Thrivent Financial offers both a traditional standalone long-term care insurance policy and a combined life insurance and LTC product.
Thrivent is a highly-rated company with a long history, but you’ll have to take an unusual step not required by other insurers if you want to become a policyholder.
Read our complete review of Thrivent's long-term care coverage options below.
Thrivent LTC pros & cons
Pros
- Thrivent offers both a traditional long-term care insurance policy as well as a hybrid product.
- The company’s traditional long-term care policy offers several options to enable you to customize your coverage, while the hybrid policy gives you several options for face amounts, monthly LTC benefit amounts, and lifetime LTC benefit amounts.
- Thrivent carries A.M. Best’s highest financial strength rating, A++.
Cons
- Coverage is not available in all states.
- As a Christian fraternal organization that sells insurance and financial products, the application process requires you to sign a statement of faith, affirming that you identify with a Christian denomination.
- Another downside to its structure is that Thrivent cannot participate in a state guaranty association. Traditional insurers belong to these associations so you are guaranteed to receive some policy benefits in the event the insurer becomes unable to satisfy its contractual obligation.
Thrivent LTC coverage options
Thrivent offers multiple solutions for long-term care insurance. Its traditional coverage has a wide range of features and is highly customizable. In 2022, the organization launched CareForward, an approach that combines elements of long-term care insurance and life insurance (more on that later).
Thrivent’s traditional LTC policy provides coverage for home care, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, adult day care, and hospice care. It includes these benefits and features:
- Equipment and home modifications to help you remain at home.
- Care coordination services are provided by a care manager, who helps with a long-term care plan and monitors ongoing care needs.
- Caregiver training from a qualified healthcare professional so that an informal caregiver can care for your specific needs.
- Respite care that provides an opportunity for an informal caregiver to have needed time off by providing alternative care for the insured.
- An alternate care benefit that helps pay for care services identified in your plan of care as a cost-effective alternative to covered services.
- A bed reservation benefit that covers the cost to hold your bed (up to 60 days per calendar year) if you need to temporarily leave your residential facility.
- An international care benefit that provides limited benefits if you are outside the United States and receiving qualified long-term care services.
- Two potential premium discounts. One is a preferred health discount of 10 percent off standard rates. The other is a couples discount.
- A premium waiver during the time you’re receiving policy benefits.
- A Contingent Nonforfeiture Benefit, so that if you decide to no longer pay your premiums because of a substantial premium increase, your coverage will continue as paid-up coverage with reduced benefit maximums.
The flexibility of its LTC policy includes:
- Choosing a monthly benefit between $1,500 and $15,000.
- Choosing to pay premiums over 10 years or over your lifetime.
- Choosing from 30-day, 90-day, or 180-day elimination periods.
- Choosing annual benefit increases ranging from 1 percent compounded to 5 percent compounded.
The policy also includes several optional riders, including:
- A cash benefit rider. This rider provides a separate cash benefit that you can use however you wish during the time you’re receiving policy benefits. It would offer an additional cash benefit equal to 10 percent of your monthly maximum benefit if receiving facility care or 15 percent of that benefit if receiving home care.
- A waiver of the elimination period. You can use this rider to waive your 30-day or 90-day elimination period if you opt for home care or adult day care.
- A survivorship benefit rider, which waives premium requirements if one of you dies after your contracts have been in force for at least 10 years and neither of you had been chronically ill during those 10 years.
- A return of premium rider, which refunds your paid premiums, minus any benefits received if you die after the contract has been in force for at least 10 years.
- A shared care benefit rider, which allows couples with identical Thrivent long-term care insurance contracts to share benefits. If, for example, you exhaust all of your benefits, yet need additional care, you may access your partner’s remaining available benefits.
Thrivent CareForward
In June 2022, Thrivent launched CareForward, which combines a long-term care solution with life insurance.
CareForward includes many of the long-term care benefits and features offered by its standalone policy. The life insurance part of the policy includes a cash value component.
You may be eligible for CareForward if you are between the ages of 18 and 75. There are four premium payment options: a single lump sum, payment over 10 years, payment over 20 years, or payments to age 95.
You can choose a face amount between $50,000 and $500,000. Once you’ve chosen a face amount, that becomes the basis for your maximum monthly long-term care benefit and the total policy benefit.
To determine your monthly benefit maximum, you can choose either 3 percent, 4 percent, or 5 percent of your policy’s face amount. For example, if you choose a $200,000 face amount and combine it with a 4 percent LTC monthly benefit, you’d receive a maximum of $8,000 in LTC benefits ($200,000 x 4% = $8,000).
Your lifetime total long-term care benefit will be your choice as well, either 1x, 2x, or 3x your face amount. The $200,000 face amount with a 3x multiplier would give you a maximum lifetime LTC benefit of $600,000.
You can choose one of three inflation benefits to increase your benefits:
- 5 percent compound interest for life
- 3 percent compound interest for life
- 3 percent compound interest for 20 years
Learn More: Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance
About Thrivent Financial
Unlike other long-term care insurance providers, Thrivent Financial is a non-profit fraternal organization that is owned by its members.
As a fraternal organization, Thrivent cannot participate in the state guaranty association in any state. Traditional insurance companies belong to state guaranty associations, which ensure that you would still have some guaranteed benefits if your insurer cannot meet its obligations. Thrivent is still required by law to maintain policy reserves equal to the present value of future benefits guaranteed in its contracts.
The organization’s membership is limited to Christians who profess their faith and belong to an established Christian denomination. It was originally a Lutheran-only organization but opened its availability up to other Christian denominations in 2013.
Thrivent describes itself as “a holistic financial services organization driven by a higher purpose, helping you make the most of all you’ve been given.”
Its products and services include life insurance, disability insurance, long-term care insurance, mutual funds, managed accounts, annuities, banking, and financial planning.
Thrivent was established in 1902 when 500 founding members contributed $5 to $13 each to start a life insurance fund. As of 2022, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based firm ranked 351 on the Fortune 500 list.
It carries A.M. Best’s highest financial strength rating, A++. and has been named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for more than a decade by Ethisphere.
Teresa Rasmussen is the president and chief executive officer of Thrivent. Before her current role, Rasmussen was president of Thrivent’s core life, health and annuities business after serving 10 years as senior vice president, general counsel, and secretary. Prior to joining Thrivent, she held a series of leadership roles at American Express, including serving as vice president and managing counsel. Earlier in her career, she was a trial attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Tax Division, as part of the Attorney General’s Honors Program.
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