Long-term care is the biggest gap in most benefits packages. Hollowtree gives brokers a turnkey way to offer guaranteed issue LTC coverage -- a benefit your clients' employees can't access on their own.
Your employer clients are losing productivity, burning through FMLA, and watching mid-career talent walk out the door. The cause is caregiving -- and it doesn't show up in exit interviews. It's the retention problem nobody names.
Your clients offer health, dental, vision, life, disability. Long-term care? Almost never. It's the single largest uncovered financial risk their employees face, and most HR teams don't even know it's an option.
LTC isn't part of the standard broker playbook. The carrier landscape is unfamiliar, the underwriting model is different, and the enrollment process doesn't look like anything else in your portfolio. That's why you need a partner, not a training course.
Traditional LTC underwriting declines a huge percentage of applicants. That kills participation and makes the benefit feel exclusionary. Guaranteed issue flips the math -- everyone qualifies, participation goes up, and the employer looks good.
Ask any benefits broker what their clients offer: health, dental, vision, life, disability, FSA, HSA, maybe a wellness stipend. Now ask what happens when an employee's parent needs full-time care. Or when the employee themselves faces a long-term care need at 58.
The answer, for almost every employer in America, is: nothing. There's no plan. There's no coverage. The employee figures it out on their own -- usually by draining savings, reducing hours, or leaving the workforce entirely.
Long-term care coverage is the most obvious missing piece in employer benefits today. It's not missing because nobody wants it. It's missing because the traditional LTC market was built for individuals, not groups. The enrollment model didn't fit. The underwriting was restrictive. The product didn't travel well into the employer channel.
That's changed. Guaranteed issue group LTC programs now exist that work inside the employer benefits framework -- voluntary, off-cycle, no medical underwriting, no payroll integration required. The problem isn't access anymore. The problem is that most brokers don't know these programs exist.
They're managing doctor's appointments, coordinating home care, handling financial decisions for aging parents, and trying to hold their jobs together at the same time. Most don't disclose it to their employer.
Caregiving drives absenteeism, presenteeism, early retirement, and turnover. A Rosalynn Carter Institute study estimated that U.S. employers lose $44 billion annually to caregiving-related productivity loss. Your clients are paying this cost. They just can't see it in a line item.
The employees most affected by caregiving are typically in their 40s and 50s -- your clients' most experienced, hardest-to-replace people. When they leave or disengage, the impact cascades through teams.
An LTC benefit doesn't fix caregiving. But it gives employees a concrete plan for when care needs arrive -- for themselves or for the family members they're already worried about. And it signals that the employer takes the long view on employee wellbeing.
For decades, LTC insurance was sold one policy at a time by financial advisors and life insurance agents. It wasn't designed for group enrollment, and the carriers that sold it weren't the carriers benefits brokers work with every day.
Traditional LTC policies require medical underwriting. A significant percentage of applicants are declined based on health history. That makes it hard to position as an inclusive employee benefit -- you're essentially offering something that some employees will be told they can't have.
LTC needs a different conversation than health or dental. Employees don't understand it, they've never thought about it, and they won't sign up during a crowded open enrollment window. It needs its own timeline, its own communications, and its own enrollment process.
Guaranteed issue group programs solve all three problems. Everyone qualifies. The enrollment runs off-cycle. And a specialist partner handles the education and enrollment that general benefits communications can't.
The most important thing to understand: we are not trying to take your client.
Hollowtree specializes in two things -- disability insurance and long-term care. When you have an employer client who could benefit from LTC coverage for their workforce, you bring us in. We handle everything: program design, employee education, enrollment, premium collection via ACH direct debit, and ongoing administration.
Your client relationship stays with you. Health, dental, vision, life, and every other line stays with you. We don't touch anything outside DI and LTC.
The model is additive. Your client gets a benefit that didn't exist before. Their employees get access to guaranteed issue coverage at group rates they can't get on their own. And you deepen the relationship by bringing something to the table that their previous broker never did.
Health, dental, vision, life, and every other line in your current portfolio.
LTC design, enrollment, and ongoing administration. Nothing outside DI and LTC.
Every eligible employee can participate regardless of health history. No medical questionnaires, no declinations, no exclusions. This is the single biggest difference between what we offer and what the traditional LTC market provides.
All programs are underwritten by A-rated, nationally recognized insurance carriers.
We don't need a slot in your client's open enrollment. We launch on our own timeline -- four weeks from kickoff to live enrollment. Standalone timing actually performs better because employees aren't distracted by health plan renewals and FSA elections.
Most employees under 50 have never thought about long-term care. We run educational campaigns -- email, text, optional mailers -- that explain what LTC is, why it matters, and how to enroll. The messaging is clear, warm, and informational. Not salesy.
Every participant gets immediate access to expert care coaches. They help with finding care providers, understanding care options, and coordinating family logistics. Employees use this from day one, long before they ever file an LTC claim. It's the benefit that makes the enrollment tangible.
Care coaching is included in the premium at no additional cost to the employer or the employee.
Premium collection, participant support, annual reviews, and claims advocacy. Your client gets continuous service without adding to your team's workload or theirs.
Protection that helps pay for care services -- home care, assisted living, nursing facilities -- if they or a covered family member needs long-term care in the future. No medical questions to answer. No risk of being told they don't qualify.
The cost of individual LTC coverage -- for those who can even qualify through medical underwriting -- is significantly higher than group rates. This is genuine value that the employer enables at no cost to the organization.
Through Cariloop, participants get help navigating caregiving challenges right away. For the one in five employees already managing care responsibilities, this is the part of the benefit they'll value most -- and they'll value you for making it available.
If an employee leaves the organization, their LTC coverage goes with them. They keep the exact same rates and the same guaranteed issue status -- no re-underwriting, no rate hikes, no loss of coverage. The benefit follows the employee, not the job.
“I brought Hollowtree in for one conversation about LTC. That conversation turned into an enrollment, and the enrollment turned into the strongest client relationship I have. They see me differently now.”
-- N. Wells, Southwest Regional Broker (450-life Engineering Group)
As more states explore LTC payroll mandates, brokers who proactively offer private guaranteed issue solutions are best positioned to protect their clients' workforces -- and own the conversation before someone else does.
Think about the one employer client in your book who would benefit most from this conversation. Maybe they have an aging workforce. Maybe they've lost experienced people to caregiving. Maybe their HR team has been asking about benefits beyond the standard package. A 15-minute call is enough to talk through how that conversation would go and what you'd bring to the table. No commitment, no pitch -- just a conversation about whether this fits.
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