supplement the needs of family members who are spending time providing care - no receipts or plan of care needed.

"Many young adults, potentially years away from a long term care event, are seeing their parents and grandparents deal with chronic care situations and becoming increasingly aware of the importance of planning for their own care needs," added Mr. DeSanto. "With that in mind, this is a natural way to help consumers put protection in place right away with the life insurance coverage, at the same time offering a good financial solution for those who are starting to think about future care needs but are not financially ready to commit to a separate long-term care insurance policy."

The Chronic Care Rider is available on newly issued New York Life Whole Life and Custom Whole Life insurance policies.

New York Life Insurance Company, a Fortune 100 company founded in 1845, is the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States*** and one of the largest life insurers in the world. New York Life has the highest possible financial strength ratings currently awarded to any life insurer from all four of the major credit rating agencies: A.M. Best (A++), Fitch (AAA), Moody's Investors Service (Aaa), Standard & Poor's (AA+).**** Headquartered in New York City, New York Life's family of companies offers life insurance, retirement income, investments and long-term care insurance. New York Life Investments***** provides institutional asset management and retirement plan services. Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as retail mutual funds. Please visit New York Life's website at www.newyorklife.com for more information.

* 40 Must-Know Statistics About Long-Term Care from Morningstar.com, August 2013.

** Accessing cash value via policy loans accrues interest and reduces cash value and death benefit.

*** Based on revenue as reported by "Fortune 500 ranked within Industries, Insurance: Life, Health (Mutual)," Fortune magazine, May 20, 2013. See http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2013/faq/?iid=F500_sp_method%20 for methodology.

**** Individual independent rating agency commentary as of 8/1/13.

***** New York Life Investments is a service mark used by New York Life Investment Management Holdings LLC and its subsidiary, New York Life Investment Management LLC.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]