When trying to help clients and prospects navigate a complicated Long-Term Care marketplace, product diversity is more important now than ever.

Gabrielle Gelo — a veteran Texas LTC specialist – for the last seven years has mastered the art of finding the right solutions for clients whether it be traditional LTC or specialty products for clients who don’t health or financially qualify.

She was an early adapter to this opportunity. She first utilized a purpose-built alternative product from Guarantee Trust Life to help a health impaired client in late 2012 when the spouse was able to get traditional LTC. The couple was struggling with the simple truth that one spouse wasn’t healthy to get LTC.

“Offering that product allowed me to help them to do the right thing and get traditional coverage for the insurable spouse and still feel that they had not left the other spouse behind,” she explained.

Fully 20 percent of the soft-spoken veteran’s business has been in this often-ignored space. Along the way she has consistently helped clients who felt they had no options or who had been declined when applying for their first-choice coverage. The to doing that is emphasizing creativity.

“I tell them ‘not everyone has the health to qualify for traditional LTC insurance, but there is a home care only product that might be of interest to them,’ ” she said. “I acknowledge (several times) that it is not LTC insurance, but several of my clients have gone on claim and found the extra cash that it provided helpful, and most find it very affordable.”

The response from clients is often emotional. In one case a client was paid about $10,000 in benefits after having paid just four months of premium.

And the gratitude that comes with just keeping that client in mind after the disappointment of a decline is something new for many agents. “I still believe in the products and still offer them every time I have someone who is not health qualified for LTC… these policies pay.