Lincoln MoneyGuard Review – Is Lincoln MoneyGuard Worth Considering?
If you’re wondering if Lincoln MoneyGuard is worth considering as a long-term care insurance option, you’ve come to the right place!
First things first, I’ll tell you that Lincoln Financial helped pioneer the Hybrid Long-Term Care Insurance Market. The Lincoln MoneyGuard suite of products have been around for over 30 years.
That’s why when we talk about hybrid long-term care insurance, Lincoln’s MoneyGuard often comes to mind.
Now MoneyGuard does offer affordable rates and great benefits. As a matter of fact, they improved their pricing.
However, while MoneyGuard is a good product, I must say that there are definitely better long-term care products available.
If you don’t look at these other products, you’ll be doing your self a disservice.
One product, other than Lincoln’s MoneyGuard, that is worth considering is OneAmerica Asset Care.
OneAmerica Asset Care is well-known for its affordable rates AND Unlimited Lifetime Coverage!
To better understand this point we will compare OneAmerica Asset Care to Lincoln’s MoneyGuard
However, before we do, let me first explain MoneyGuard’s benefits and some of its features to provide a full understanding.
How Does Lincoln MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage Work?
Now Lincoln MoneyGuard is a universal life insurance policy with a qualified long-term care insurance rider. As a Hybrid Long-Term Care Life Insurance policy, it provides the following three benefits to you:
- Long-term care coverage in the event you need long-term care services.
- A death benefit to your beneficiaries if you never need care &
- A return of premium if you ever change your mind
This gives added flexibility when plannin for long-term care.
How the policy works is pretty simple. First, the policy accelerates the built-in death benefit as a living benefit to cover your qualified long-term care expenses.
Next, it offers a Long-Term Care Extension of Benefits Rider. This rider can extend your long-term care benefits once you’ve exhausted the death benefit.
With both the Acceleration of Death Benefit and the Extension of Benefits Rider, MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage can provide up to 6 years of long-term care benefits & protection!
What LTC Services Does Lincoln MoneyGuard III Cover?
If you’re wondering how you may use your policy, here is a list of the following services Lincoln MoneyGuard covers. Services include:
- Adult Day Care
- Assisted Living
- Home Healthcare
- Hospice Care
- Nursing Home Care
MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage, can cover a variety of care options. In addition, the policy also provides bed reservation benefits as well as international benefits.
How Does Lincoln MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage Pay Out Benefits?
Long-term care insurance policies pay benefits in one of two ways. They either pay:
- Cash benefits where they send you a check every month and you use it however you’d like OR
- They pay in reimbursements
Lincoln MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage is a reimbursement policy. With a reimbursement policy, either you or your long-term care facility are reimbursed for the long-term care expenses you incurred.
Therefore, you must submit bills or receipts of your long-term care expenses to Lincoln Financial in order for your MoneyGuard policy to disburse your benefits.
MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage, however, does offer a little flexibility with its Flex Care Cash feature.
Flex Care Cash Feature
The Flex Care Cash feature provides “receipt-free” cash for your long-term care needs. However, with this feature, you can only access up to 50% of your daily long-term care benefits.
The remaining 50% of your max monthly long-term care benefits stays in your long-term care benefit pool and can only be accessed as a reimbursement benefit.
Therefore, there are limitations to getting cash benefits with MoneyGuard. Also, in order to access the flex care cash feature, informal care (care by a spouse or family member) must be approved as part of the Plan of Care.
The Flex Cash Feature is not overly significant as other products such as Nationwide CareMatters offer 100% cash benefits without the need to submit any bills or receipts.
Now let’s discuss some other key features of MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage.
Key Features of Lincoln MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage
This is definitely worth discussing as the key features can help us determine if the product is right for you. So let’s jump right in.
No Elimination Period
One of the biggest key features of MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage the “No Elimination Period.”
The elimination period is also referred to as a deductible period or waiting period.
No elimination period allows benefits to be payable on the first day of care for all eligible claims!
This means that a MoneyGuard policyholder does not have to wait your standard 90 day waiting period before they can receive their benefits.
For a MoneyGuard policyholder, no elimination period can lead to huge cost savings.
