Thursday, January 16, 2014

Obamacare Update.

The OBAMACARE  Healthcare.gov site  continues to  be loaded  with glitches. On  Fri  I spent  3 hours  working  with a client.  We got  booted off the  system 3 times and was finally  able  to complete a  registration  for an  account. However the  site never allowed us to  select a plan and order insurance. We  eventually  had  to  call  the  800 number to  select a plan. Even  when  we were on the 800 line  they  were  unable  to  get  payment  instructions or provide a policy number.
Then Tuesday  while  working  with  another client  we got  his family  registered  for an account but  he  wanted  to speak with his  wife before  selecting one of  the 2 plans I  recommended after looking  all the  selections and discussing the plan  features. When they  talked he signed back in to the OBAMACARE site only  to  find out that they had deleted the registration we had  spent over an hour  setting  up  earlier in the  day!!
 Then  today in  the paper there was an article about OBMACARE  subsidy eligibility. Remember in earlier correspondence we discussed the legal challenges to OBAMACARE  due to offering subsidies to  families buying from the Federal Exchange or Marketplace. Remember that the laws stated that subsidies were only available for  those who bought insurance from a STATE Exchange. That flaw in wording technically ruled out  subsidies  for those buying  insurance from the   Federally Facilitated Exchange or FFM. Well any way the courts ruled that all states  with FFE or FFM as well as the states with a STATE  Exchange are able to offer subsidy in spite of the  poorly crafted bill.  Another bullet dodged by OBAMACARE.  Now if only they can get the  stinking website to  work!!!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

What are the most common reasons used for not buying Long Term Care Insurance

Today I  want to  list  some of the most  common EXCUSES for not  buying LTC insurance

Frankly that is  exactly what they  are. By not planning for your LTC needs by default you  get the government plan for LTC. If you truly understand that this is a fact you  would not use any of these excuses!!!

A, It wont happen to me!

B, If I don't use it I loose the money!

C, It is to expensive!

D, I will just self insure!

E, I am to young to buy it!

F My Health insurance plan, Medicare  or Medicaid pays for LTC

Please give me your ranking in order of priority  numbers 1-6   with 1 being the highest valued answer in your mind!

 Now  for  some TRUTH about the above items  A-F

A  If you take 2 couples or four adults the truth is  at least two out of the four will need LTC!

B Yes sometimes that is true but there are several products available that  eliminate that  risk!! Call to  arrange a meeting to learn how to  avoid that  risk!

C The cost is actually modest if you consider the risk and if you  buy the policy  early enough!

D  How much money does it really take to self insure.  Some people truly are able to  self insure  but the funny thing is that most of them go ahead and buy LTC Insurance because it is a SMARTER use of their resources. In reality most of the people who want to  self insure do not have  enough assets protected from market risk to be able to Self Insure!

E  The only protection from being medically uninsurable is to buy it while you  still think you are to young to  buy it.  Every year you  delay you just increase the costs for the premiums!

F Only  about 10- 12 percent have LTC Coverage today. Your Major Medical Plan does not pay for LTC, Medicare Does not pay for LTC, and Medicaid only pays after you and your family  are destitute. Is this a situation you  want to leave for  you or your loved ones?

Talk to a licensed professional  to  develop a LTC plan!

Friday, November 22, 2013

What is a SAFE Withdrawal Rate in Retirement?

This question comes up a lot.  It is critically important for 2 primary reasons. First if you take out too much you will run out of assets before you run out of Life. Second if you don't know what you  can  spend  each year how do you know what income you will have in retirement!

Many people and most Financial Advisors are familiar with "The 4% Rule."  Everyone should be!
It states that you should be able to  withdraw 4% of your assets  each year in  retirement and Usually have your assets last as long as you live.  Note that I said usually!  You do not  want to be an  outlier who falls into the  category of retirees who fail to have their assets last!  What can you  do to  prevent it?  I encourage my clients to use a withdrawal rate of less than 4% when working  with their  self managed money.  There are products that offer a  guaranteed rate of withdrawal higher than 4% and  we can  discuss those later.

A recent article published in Financial Planning was titled " A Safer withdrawal rate using various returns distributions"  The  conclusions stated that a safer withdrawal rate for todays environment is only 2.52%.  Their work indicated that the more common 4% number fails almost 18% of the time.  That  conclusion says that 1 in 5 will die destitute if they don't adjust there spending or use other strategies besides self managing their  retirement  assets. Protection from that  risk requires the use of some SAFE Money Strategies for some significant portion of your assets.

