32 Health Insurance Awards Winners
Health Insurance Awards2010
THE INTERMEDIARY WINNERS
Madeleine Davies speaks to double-winner Nicky Cave of Eldercare Solutions, whose commitment to excellence in long-term care advice saw her win both this category and our coveted Intermediary of the Year award.
Nicky Cave of Eldercare Solutions receives the 2010 Best Long-term Care Intermediary Award from Ian Owen, chairman of category sponsor Partnership, and celebrity host Patrick Kielty
BEST LONG-TERM CARE INTERMEDIARY
Last year a tombstone bearing the inscription “R.I.P. off” appeared on billboards across England. It was the culmination of a highly-charged political debate on the best way to fund the nation’s rising long-term care costs in which the opposition accused the Government of levying a “death tax” on estates. While the general election undoubtedly brought an important issue up the political agenda, the in-fighting did little to educate elderly people and their families about their options for funding care. Months later, headlines continue to focus on the “scandal” of people selling their homes to pay the bills. The fact remains that the British public is woefully uneducated about who pays for long-term care and how much it
HealthInsurance
costs. A survey of people over 50 by long-term care insurer Partnership found that 38% believed the Government should cover the full cost of long-term care. In fact, 41% of those entering a residential home are “self-funders”. The lack of understanding is perhaps unsurprising given the fact that few families access financial advice about long- term care. Partnership-commissioned research found just 14% of the thousands of self-funders entering care in 2009 received financial advice and only 7% received appropriately qualified financial advice. Three-quarters (76%) of people surveyed did not know about any of the products available to help them fund their care.
Given this context, it is perhaps unsurprising that our Health Insurance Awards judges were keen to reward an individual dedicated to providing the elderly and their families with some clarity and reassurance. In fact, they were so impressed by the service offered by Nicky Cave, managing director of Eldercare Solutions that they made her Health
Insurance Intermediary of the year. Like our judges, she’s acutely aware
of the extent of the challenges posed by an aging population reliant on the media for information. She’s seen first-hand the impact of the politicisation of the issue. “There is so much misinformation out there,” she says. “There’s a notion that the state will take the house; people almost have a vision of a social worker coming round with a repossession order. We need to clarify that you do not have to sell the house – you could rent it out for example. While standard equity release products typically do not work if the house is not vacant, Partnership now offers a Care Plan Payment Option [a fixed rate loan that enables people to fund their long-term
www.hi-mag.com April 2011
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