The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) has recently released a long term care insurance shopper´s guide titled "What Texans Should Know About Long Term Care Insurance." 28 TAC §3.3840(3) requires that companies provide prospective applicants with the shopper´s guide developed by TDI instead of the shopper´s guide developed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
The purpose of this bulletin is to notify you that you will have until January 1, 1999 to make a transition from using the NAIC guide to the guide developed by TDI. Please advise all marketing personnel of this change and adequately stock and supply your agents with the TDI guide so that compliance is achieved by this date.
One copy of the TDI shopper´s guide is enclosed for your reference. This guide is to be utilized for educational purposes only. It does not constitute an endorsement by the Department of any service, company, or person offering any product or service, and companies shall not place their name or logo on the guide. For reproduction purposes, the guide may be downloaded from our internet home page at http://www.tdi.state.tx.us.
Please remember that in the case of agent solicitation, the agent must deliver the shopper´s guide prior to the presentation of an application or enrollment form. In the case of direct solicitation, you must furnish the guide to prospective applicants in conjunction with any application or enrollment form.
We hope that this new shopper´s guide will be a valuable tool to assist you in answering questions from applicants regarding long term care insurance and will help the consumer to more fully understand the product.
If you have any questions pertaining to this bulletin or if you cannot meet the January 1, 1999 deadline, please contact a member of the Senior Team in the Life/Health Group at 512/322-3409.
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Ana M. Smith-Daley
Deputy Commissioner
Life/Health Group