Only 3 thing can guarantee you a lifetime of income. Social Security (if the government stops stealing from SS funds), an ADEQUATELY funded private pension, or a properly funded designed   and guaranteed life insurance product. Notice Stocks bonds mutual funds are not on this list because of Market Risk. They cannot  guarantee you a value tomorrow never mind a value 20-30 years from now.  Never Forget 2001, 2008-2009!  It can  happen again!  On  average you  get  negative  returns 2-3 year out of 10. Look at the  graphs  for  Stock Market Historical performance.   If  you  doubt there is  risk  answer these questions.
What is the true unemployment  rate today?  You need to  adjust the official numbers for those who quit looking! A more meaningful number is the % of working age adults  actually working!

Is  the Federal and  state government controlling their  spending?
Is the Deficit increasing?
Is Obamacare inflationary?
Is  the  real  cost of  goods and  services you need to  live on increasing?

Friday, November 15, 2013

If you live in Ohio or Indiana and need Obamacare Health Insurance, check this out

I have completed  OBAMACARE training and can offer the best products available from the Federally Facilitated Marketplace (FFM) or Exchange, or from the companies directly.
visit this website for help or information
http://hemahelp.com/broker/grainger/contact.html

Savvy US individuals purchased over $17 Billion in 2013. What do they Know, that you don't?

Savvy individuals and investors purchased $17 B of one type of product this year. That represents almost 7% increase over last year. The investors did it to control risk, earn a decent rate of return and in many cases to guarantee lifetime income or at least guarantee income for a fixed period of time. How does that sound to you?  How about Zero market risk! Is that important to you?

These products are offered by some of the strongest financial companies in the world. The companies I recommend did not lose money in 2001, 2008 or 2009. They did not require any government bailout!  They actually made money in 2008-9. They are well positioned to weather the next market downturn which we all know  will happen! We just can  not say when.

These products work with both qualified and non qualified money. They work in  ROTH and Traditional IRA accounts, SIMPLE Plans, SEP Plans or even within ROTH or Traditional 401K Plans that I run for my clients. They can be used in Trusts, can fund charitable contributions or work within estate plans.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Did you know November is Long Term Care Month?

Yes, November is Long Term Care Month!
If you are in a room with only 4 adults how many of them will end up need Long Term Care (LTC)?

The answer is at least 2!  I don't know who is going to need it but I know what percentage will need
it! That's over a 50% chance of needing LTC!

Do you  own a house? Do you have homeowners insurance? Of course you do! Do you know that you only have about a 1 in 1200 chance of having a house fire? That's less than a 0.1% chance of a fire but you  have protection against that risk.

Do you have auto insurance? About 98% of people have auto insurance. The risk of being in an accident is about 1 in 200 or 0.5%. But even with the low risk almost everyone insures the risk.

Why is that? It is because the risk of an event without the coverage is devastating to your financial health!

The risk of an uninsured LTC event is far more devastating than either of the two examples shown above. The average cost of a LTC event far exceeds the cost of replacing the average house! The average cost of a LTC event is 20 times the cost of a typical auto accident.

There are even products that protect those who are convinced it will not happen to  them.  If you  never need it you  get your money back!

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Why would anyone ever put up with earning only1.9%?

I was just reviewing Bank Rate.com  and it showed  a National Average 5 year CD rate of only 1.9%.
Why in the world would anyone want to park funds at a bank with a rate of 1.9%?  Just think about it the average  inflation rate over the last 5-10 years has been over 2.5-2.9%.  That means in December you  have lost money every year for parking money with your bank! Ouch! Your bank doesn't loose money they lend it out for anywhere between 3.9 - 19+%. Why should you loose money so the bank can make as much as17% per year on your assets.

Did you know that solid alternatives  exist?
How about the following examples.  I am going to mention just a few.
The only problem is that these rates might not last for ever.  Don't Delay!

1)  5 year fixed rate guaranteed 3.25- 3.5% per year.

2) 8 year monthly income stream paying 6%

3) Insured High yield but variable rate 7 year  product. Contractual low rate of 1.25% with an annual upside potential of up to 7 - 7.25%. If you get the maximum only  2 years out of 7 you get almost 2.8%, if you get the max 3 years out of 7 you earn almost 3.7% and if you earner the higher rate 6 years out of 7 you would earn over 44%.  Compare that to the Bankrate.com national CD  rate of 1.9% with a 5 year return of under10%.  Which should you choose?

Call or email to learn more or to determine if these strategies makes sense for some of your assets!