Long-Term Care Insurance Quotes: How to Get Them and What They Don't Show

Getting LTC insurance quotes sounds straightforward: call a few agents, compare premiums, pick one. In practice, most people receive quotes that aren't comparable to each other, reflect only the products an agent earns commission on, and never include the option that's often the right answer for wealthier households — self-funding. Here's how to get quotes that actually tell you something.

What drives your LTC insurance quote

Before comparing quotes, you need to understand the variables that determine your premium. Two quotes for "$200/day for 3 years" from different carriers can differ by 30–40% in annual premium — because the underlying assumptions differ on the factors below.

• Age at application. Premiums rise 6–8% per year with age. Locking in rates at 55–60 is meaningfully cheaper than waiting until 65, and denial rates climb sharply after 70.¹
• Gender. Women pay 50–60% more than men for traditional standalone LTC insurance — women file more claims and have longer average claim durations (3.7 years vs. 2.2 years for men).² Hybrid life+LTC products are gender-neutral in pricing.
• Health class. LTC applications are underwritten more rigorously than most insurance products. Preferred health class can cost 10–15% less than standard; rated applicants pay more; some are declined entirely. See the underwriting guide.
• Daily benefit amount. The dollar amount the policy pays per day of qualifying care — typically $150–$400/day depending on care costs in your state. See the state cost guide to determine your local benchmark.
• Benefit period. How long the policy pays — commonly 2, 3, 4, or 5 years, or lifetime. Three years covers the statistical median; five years covers most of the tail risk.
• Inflation protection. A 3% compound rider roughly doubles your premium compared to no inflation protection, but your benefit also doubles over ~24 years — which matters if you don't file a claim until your early 80s. See the inflation protection guide.
• Elimination period. The waiting period before benefits begin (your deductible in days). The 90-day standard costs meaningfully less than 30-day. See the elimination period guide.
• State. Premiums are state-filed and state-specific. The same benefit design can cost 25–40% more in New York or California than in the Southeast.
• Marital status. Spousal and partner discounts of 25–35% are available on traditional standalone policies when both partners apply together. Hybrid products are priced per individual — no spousal discount.

How to get apples-to-apples quotes

The most common quoting mistake: requesting quotes from multiple agents without fixing identical assumptions. A quote with a shorter benefit period, no inflation rider, and a 180-day elimination period will always look cheaper than one with 3% compound inflation and a 90-day EP — but it covers much less.

Before contacting any agent or carrier, define a target benefit design you'll use across all quotes:

Submit the same specification to every agent. When quotes come back at different prices for an identical design, the difference is carrier pricing — not hidden coverage differences.

Benchmark premiums: what to expect

AALTCI's 2025 Long-Term Care Insurance Sourcebook provides benchmarks for a $165,000 benefit pool (roughly $150/day for 3 years) with no inflation rider and standard health class.¹ These are starting points for planning — your actual quote will vary based on your health, state, and benefit design.

These are for a $165K benefit pool with no inflation protection. Add 3% compound inflation and premiums roughly double. Apply the spousal discount (25–35%) when both partners qualify. For a full breakdown of premiums by benefit design, see the complete cost guide.

Why quotes from commissioned agents show you only part of the picture

The LTC insurance distribution market is built on first-year commissions — typically 50–80% of first-year premium for traditional standalone policies, with different structures for hybrid linked-benefit products.³ This creates a structural blind spot in what shows up in a quote.

A commissioned agent will show you:

• Traditional standalone LTC insurance from the carriers they're contracted with
• Hybrid life+LTC products — MoneyGuard, CareMatters, Asset-Care, PremierCare Max
• Possibly short-term care insurance as a lower-cost alternative

A commissioned agent will not show you:

• Self-funding analysis. For households with $1.5M+ in investment assets, the actuarial math often favors building a dedicated LTC reserve over buying insurance. An agent has no product to sell in that scenario — so it doesn't come up. See the self-fund guide.
• The full carrier landscape. Independent agents may be contracted with a subset of carriers. A captive agent shows you only their employer's products. Even a good independent broker may not represent all four carriers writing traditional policies.
• Honest coverage sizing. Agents have a structural incentive to sell more coverage rather than to calculate your actual care gap. A fee-only advisor asks what you need to cover — not what you can be sold.

This isn't a condemnation of insurance agents — many are excellent advisors. It's a clear-eyed recognition of where commission incentives create gaps in what you see during the quoting process.

Online LTC insurance quote tools

Several websites offer online LTC quote tools for quick ballpark estimates. These are useful for orientation but have important limitations:

• Standard health class only. Online tools assume you'll qualify at standard rates. If you have diabetes, atrial fibrillation, a history of certain medications, or other conditions the carriers flag, your actual quote will be different — or you won't qualify. Nearly half of applicants at age 70+ are declined.²
• Partial carrier coverage. Quote tools are operated by brokers with their own carrier appointments. Results reflect that broker's relationships, not the full market.
• No self-fund modeling. Same structural gap as working with a commissioned agent.

Use online tools to orient yourself on costs, then work with someone who can show you all the options.

How many quotes do you need?

For traditional standalone LTC insurance, the market is small: only four carriers write new standalone policies in most states as of 2026 — Mutual of Omaha, Thrivent, National Guardian Life (NGL), and New York Life.⁴ Getting quotes from all four is feasible and advisable. Pricing for identical benefit designs can vary 20–30% across carriers based on their actuarial assumptions and current rate-filing positions.

For hybrid life+LTC products, the market is broader — Nationwide, Pacific Life, OneAmerica, and Lincoln are the major carriers. Hybrid products are harder to compare directly because the life insurance component, death benefit, and surrender value are structured differently across carriers. Lower premiums may reflect a smaller LTC benefit or a smaller death benefit, not a better value.

What to do with your quotes

Once you have multiple quotes on identical terms, evaluate:

1. Lifetime premium cost. Annual premium × expected premium-paying years (often 20–30 for someone buying at 55–60). A policy costing $200/year more might cost $6,000 more over the policy's life — significant, but still worth it if it comes from a more financially stable carrier.
2. Rate stability history. Has this carrier raised rates on existing policyholders? Genworth and John Hancock have implemented rate hikes of 40–100%+ on legacy policyholders. Mutual of Omaha and New York Life have significantly better rate stability records. See the carrier comparison guide.
3. Policy features for the same premium. One carrier may offer calendar-day elimination period counting while another uses service days — a critical difference for home care claims. See the EP guide.
4. The self-fund alternative. For your specific asset level and expected care costs, would a $300K–$500K dedicated reserve invested conservatively outperform paying premiums for 25 years? Use the self-fund vs. insure calculator to model your scenario.

Questions to ask any agent presenting you quotes

• Is this elimination period calendar days or service days? (Critical for home care.)
• What is this carrier's history of rate increases on similar policy blocks?
• Am I seeing every carrier you're contracted with, or a subset?
• What does my benefit amount look like at age 80 with this inflation rider? Show me the math.
• Can you show me what a self-fund scenario looks like at my asset level?

An agent who can't or won't answer these questions is giving you useful information about whether this is the right person to help with a potentially $50,000+ lifetime purchasing decision.