How this list was chosen, and who wrote it
Lara Goulson wrote this page. She is a licensed California insurance agent and runs Goulson Insurance Services from Century City. Four things decided who appears below. The agency had to publish California long term care work on its own site or hold a California licence we could read. It had to treat long term care as a practice rather than list it among twenty other products. Its site had to load and its details had to be current when we checked on 14 September 2026. And every fact stated about it had to come from that agency's own materials, not from a directory that may be years stale. Agencies we could not verify to that standard were left off rather than padded in, which is why this list is short. One name came off during checking because its own home page never mentioned long term care at all.
Can a California long term care agent work with me anywhere in the state?
Yes. A California insurance licence covers the whole state, so an agent in Los Angeles can write a policy for someone in Sacramento, Fresno, or San Diego without either of you travelling. Long term care applications run through medical underwriting and usually a phone interview with the insurer, and all of that is handled by phone, video, and mail. What being nearby actually buys you is someone who knows local care prices, because what your policy needs to pay depends on where in California you will need care, and care prices are not the same across the state.
The list
Four California agencies whose long term care practice we could verify: Goulson Insurance Services in Los Angeles, Barrett LTC in Orange County, LTCR Pacific in Thousand Oaks, and ACSIA Partners, a national specialist licensed in California. Goulson Insurance Services, Los Angeles. Independent agency with 150 Google reviews and a 5.0 rating. Its founder, Lara Goulson, is licensed in California and eleven other states. Long term care alongside Medicare, life, and health, with appointments held in English, Spanish, and Hebrew rather than through an interpreter. Offices in Century City and Valley Village, and most of the work happens by phone and video anyway. Barrett LTC, Orange County. Long term care insurance is the practice rather than a sideline: the firm's own site is titled for it and describes service across California. LTCR Pacific, Thousand Oaks. Long term care insurance appears in the firm's own site title next to life insurance, and it publishes a Ventura County address. It describes work beyond California as well as inside it. ACSIA Partners. A national long term care specialist rather than a local California agency, and it publishes California licence 0I72696. Worth a call if you want a firm writing in many states. Worth weighing against a local agent if California care prices are the part you need explained. Every fact above comes from each agency's own site, read on 14 October 2026. We hold no view on which of the other three suits you, and we would rather you called two of us and compared than took one page's word for it. If you run one of these agencies and something here is wrong or out of date, write to us and we will correct it.
What long term care actually costs in California
This is the number that decides how much coverage you buy, so it belongs on any page about choosing an agent. California runs above national medians in every setting. Assisted living sits around $7,000 a month, and a private nursing home room around $15,178 a month, which is roughly $182,000 a year. In home care at 44 hours a week works out near $7,627 a month. Those are statewide medians from the CareScout Cost of Care Survey, 2025 data released in 2026, and they move by region: in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area, CareScout's 2025 medians are about $6,600 a month for assisted living and $11,832 for a private nursing home room. The full table, with Los Angeles detail and how Medi-Cal fits, is on what long term care costs in California. An agent who cannot tell you these numbers from memory is not the agent for this decision.
How to pick from this list
Start with how much of the agent's work is long term care. A generalist who writes two policies a year will not know which insurers are raising rates on existing policyholders or which ones decline for the medication you take. Then ask how many carriers the agent can actually place business with, because an agent tied to one company will recommend that company every time. Ask whether they will still answer the phone in fifteen years, when a claim gets filed, since that is the whole point of the product and it is also the moment most buyers discover their agent has retired or moved on. Ask whether they handle hybrid policies that pay a death benefit if care is never needed, because that answer tells you whether you are being sold the one product they know. And if the conversation needs to happen in Spanish or Hebrew, ask whether the agent works in that language directly, because underwriting questions about your health need to be understood exactly.
How long term care insurance agents are paid
The insurer pays the agent a commission, and it is built into the premium whether an agent helped you or not. You do not pay us a fee, and going direct to the insurer does not get you a discount, because long term care premiums are filed with the California Department of Insurance and the same policy costs the same either way. What differs is whether someone compared several carriers against your health history before you applied, which matters more here than in almost any other insurance line, because a decline from one insurer sits on your record and follows you to the next application. Ask any agent directly how they are paid and whether their commission differs between the products they are showing you. An agent who will not answer that plainly has told you something.
Five questions that expose any long term care agent in one call
What share of your business is long term care, and how many policies did you place last year? Which carriers are you appointed with, and which of them have raised premiums on existing California policyholders? What happens to my file if you retire before I need care? Would you recommend a hybrid policy in my situation, and what does it cost me if I never need care? And what does assisted living cost in my county today? An agent who answers all five without hedging is worth your time. Our answers are on how we work and our company facts, written down so you can check them against what you hear on the phone.
- What long term care costs in California in 2026
- Long term care insurance in California
- CalPERS long term care is closed to new applicants: what now
- Long term care insurance in Los Angeles
- Is long term care insurance worth it?
- Hybrid long term care insurance
- When should you buy long term care insurance?
- Does Medicare cover long term care?
- How we work and what we are paid
- Contact Goulson Insurance Services
One call, no cost, no obligation
Long term care is the decision people put off until a parent falls, and the price of waiting is measured in both premium and eligibility, because health changes and underwriting does not forgive. A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If the answer is that you do not need a policy, that is what you will hear.
Talk with a licensed California agent about long term care, in English, Spanish, or Hebrew.
You reach Lara directly · English, Español, עברית · Licensed in 12 states · 5.0 on Google · No cost to you