For example, the median daily cost of a private room in a nursing home is about $275 a day. If you had a 90-day elimination period, you may pay almost $25,000 of out-of-pocket expenses before receiving benefits!
However, with MoneyGuard’s “No Elimination Period,” you would receive benefits from the first day of eligible long-term care claims.
This is definitely a win for MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage.
Now Lincoln’s MoneyGuard offers a Benefits Transfer Rider. I will explain how that works below.
Benefits Transfer Rider
The Benefits Transfer Rider comes at no additional cost to you in your MoneyGuard policy.
The Benefits Transfer Rider provides your beneficiaries who also have their own MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage policy, the ability to increase their long-term care benefits using your death benefit in the event you die.
Let’s say for example both spouses buy a MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage policy and list one another as their beneficiaries for the death benefit. If one spouse dies, the surviving spouse can use the death benefit to purchase more benefits in their own MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage policy.
In addition, this benefit can be utilized without needing to go through Underwriting. This is a unique feature among hybrid long-term care policies. Therefore, Lincoln MoneyGuard does stand out in this regard.
Lincoln MoneyGuard – Ages To Apply & Premium Payment Options
Now MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage is available to individuals between the ages of 40-80.
The application process for MoneyGuard has streamlined underwriting with no medical exams or lab tests required. There is an application to be completed along with a telephone interview.
The policy offers two rate classes: Standard & Couples Discount. The couples discount will apply based on your marital status at the time of issue only.
For MoneyGuard Fixed Advantage, you can pay for your policy using a single or recurring premium option.
The single premium option allows you to pay your premium in one single lump-sum. No further premium would be required after this lump-sum payment. This option offers the most cost savings and is the preferred option by many folks.
On the other hand, there is a recurring premium option. This offers more flexibility as it allows you to pay guaranteed premiums up to a 10 year period depending on our age.
During that time, you can pay on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis. Once the payment period is over and all premium payments have been met, no further premium would be required.
Lincoln MoneyGuard Vs. OneAmerica Asset Care
Now that we have gotten through all the features of Lincoln’s MoneyGuard let’s discuss how it compares to products such as OneAmerica Asset Care.
OneAmerica Asset Care has one of the most unique hybrid long-term care policies on the market. While other carriers offer a benefit period for of 6 or 7 years, OneAmerica Asset Care offers an Unlimited Benefit Period.
That’s right, OneAmerica Asset Care offers an unlimited benefit period that offers you lifetime coverage so long as you qualify for long-term care service!
You can never outlive your long-term care benefits!
Also noteworthy is OneAmerica Asset Care offers joint coverage for couples. That means both you and your spouse can obtain unlimited lifetime coverage from a OneAmerica Asset Care policy!
For example, here is a OneAmerica Asset Care quote for a $120,000 policy for a 55 year old male and female:
As the quote shows, the total long-term care balance is unlimited! There is no other hybrid long-term care policy that offers this option.
Lincoln Financial’s MoneyGuard doesn’t even come close to offering this length of coverage and the benefit pool!
This is a significant feature for folks who want to make sure they never outlive their long-term care benefits or burden a love one to care for them.
Also at age 80, this couple would receive $6,502 each in long-term care benefits. That’s almost $80,000 per spouse in annual benefits!
That’s a great deal! Plus this is lifetime coverage so long as you qualify for long-term care services!
This level of coverage for couples is why I would recommend a OneAmerica Asset Care policy to anyone considering Lincoln’s MoneyGuard.
By the way, OneAmerica Asset Care offers a 0-day Elimination Period for home healthcare services. That’s pretty nice since most long-term care events start at home.
You can get a much greater bang for your buck with OneAmerica Asset Care!
There Are Better Options Than Lincoln Financial’s MoneyGuard
While Lincoln Financial MoneyGuard is a good product for long-term care insurance, there are better options available.
It’s as simple as that!
If you are interested in getting any of the policies mentioned in this article and need help determining which one is right for you, give me a call at (800) 498-3955.
I am pleased assist you with your long-term care insurance needs. You may also get a free quote by filling out the form below!
I look forward to speaking with you!
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