I became interested in long-term care (LTC) and the policies that cover it in much the same way others did. At the start of my financial services career in 1987, I was with a big life and disability carrier making my way “dialing for dollars”. The main interest of most of my prospects was health insurance. This approach led to some access to a few affluent professionals. Often, I was able to interest those clients in my life and disability products. This, of course, was my main agenda and my success with life and disability products pleased my employer immensely.

By nature, my attention to detail, being basically overly analytical, along with my fascination with the nuances of contracts, soon made me the agency’s expert in disability products for the professional market segment. This, coupled with my years of experience with Medicare and its billing processes, made me a popular associate to invite along to answer questions when meeting with retired individuals.

I remember distinctly meeting with a retired couple about their Medicare supplement coverage and being asked what I knew about long-term care policies. I had to ask what they were talking about. Not only was I was unaware that the inability to live independently was referred to as “long-term care” but, I also did not know there was a type of insurance designed to cover this care.

Over the following months I went to the library and read about LTC and related subjects. There were lots of statistics and projections provided by government agencies. I had already read Age Wave by Ken Dychtwald, a book about the aging of the Baby Boomer generation. Putting the two together, I came to the inevitable conclusion that this was a problem that wasn’t going away.

I began to pay attention. I noticed if something was said or written about LTC. I found that on occasion my mail contained an invitation to learn more about some company’s long-term care insurance (LTCI) programs. Usually these promotional pieces were from some obscure Medicare supplement carrier. Nevertheless, I would reply and ask for all of the information they were offering regarding their LTCI coverage. I read each company’s marketing materials, outlines of coverage, and studied how their policies and options worked. The more I read, the more I realized that LTCI insurance was simply a variation of a disability policy. I was in my element!

In studying the materials from these companies, I started to question why I had heard virtually nothing about most of these companies. I decided to do some research on some of these carriers – American Travelers, Transport Life, American Integrity, Pioneer Life, Penn Treaty Life, and Medico/Mutual Protective Life, etc. Because I had started in the financial services field with Mutual of New York and Guardian Life, I was shocked at the size and financial ratings of some of these insurance companies. At that time, both Mutual of New York and Guardian had A+ and AAA financial ratings. I don’t remember exact assets in the late eighties, but they were in the multi-billion dollars for each company. Some of these long-term care carriers only had assets in the tens of millions of dollars and most had an A.M. Best rating of B or B+. Though I know size isn’t everything, I thought it would be important for this type of policy that covered disability primarily toward the end of life. The size and ratings of these companies, compared to the insurance giants, caused me to question the promises they made.

About this time I met a company representative from UNUM. He told me about UNUM entering the individual LTCI field. Because I was constantly in competition with UNUM for professional disability policies, I was interested in its history and reputation. In the late eighties, UNUM had assets in the $6- to $8-billion dollar range and had ratings of A+ with A.M. Best and AA with both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s. Though I had much to learn about LTCI, I felt comfortable with UNUM’s size and ratings. As one of the nation’s largest disability companies, it had to know something about becoming disabled.

Shortly thereafter I became aware of Amex, Travelers, and CNA’s offerings for LTCI coverage. I now felt I had something solid to offer clients if I could get them interested in discussing long-term care. Over the next couple of years I sold a number of these policies to my own clients or to prospects who were initially interested in health insurance or Medicare supplements. During this period I learned how benefits were paid. I also learned about the myriad of options offered by most of the companies and ascertained which ones were really beneficial and which were more like gimmicks. I learned how to design plans with benefits that met the clients’ needs and desires. And, I learned how to overcome the client’s objections about coverage that nobody wants to even think about needing.

Overtime, I became a LTCI resource for my fellow agents and accompanied many of them to discuss LTCI with their prospects. Having earned a reputation for producing health, life, disability and now long-term care insurance, I was asked to help recruit and train others. During the next few years I talked to more and more agents and clients about all the issues regarding long-term care and the benefits of long-term care insurance. I often accompanied new recruits on their LTCI presentations.

It was at this point that I decided to pursue LTC exclusively. In 1993, I formed JT RYAN and Associates, Inc. My first contract as a Managing General Agent was with UNUM in 1993. JT RYAN was consistently in UNUM’s top five to 10 agencies for production until the merging of UNUM and Provident Life and Accident. Following a series of questionable decisions regarding all facets of its businesses, UNUM/Provident eventually dissembled its MGA division in 2003.

During the last 11 years, JT RYAN has obtained additional MGA contracts with major carriers, including MetLife, John Hancock, and GE, now Genworth Financial.

Our ability to maintain a large block of business is the result of our company’s philosophy that service and integrity are our most important values. We work diligently with agents to locate the policy that best meets the needs of the client. And, we strive to work with companies that are financially stable with excellent records for claims payment.

Providing excellent service to both agents and clients is of utmost importance. We offer agents assistance with training, underwriting screening, plan design, application processing, policy issuance, and commissions. We order the underwriting requirements and follow up on those requirements.

We have an experienced staff that handles problems that arise with cases. As most agents know it takes a lot of time and effort to obtain information or fix a problem when dealing directly with the carriers. Having developed many contacts at the companies, we’re able to get questions answered and problems resolved quickly, and keep our agents out of “voice-mail jail.” Whether it’s a policy question, how to handle an objection, or assistance with a multi-life case, our experienced staff is available to help you. For more information about the service and support available to you, visit our Sales and Marketing section, or, call our office at (800) 868-6581.

Back to Our Team bios.