Policy standardization and terms, as well as tax treatment, also have evolved to make long-term care insurance more attractive and an easier sale. Coverage is much more comprehensive today than just a few years ago. In fact, dual-coverage policies-those that cover both institutional and home care-account for 77% of the policy market, up from 37% in 1990, the HIAA says. The difference in the average daily nursing-home benefit has increased by 28%, outpacing inflation. At the same time, the once stark gap between the daily benefits paid for institutional care and those paid for home care has narrowed significantly. This gives clients far greater choice.

The Health Insurance Portability Act also gave LTC insurance a significant tax boost that marketers are just starting to maximize today. That improvement is the deduction C corporations can take when they buy LTC policies for employees, spouses, dependents and retirees and their spouses. And since there are no anti-discrimination rules, C corps can offer to pay premiums for a select group. As important, the benefits are tax-free.

This change has given birth to paid-up plans (also called limited-pay policies) that law firms, accounting firms and other C corps can buy tax-free for their principals, executives and their family members. "This is the hot market," says Slome.

"Companies can pay off policies for 55-year-olds and deduct the premiums as a business expense."

Paid-up policies also entice the wealthy, who like the idea of buying a lifetime of benefits for one to five years of premiums, Gelbwaks says.

Equally interesting, an above-the-line tax deduction for LTC policies for the masses is pending in Congress. The deduction has been sidetracked before, but its chances are getting better, thanks to the demographic shift in the U.S. population and the strain the graying of America is putting on Medicare and Medicaid, Gelbwaks says.

That doesn't mean that LTC insurance is an easy sale. "Clients are much more sophisticated than they were even five years ago," says Gelbwaks. But it does mean that there are wealthier and more attentive markets.

Of course, not every planner wants to offer LTC policies, but whether they want to bring the expertise in-house or partner with an existing expert, their choices are getting richer. That's thanks in part to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, which will begin offering a new designation in long-term care insurance later this year. The program, which requires four courses and an extensive exam, is designed to give planners and agents expert knowledge on LTC issues and products, Slome says. The designation is being offered in conjunction with the HIAA.

It will take years, admits Stein, but the goal is to confer on holders of the LTC designation (which has yet to be named) a high degree of professionalism.

In the meantime, experts like Stein and Gelbwaks will continue to trumpet a fact that is hard to contest: There