On children’s motives to influence parents’ long-term care insurance purchase – Evidence from Switzerland

Long-term care (LTC) is not only a concern for elderly individuals but also for their adult children as the latter often provide financial support and informal care to their elderly dependent parents. Therefore, adult children might have strong incentives to have their parents purchase LTC insurance. Using data from a 2019 Swiss survey, this article first identifies a set of variables, including self-reporting interest about LTC insurance, living with their children and having provided informal help with personal care, which help predict the interest of adult children in having their parents covered against LTC risk. Second, it investigates the main characteristics of the motives for children to influence their parents to purchase LTC insurance, being classified either as altruistic motives, i.e. related to parental well-being, or as self-interested motives, i.e., related to the child’s well-being. Results offer valuable insights for both policy makers and insurers when designing public LTC policies and LTC insurance products