Where does Ben Bernanke invest his own personal assets

Ever wonder how the Federal Reserve Chairman chooses to invest his own money. In fact its a matter of public record. The bulk of his assets are invested in several annuity products with some mutual funds tossed in for good measure. I will say that he has spread his risk and some of the products are designed to eliminate market risk for at least a significant portion of his assets. About 1/3 of his assets are protected from market risk. Is there a lesson here for you and I?
I think there is! How can we help you reduce your risk and offer solid performance besides.

I wont go into detail abut what funds or which annuities. I do want to add this thought. He could have done better in his annuity selection to get better performance without an increase in risk. Of course, if Ben is interested I'd be more than happy to show him how!!

Hope to Receive A State Pension Read This

Just read an aticle talking about State funding of their pension Liabilities. 16 state are seriously underfunded. They have reserves in their pension funds covering only 75% of their obligations. f That is down even more than the 77 % of their pension obligations when evaluated just two years ago. Looking for a state funded pension. What does this shortfall mean?

There are only four possible alternatives.
First,These states can increase taxes significantly on all taxpayers to correct this deficiency.
Second, the state can try and reduce the value of the pensions for current or future retirees.
Third, states can combine one and two.
or Last, they can stick their heads in the sand and pray it will resolve itself.

What do you think will happen?.
I think these states will try a combination of options one and two. They may also increase the retirement age.

There is a message here for state employees. You need to be looking for ways to cover a possible pension shortfall with your own savings or retirement assets. We can help! We specialize in Safe Money Financial Alternatives.

Are Your Retirement Savings Adequate?

Many people Today are very concerned that they have not saved enough money for their retirement. Unfortunately most of them are right! They have not yet saved enough for a comfortable retirement. A lucky minority have already saved enough for retirement. We can still help this group by protecting their assets from market risk or market loss.

If you have not saved enough for your retirement that means one of two things will happen. Both alternatives are very bad. First, you can run out of money while you are still alive. Many people fear this even more than death! Second you will have to significantly cut back on you cost of living which will make retirement a very unpleasant experience, at best. This group REALLY needs professional help. There are financial products that help accomplish two critical goals. They protect you from all market risk. They can guarantee you an income stream that you can not outlive. Sounds nice doesn't it!

To find out which category you fall in we have found a very nice Retirement Calculator. By the way its FREE! Its on the MSN Money website and I am giving you the link. Check it out!

http://money.msn.com/retirement/retirement-calculator.aspx?GT1=33013

After you have checked it out if you would like some help protecting you assets or increasing your saving for retirement let us know if we can help.

Shopping for Long Term Care

In the most recent copy of USA Weekend Dated April 1-3 2011 there was a brief article about shopping for Long Term Care Insurance (LTC). The article quoted Genworth's study that median cost for assisted living are now over $3,000 per month. Nursing home care is a lot more expensive and in many areas Assisted Living costs are much higher as well. One of the key points made in that article is that you should not overbuy protection. They appear to define that as a recommendation to only buy a 3 year coverage program. However that recommendation is flawed when one does not take into account the state of residence of the insured, the health history of the insured and the financial status of the insured. Only a consultation with a LTC professional licensed to sell LTC can help you determine the right amount of coverage for you and the ideal length of coverage that you should purchase.
One of the other key points in that article is to Shop for coverage early. That is very true. The author says start in you 50's. Unfortunately for many clients they already have medical conditions that could make them medically uninsurable by their early to mid 50's. So many potential LTC clients waited one doctors appointment too long, to make a decision to purchase LTC insurance. Many clients that are still insurable in their 40's will not still be insurable in their 50's. The risks of going without a comprehensive coverage plan are almost unbelievable and are growing faster than the rate of inflation. Everyone should talk to a licensed professional LTC agent like us.

IS a 529 Plan Right for your situation

529 College Saving Plans

529 Plans for college saving. There are numerous questions about saving for college. I believe that for many people the best ways to save for college are not in a 529 Plan. Many State plans have produced DISMAL results.. Previous news reports in the Columbus Dispatch have detailed poor performance in the Ohio plan even before the recent Market meltdown. Many states plan participants tend to invest in age based formula driven plan options with less risky products receiving a greater percentage of the funds as the students get closer to College age. That is a good idea but it may not be enough. With a 40% loss or more some plans are not likely to have enough time to fully recover before the funds are needed. She also adds that many families have had to cut back on funding the plans because of tight budgets in general.

It is important to continue saving something every month even if it is only $25 a pay period. You cannot alter investment allocation for existing funds in the plan more than once per year. Even though you may not be able to reallocate the existing funds you can immediately allocate the new contributions however you wish.

529 Plans have high funding limits. You can actually set aside $250,000 for your childrens education Tax free. Unfortunately if your children do not use the funds you will get penalized when you withdraw the funds. In some ways using a ROTH is better but the maximum contributions are much lower. You also have much more investment or savings flexibility with the ROTH

Seniors and SS benefits before retirement age 65

Seniors and SS benefits before retirement age 65

A recent survey of over 600 seniors shows that many people are planning on accessing their Social security benefits before age 65 to cover routine living expenses, healthcare, mortgages and utilities. This is a serious concern to me because it will reduce the SS benefits paid for the life of the senior. Tapping into SS benefits significantly reduces the amount you receive every month for life. It should only be utilized as a LAST RESORT in an Emergency situation. Several other measures should be evaluated before this drastic action is taken. Several steps we can evaluate include a HUD HECM Reverse Mortgage which improves cash flow by stopping mortgage payments as long as you and or your spouse are able to remain in your home. Another step is to review your existing life insurance policies, or increase income from your current assets.

If your assets are not currently growing by 6-7.2% per year you may be positioning your assets unwisely. If none of your assets are positioned to guarantee you a lifetime income stream you cannot outlive I Must ask Why not?? If you have lost money in the market turbulence of 2008 Let me ask why put up with that? None of the assets I manage for my clients have lost money this year! Let me repeat that NONE of my clients assets under management have suffered a market loss of value!

We can help clients with all of these things. How can we help you?
financial-services@live.com
polarisfinancialservices@gmail.com

Inflation rearing its ugly head - What should you do about it?

There are several things every investor or saver needs to keep in mind as we move forward. Over the past 18 months inflation has been at above average levels it actually peaked at 5.6% back in July 2008. That represented a 17 year high. But even though it has dropped since then there are 8 months with a rate at or above 4%. The statistics show a 3.8% inflation rate for the CPI for all of 2008. Obviously we don't yet know the total inflation rate in the CPI for all of 2009. That means that any one using a bank for a safe money resting place has actually lost money while searching for a Safe Money Haven. Banks are still failing and they are still Failing to pay you a fair rate of return on the money you place in the bank at the same time they are charging a Record high rate on the money they loan out.

There are excellent Safe Money alternatives that can provide a better rate of return with excellent safety. They can even include upside potential if the market climbs while offering protection from market declines. Ask us how this can work and fit into your financial strategy
for the future. Non Bank Financial Alternatives still make excellent sense today. Protection from market risk makes just as much sense today as it made one year ago. We can help on both counts!

Are you interested in a Second Opinion about you financial nest egg. We can provide you with a no charge Second opinion and also help you position some of your assets in excellent safe money financial alternatives.