Very disappointed n Genworth LTC Insurance and our agent
I am giving a negative review to my utilizing Genworth through AARP for long-term healthcare (LTC) insurance.
My wife and I have had this shared policy for 14 years now. Our agent sold us on the fact that there were rare, if any, policy increases. Not only have we found that that is NOT the case, we have had a hefty yearly increase in the last few years. They give you an option to this that is not great: a choice between downgrading your coverage and keeping the price the same or paying the few hundred dollar increase per policy. Last year, when we faced these choices after another significant increase in premiums, we decided to have my wife pay an increased premium to keep her same coverage while I kept my premium the same for decreased coverage. After we paid the premiums on both policies, they told us the same option had to be used for both policies because they were a “shared policy.” Not only was it unacceptable to be informed of that AFTER paying for the yearly renewal but they refused to refund us the overpayment of almost $200. Genworth went on to say the overage would be credited to next year’s policy. They basically told us we were out of luck trying to go for a refund on the overage until next year and probably forever. If this overpayment issue is refunded, as I requested, I will update this review.
In all of our business transactions, whether insurance transactions or otherwise, we have never been refused a refund an overpayment. This was like an interest-free loan as far as we were concerned and the principle of this refusal was even worse than the amount.
A couple of years ago we needed to change our last name and without going into the reason, it was not due to anything fraudulent or illegal on our part. Despite us supplying all legal documents, Genworth made it harder and more prolonged time-wise than anyone else. This includes government agencies such as Social Security, the IRS, and so on. When we consulted with our agent who originally sold us our policy, it was still not resolved any quicker and the agent acted that she was being imposed upon. It was outrageous when when learned that she gets a yearly commission for the one-time sale of our coverage that would remain as long as we had the policies even if we requested a change in agents.
This year when we had questions after receiving the dreaded email regarding yet another increase in our rates with absolutely no mention of our refund we had due, we tried via emails to explain our situation and get an explanation for this from Genworth and our agent. We received NO replies from either the company or the agent. A repeat email attempt had the same negative result. We were again disillusioned by our agent’s lack of attention and requested to switch agents. We were assured by Genworth that it was doable and had to provide a statement, with our identity verified, in a signed form sent to Genworth. We had received multiple alerts that both emails could not be delivered, and/or was refused, to the agent. When we finally by phone got hold of a Genworth customer service individual, and surprisingly found them quite responsive. After the phone calls with Genworth customer service we were provided by with a link on their site for the consumer to reveal specifics about the commission. When I went to that site, it was no longer functional. Then we addressed this with a representative, she told us that Genworth has no control over that even after providing us with this link.
In summary, it is obvious that we are frustrated with both Genworth and our agent. We feel like there is a tremendous gap in service from them and a gap in trust from us about someday dealing with them should we need our benefits. We feel like we have no rights or recourse at all. It is obvious that we regret utilizing Genworth for our shared insurance plan and so we have recently terminated any on-going relationship with them for our long-term healthcare coverage. Consequently we cannot recommend them.
I will update this if we have any positive or negative experiences with Genworth and if they decide to honor my request for a refund for my overpayment for the 2025 coverage because they failed to disclose their policies before our we paid their fees.