Top-Tier Insurance Policies for Extended Health Services in Old Age
Long-term care insurance crusader rankings have declared Northwestern Mutual the champ of the pack. Why? These insurance titans are solid as a rock regarding finances, dazzle customers with top-notch service, and offer generosity in their benefits repertoires. Our investigators scrutinized 11 companies, digging into 24 mind-boggling criteria to discover the most promising options for your needs.
Long-term care insurance heavyweights: a primer
- Greatest Gunslinger: Northwestern Mutual
- Second Chance Saloon claimant: Thrivent
- No-Wait / Quick Draw cowboy: Mutual of Omaha
- Eternal Loner: National Guardian
- See more (1)
- Honest-John defender: Methodology
Toughest Customer: Northwestern Mutual
- Maximum monthly shake-down: $12,000
- Customer complaints: Way fewer than what you'd expect in a saloon fight
Catch a Quote – Tug on your ten-gallon hat, partner! Northwestern Mutual's long-term care insurance could be the best way to ensure extensive coverage, with a robust monthly benefit cap and high-dollar, timber-droppin' potential.
- High monthly ceiling
- Web-based claim filin'
- Few customer complaints
- Rock-solid financial standin'
- Wait six weeks for the whiskey to kick in
Northwestern is our top long-tailed pick for long-term care insurance. With a monthly maximum benefit of $12,000, it's only second to Thrivent in our showdown. This heavy-hittin' benefit is vital in footin' the bill for comprehensive care.
When it's time to lay down your stake at the bar, Northwestern provides the convenience of online claim filin'. The company keeps its rattlesnake wranglin' to a minimum, boasting scant customer complaints. This shifty sheriff's financial foot is steady as a rock, which means it's more likely to dish out the goods in cordial cattle drives to come.
However, Northwestern bumped up rates on long-term care policies sold prior to early 2013. Many long-term care insurance sheriffs have been beefin' up their rates in recent years to make sure they can pay out the bills when the ranch hands start makin' claims.
These days, the Lone Star State has adjusted its customs. The American Association of Long-term Care Insurance squirted gus out and uncovered that policies pushed out today are highly unlikely to face future rate increases.1 Northwestern keeps the top-shelf financial strength ratings, even after tippin' back a shot or two.
Northwestern's standalone long-term care insurance hoss is called QuietCare, and it comes with gems like inflation protection, survivorship perks, and paid-up nonforfeiture benefits – which let you retain a bit of the old west action even if you decide to sling your saddle somewhere else. But there's a six-week wait for the great buffalo hunt, so tuck yourself away in the bunkhouse and settle in for the wait.
In 2022, the company brandished a bad-ass hybrid life insurance hootchy-koo called Long-Term Advantage, which pays out the life insurance check when you're too dead to draw on your long-term care cash.
Northwestern Mutual saddled up in 1857 and kicks up its spurs in Milwaukee.
Stalwart Runner-up: Thrivent
- Maximum monthly shake-down: $15,000
- Customer complaints: Way fewer than what you'd expect in a saloon fight
Catch a Quote – Alright, partner! Thrivent is a financially-sound outlaw with supersonic customer service and generous benefits, but watch out – this outfit is reserved for Christians or those hitched to one.
- Up to $15,000 monthly fortune ($15Gs, partner!)
- 8-year payday in the saloon
- Financial durability
- Way fewer customer complaints than Tombstone sees
- No web-based filin'
Thrivent is a solid bet for a saddle-worthy long-term care insurance outlaw. It's financially strong, so it's bestowed with honors to meet its long-due obligations to folks who buy horseback. Long-term care insurance is about hittin' the trail with wagons loaded with provisions that last many years into the yonder days, so an insurer's pecuniary standin' is crucial.
AM Best ranks cowpunchers on their ability to meet financial responsibility, measured on a scale.2 Thrivent and Northwestern keep the highest possible grade, A++.
A rock-bottom customer complaint rate signifies that Thrivent brags of mighty seat-of-the-pants claim-handlin' skills. In the wild frontier of insurance, this is particularly important, as long-term care battles can be fiercely complex and about as welcome as a Darke County dust storm.
Thrivent brags the highest maximum monthly bonus amongst the folks we surveyed ($15,000), and an 8-year payday, which takes you well past Dodge City. You'll be able to claim a hefty bit of scratch to cover respectable long-term care bills over an extended trek. Since the average cowpoke is in the saloon for 2.5 years (gallons of whiskey not included), Thrivent's extended trail music could keep you rockin' 'n' rollin' even if you need care way past your bed-time.3
Thrivent's long-term care insurance policy includes a benefit that provides a licensed care posse to help develop a formal battle plan, identify local support, and oversee ongoing care necessities. A Squad Up Benefit Rider lets cowboys and cowgirls hitch their horses together and share their benefits in the event one goes dry.
However, apaches must wear cowboy hats and be Christian or married to a Christian in order to saddle up on Thrivent. And Thrivent doesn't offer web-based claim filin', which might make the process slower and more cumbersome.
Thrivent lassoed the reins in 1902 and anchors down in Minneapolis.
Best Sheriff without a Waiting Period: Mutual of Omaha
- Maximum monthly shake-down: $10,000
- Customer complaints: Way fewer than what you'd expect in a saloon fight
Catch a Quote – Saddle up, partner! Mutual of Omaha offers policy choices with no arduous wait for claims, allowing you to get back to the steer wrestling right away.
