John Hancock's 2027 Rate Letters: Four States This Round, and Wisconsin Is Still Paying for 2013

A John Hancock rate increase is a schedule, not an event, and the round of letters that started going out in late September 2026 shows it plainly. According to a notice John Hancock sent to insurance agents on September 10, the letters cover premium increases that take effect on policy anniversaries on or after January 1, 2027, in four states: Iowa, New Mexico, New Hampshire and Wisconsin. Two of those states are getting a first notice. The other two are getting the next installment of an increase that was set in motion years ago, and in Wisconsin's case the oldest one carries a 2013 label.

Who is in the January 2027 round

The notice sorts policyholders by which John Hancock “rate action” their increase belongs to, and that label matters more than the date on the envelope. John Hancock names its increases by filing round. The agent notices we could find refer to 2013, 2016, 2019 and 2022 actions, three years apart. The year is the round the increase belongs to, not the year it reaches you.

State of issue	Rate action	What the notice says
Iowa	2022	New notifications
New Mexico	2022	New notifications
New Hampshire	2022	Continued for policyholders whose first increase was capped or phased in
Wisconsin	2016	Continued for policyholders whose first increase was capped or phased in
Wisconsin	2013	Continued for policyholders whose first increase was capped or phased in

All five lines apply to John Hancock individual long-term care policies. The notice also mentions the Fortis policies (written as Union LTCI) that John Hancock has run since it bought Fortis's long-term care division in 2000, though it lists no Fortis states for this round.

The notice does not give percentages. The detailed attachment sits on John Hancock's agent website and is not open to the public, so the size of your increase is in your letter and nowhere we can link to. If a site quotes you an Iowa or New Mexico percentage for this round, ask where it came from.

Wisconsin is still paying for 2013

The Wisconsin lines are the clearest evidence that an old rate action does not expire. The same sentence about continuing the 2013 increase for Wisconsin policyholders appears in John Hancock's agent notices for anniversaries starting January 2020, January 2024, January 2026, May 2026 and now January 2027. A policyholder there can open a letter this fall for an increase that belongs to a filing round from fourteen years before the bill arrives, and a second line in the same notice continues the 2016 round on top of it.

New Hampshire shows the same pattern on a shorter clock. A year ago, John Hancock's September 2025 notice listed New Hampshire as a new 2022-action state for anniversaries starting January 1, 2026. This year's notice lists it as a continued one for anniversaries starting January 1, 2027. If you hold a New Hampshire policy with a January anniversary and you took a first step last winter, this is very likely step two.

2026 had at least four rounds

The January 2027 round is the fourth John Hancock notification round we found for 2026 alone, so a quiet year in your state says little about next year. Each round is tied to a block of anniversary dates, and states move in and out of them.

Letters began	Effective on anniversaries from	New 2022-action states	Earlier increases continued
Late January 2026	May 1, 2026	Minnesota, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, West Virginia	Ohio (2022 and 2019); Idaho, Massachusetts (2019); Wisconsin (2013)
Late July 2026	November 1, 2026	California, Delaware, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota	Ohio (2022)
Late August 2026	December 1, 2026	Arkansas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio	Colorado, Iowa, Maine (2022); Colorado (2019)
Late September 2026	January 1, 2027	Iowa, New Mexico	New Hampshire (2022); Wisconsin (2016 and 2013)

The table covers John Hancock's own policies; the July and August rounds also named Fortis policies in Arkansas, Delaware, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and South Dakota. New Mexico appears as a new state in three rounds in a row, and Iowa shows up as continued in one round and new in the next. The notices do not explain why. The likeliest reading is that different policy series and anniversary months are being worked through in turn, but that is our inference, not something John Hancock states.

The state that counts is where you bought the policy

Every notice says policies “originally issued in” a state, and that phrase decides which line is yours. Rates on an individual long-term care policy are generally reviewed by the insurance department of the state where the policy was issued. If you bought in Iowa and retired to Arizona, the Iowa increase follows you, and the Iowa Insurance Division is the regulator that reviewed it. People who moved after buying often look up their current state, find nothing, and assume the letter is a mistake.

“Capped” and “phased-in” are not the same thing, and the notice does not separate them

John Hancock puts both words in one sentence and defines neither, which leaves an open question about what is still ahead of you. In ordinary regulatory use, a phased-in increase is one approved amount spread over several years, so the later steps are already decided. A capped increase is one where the state limited what could be charged, and a carrier that wants the rest may have to go back to the regulator. John Hancock describes both as continuing the same rate action, and from the outside we cannot tell which kind any one Wisconsin or New Hampshire policy has.

You can find out, and it is worth a phone call. Ask John Hancock three things, and ask for the answers in writing:

• Which rate action does this increase belong to: 2013, 2016, 2019 or 2022?
• Is this the final step of that action for my policy? If not, how many steps are left and how large is each?
• Are there any other rate actions approved or pending in my state of issue that have not reached my policy yet?

Your state of issue's insurance department can answer the last question independently, and for capped increases it is the only party that can tell you whether a further request is on file.

Decide on the whole schedule, not on this letter

The choice in front of you should be priced against every step still coming, because the options in the letter are offered one increase at a time. Paying this year's increase can look manageable and still lead to a premium you would not have agreed to if you had seen it all at once. Our walk-through of the five options in a rate-hike letter covers each choice in order, and the calculator lets you put several years of increases in a row instead of one.

Later steps also count toward your protection if you stop paying. Under the NAIC model rule most states follow, the contingent benefit upon lapse is triggered by the cumulative increase over your original premium, measured against a table set by your age at purchase. A third or fourth step that looks small by itself can be the one that crosses the line. The mechanics are in our contingent nonforfeiture explainer.

Check which reduction options your letter lists before you cut benefits by hand. In 2019 John Hancock added two named choices for its 2016 action, a Shared Cost Option and a Paid-Up Policy Option, alongside the usual benefit reductions. Whether either one is offered depends on your policy and state, so read the options page of your own letter. If the cheapest route is trimming an inflation rider, our inflation rider reduction guide shows what that gives up.

What this round does not cover

This notice covers increases already cleared for billing, which is a different stage from a request. Maryland is the current example of the earlier stage: John Hancock has asked the Maryland Insurance Administration for average increases of 27% to 142% across 19 policy types, a request heard on September 17, 2026 and not in any letter yet. The record of what that regulator has done with past requests is in our Maryland requested-versus-approved analysis, and the longer filing history, including the 2016 end of new sales, is in the John Hancock rate history.

The practical point for anyone holding a John Hancock policy is that the label on your increase tells you more than the percentage does. Find the rate action year in your letter, ask how many steps of it are left, and make this year's decision with that number in hand.

This is analysis of public carrier notices and regulatory records, not legal or insurance advice. Your letter and your policy control.