Personal Finance Advice and Commentary

Buying individual long-term care insurance is getting more difficult — yet another retirement-planning handicap.

Prudential has joined the list of major insurers that have dropped their business. Besides Prudential, these include MetLife and Unum Group, which have eliminated some group policies. All say the cost of offering this retirement protection is too high.

Large long-term care insurers still in the business of selling insurance to individuals include Genworth and John Hancock.

In the meantime, the IRS has increased deductibility levels for long-term care insurance policies purchased in 2012. If you run a small business — even one that you or you and your spouse operate part time — long-term care can be a significant tax deduction.

If you’ve been delaying buying long-term care insurance as part of your retirement plan because you don’t think you’ll need it, you might consider a different flavor of this product — life insurance with a long-term care rider. An increasing number of insurers are offering it, including Sun Life, which just introduced these policies this

My husband and I received our annual long-term care insurance bills Saturday, and sometime in the next month, we’ll each have to write hefty checks. Our combined bill comes to $3,367, which is not small potatoes. When we bought the insurance 10 years ago, we considered using the monthly payment plan offered by the insurer.