Tailored Insights: Informing Strategic Decision Making

SOLUTIONS SHOWCASE

MarketFacts Home

Authors

Bryan Hodgens, AIF
Senior Vice President, Head of Research
LIMRA and LOMA

Sean F. O'Donnell, MBA, LLIF
Senior Vice President, Head of Membership, Workplace Benefits, and Applied Research Solutions
LIMRA and LOMA

April 2026

Across the insurance and financial services landscape, leaders are being asked to make critical decisions with increasing speed — and often with decreasing certainty — prompting executives to look for information they trust.

In this environment, high‑quality, industry‑grounded research becomes indispensable. As a result, many executives look to LIMRA and LOMA for research that is rooted in industry context and objective data. Whether through broad market intelligence studies or deeper, organization‑specific insights, research helps leaders to better understand trends and inform decision making.

When Standard Isn’t Enough

Member-benefit research offers foundational visibility into the latest trends shaping insurance and financial services. When leaders want to dig deeper into how those trends intersect with their own customer base, strategic goals or market opportunities, a more targeted approach becomes essential.

Working with researchers who are well versed in industry trends and data allows organizations to explore questions in greater depth. Through collaboration, custom research can be designed around specific business objectives, audiences or market challenges — producing insights that clarify options and inform next steps.

This approach is particularly useful when addressing complex issues. The following example illustrates how this approach can be applied to a specific industry challenge.

Tackling LTC Misconceptions

A member company recently partnered with us to examine a persistent challenge in the long-term care (LTC) space: widespread consumer confusion.

When working on this project, the organization wanted to home in on LIMRA research indicating that 29% of research respondents said they have long-term care (LTC) insurance, while only 3.1% actually own it — meaning nearly 1 in 4 people mistakenly think they have LTC coverage.

This disconnect raised alarm bells for organizational leaders, who wanted to understand the gap between perceived and actual ownership, as well as the common areas of misunderstanding with this gap. Was it due to lack of advice, lack of education, or other factors? Furthermore, leaders wanted to understand the barriers to purchase that consumers face when buying or owning LTC so they could identify and implement the best business steps to overcome these challenges.

It was critical for the company to understand not only the major misconceptions happening in the LTC consumer space, but also the forces driving confusion, in order to develop insights that provide meaningful impact to its business.

To create a project that addressed all aspects of the proposed questions, our research team delivered a two-phase research approach that combined both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore consumer perspectives, understanding, and opportunities.

Confusion around any insurance product is largely consumer driven, so we intentionally developed a two-pronged approach. We wanted to really dig into consumers’ thoughts about LTC to better understand how different consumer groups understand this product from their own perspectives, rather than through assumptions members might have.

Phase 1 concentrated on a series of four virtual focus groups — generational cohorts of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials, along with a fourth group composed of participants who “think” they own LTC products. Insights from these focus groups informed Phase 2, a quantitative survey of 1,200 consumers.

The final output revealed that the majority of those surveyed mistakenly believed they had LTC when they actually had other types of insurance. Additionally, consumers had very real concerns about how to manage the aging process and related costs, highlighting both the need and opportunity to improve communication around LTC protection.

Our deeper analysis revealed a major LTC knowledge gap: respondents scored only 59% on average, with persistent misconceptions across demographics — especially among men and Millennials. The core takeaway is clear: Broad‑based LTC education is essential to closing these gaps and supporting informed decision making.

As a result, this member company utilized the research findings to create marketing messages and campaigns that addressed key misconceptions regarding LTC. They used the insights from this research to inform their go-to-market strategy, improve consumer understanding of LTC, and further penetrate the market for these product offerings.

Why Tailored Research Matters

Gaining clarity through the confusion was paramount to our member company as it considered how to address misconceptions about LTC products. Understanding gaps in both education and market opportunity provided insight into how the organization could position itself as a leader in the long-term care product space. These custom insights, drawn from a research project tailored to our member company’s specific questions, provided a clear path forward.

Conclusion

Our industry constantly sees new trends and challenges emerging, and the evolution of our industry is not slowing down anytime soon. Various levels of research serve distinct and important purposes. LIMRA’s broader, member-benefit research offers member organizations the opportunity to stay current on developments across the industry. In contrast, custom research through our Applied Research Solutions team offers a more targeted and tailored approach, addressing members’ specific needs and delivering relevant, actionable insights to better navigate the evolving marketplace.

Supporting Informed Decision Making

Across the industry, fellow organizations are pursuing new growth opportunities while adapting to continued change in a low-growth environment. Research-driven insights from experienced industry researchers are providing data to support informed decision making.

To learn how Applied Research Solutions can support your strategic goals, contact Lynn Ferris at lferris@limra.com.

0264-2026_MF_April_Cover Images_480x270.png