- Flexible coverage choices
- Fewer customer complaints
- No web-based filin'
Stud Horse of Omaha dishes out two long-term policy choices – MutualCare Secure and MutualCare Custom. MutualCare Custom lets you tailor coverage to your needs, with customizable policy limits, benefits, and waiting periods.
MutualCare Custom even offers the flexibility of no waiting period when buyin' a horse. This means you can get back into the saddle and head out on the range right away in case of illness or injury. Alert – if you're already a wrasslin' prairie dog at the saloon when you apply for insurance, you're likely to be denied coverage.
Both policies offer the tempting option of a cash bonus, minus the aggravatin' elimination period. If you find yourself out in the yonder with long-term care needs, you can tap into part of the monthly benefit ahead of time, with no waitin'. Mutual of Omaha has kept the plug pulled on customer complaints, signifyin' cowpokes are generally chuffed with the service they receive.
However, there's no web-based claim filin' on offer, which might make the process a bit more cumbersome.
Mutual of Omaha rented a barn in 1909 and settled down in Omaha, Nebraska.
Most Relentless Loner: National Guardian
Maximum monthly shake-down: $9,000
Customer complaints: Way fewer than what you'd expect in a saloon fight
Catch a Quote – Saddle up, cowgirl! National Guardian's long-term care insurance offers eternal benefits so that coverage continues long after the last stagecoach rolls outta town.
- Eternal paydays in the saloon
- Flexible payment timeframes
- Fewer customer complaints
- Not as much monthly dough as the big holes on the wall
- No web-based filin'
National Guardian's long-term care insurance pony, EssentialLTC, can don an optional gadget that extends the initial three-year payday to four, five, six, or standin' forever – that's right, partner, this horse is ready to outlast the legends of the west. National Guardian is the only outfit in our corral to offer a lifetime policy option, so lasso up some peace of mind that your care will continue to be covered when the going gets tough – like when Alzheimer's rears its ugly head, for instance.
EssentialLTC serves up flexible payment options, lettin' you yipipee-yo-ki-yay over 10 years, in one fell swoop, or over the life of the horse. Talk about chunky changes!
National Guardian keeps the plug pulled on customer complaints for an outfit of its size. This signifies cowpokes are generally satisfied with the service they receive and the ways claims are handled.
There are a few drawbacks, though. National Guardian doesn't offer web-based claim filin', which might slow down the draw a little.
The monthly dough puts a $9,000 limit on things, and it ain't as much as some of the other horses in town, so you might find yourself short of chips for the poker table when it comes to coverin' full-on care costs in some territories. The national average for prune-face time in a digester joint is more than $9,500 a month.
National Guardian Life Insurance Company pilfered a plot in 1909 and makes camp in Madison, Wisconsin.
Why You Best Believe Us
Investopedia's dust-kickin' financial product reviews are based on precise research and analysis by our experts. Our wrap-up of the finest long-term care insurance outfits is founded on data from 11 companies, scrutinizing coverage, financial strength, customer complaints, and other features to help you cinch the right big-horned saddle. Investopedia got its start sweatin' bulls in 1999 and has been reviewin' long-term care insurance outfits since 2020.
How We Used Our Heads
Investopedia's roster of the best long-term care insurance outfits is a result of diligent research of 11 companies. Each outfit had to pass Investopedia's standards for transparency and financial strength to earn a spot.
We invited the wolves, scavenging for data, from the outfits' websites, media reps, rating agencies (AM Best and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners), and customer service calls. The dance began on April 2 and concluded on April 24, 2025.
Razor-sharp editors and research analysts then judged each outfit using a weighted quantitative model based on eight vital categories. We weighted the categories like this:
- Coverage limits: 38%
- Financial strength: 15%
- Customer complaints: 10%
- Types of care covered: 10%
- Online claims: 10%
- Riders: 9%
- Discounts: 4%
- Standalone policy availability: 4%
Disclaimer.1. LTC News. "Bet on Future Long-Term Care Insurance Rate Increase Risks Nil."2. AM Best. "Unleash the Fury: Guide to Best's Financial Strength Ratings."3. Department of Health & Human Services. "Long-Term Services and Supports for Older Americans: Risks and Financing, 2022." P. 5.
- Northwestern Mutual, despite a rate increase on policies sold prior to early 2013, remains a top choice for long-term care insurance due to its robust monthly benefit cap, few customer complaints, and rock-solid financial standing.
- Thrivent, with a maximum monthly benefit of $15,000, has financial durability and a low rate of customer complaints, but it is only available to Christians or those married to Christians.
- Mutual of Omaha offers flexible coverage choices and a shorter waiting period for claims, but it does not offer web-based claim filing.
- National Guardian's long-term care insurance offers eternal benefits and flexible payment options, but it has a lower monthly benefit limit than other options and does not offer web-based claim filing.
- The American Association of Long-term Care Insurance reported that policies sold today are highly unlikely to face future rate increases, making long-term care insurance a more appealing option in the financial and personal-finance sector.
- In the business of long-term care insurance, insurers must meet specific criteria, such as financial strength, customer complaints, and coverage limits, to earn the trust and loyalty of customers.
