Manulife Financial Corporation News
John Hancock Expands Online Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) Training Options to Help Advisors Meet New NAIC Producer Regulations
BOSTON, March 10 PRNewswire-FirstCall — John Hancock Life Insurance Company (John Hancock) will expand its long-term care insurance (LTCI) training efforts this month by launching an online program that will be compliant with NAIC Producer Training Regulations and state LTCI Partnership amendments and enjoy the same incentives as those for its classroom sessions. John Hancock's training programs are open to all producers who sell LTCI.
Because regulations also require insurers to validate the status of their agents' compliance with the training regulations, John Hancock has also contracted with ClearCert.com to assist with the validation of course content in all NAIC training states and to provide a national clearinghouse of the compliance status.
Training Program Expansion
John Hancock's new online LTCI courses, available the end of March, will provide agents with the content they need to fulfill their obligations for compliance. In order to encourage agent participation, Hancock will offer its online classes at a rate of $50 per class. CE credits can be purchased for an additional $15. As with the classroom sessions, agents submitting at least two applications within 60 days of taking the online class will receive a refund of the class fee. Information on all training programs can be accessed through its training website: www.nltcp.com.
A leader in long-term care insurance education, John Hancock already has trained more than 3,000 agents in more than 90 classroom sessions. In addition, more than 70 John Hancock long-term care insurance producers have also been certified as 'trainers' within their organizations or for recruiting purposes.
ClearCert Validation and Clearinghouse
"The implementation of mandatory LTC partnership training requirements by as many as 25 or more states this year represents a major compliance challenge," said Catherine Dove, Partnership Training Director. "Unlike with continuing education, it is the insurers that are required by law to validate both the content of training programs and that agents are in compliance with these new, mandatory LTCI training requirements."
ClearCert offers unbiased third party course content review of NAIC long- term care and partnership training courses on behalf of LTCI carriers. The firm maintains a website www.clearcert.com designed to provide information on courses with certified content, and agent training requirements in states that have mandates.
The site can be particularly helpful for agents licensed in multiple states who may be confused about how to meet each state's requirements without taking numerous courses. The site also provides guidance concerning required follow-up training, which must be completed within 24 months of taking the initial course in most states.
ClearCert's national clearinghouse reports agent compliance status to carriers and distributors upon demand based upon course completion data reported by training providers. Long-term care insurance carriers and distributors can confirm that an agent is in compliance with any participating state's requirements instantly.
"ClearCert will provide carriers and distributors with a single source for validating training compliance of producers from multiple training providers, and that's a much needed service at this time," said Dove.
About John Hancock Long-Term Care Insurance
John Hancock is one of the largest providers of LTC insurance overall with more than 1,000,000 LTC insurance clients and $1.4 billion of in-force LTC insurance premium. The company holds $8.1 billion in LTC reserves and has paid $1.8 billion in LTC insurance claims as of December 31, 2007.
Having entered the retail LTC insurance market in 1987, John Hancock is one of the largest carriers of individual coverage in the country. John Hancock began selling group LTC insurance in 1988 and today is the largest provider of employer-sponsored group LTC insurance in the U.S.
About John Hancock and Manulife Financial
John Hancock is a unit of Manulife Financial Corporation (the Company), a leading Canadian-based financial services group serving millions of customers in 19 countries and territories worldwide. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and in most of Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, the Company offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were Cdn$396 billion (US$401 billion) as at December 31, 2007.
Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '0945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at www.manulife.com.
The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers a broad range of financial products and services, including life insurance, fixed and variable annuities, mutual funds, 401(k) plans, long-term care insurance, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at www.johnhancock.com.
Long Term Care Insurance is underwritten by John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Boston, MA 02117
SOURCE John Hancock Life Insurance Company
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