Category: Blog

I received a Newswire from the National Association of Health Underwriters ( NAHU ). For those that are tracking the Affordable Care Act and the impact that it has on all of us may find this blurb and article to be interesting. You may recall that it was a given that without the mandate for coverage the ACA would not work. Understanding that the repeal is on, without the IRS enforcement this would be the proverbial “taking it apart at the seams”! I just hope the Republican plan can turn the ship without sinking it.

IRS To Pull Back On Enforcing ACA’s Individual Mandate For Coverage.

The Washington Post (2/15, Goldstein) reports the Trump Administration is making its initial changes to the Affordable Care Act by “reversing plans to withhold tax refunds this year from Americans who flout an insurance requirement in the law.” Under the Obama Administration, the IRS “had announced that it would no longer process tax returns for people who fail to send a notice with their returns that they have insurance, are exempt from the requirement or are paying the fine.” But on Wednesday, the IRS revoked this rule, saying instead that “tax returns will be processed as always, even for individuals who do not provide the required information.”

Many things effect life insurance rates. One factor can be high blood pressure. Want to live longer? Want to have lower life insurance rates? Consider the Dash Diet. You’ve never heard of the DASH Diet? DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. We know exercise, diet and medication can impact blood pressure. Controlled high blood pressure means better life insurance premiums. The DASH diet is low in fat and sodium but rich in low-fat or nonfat dairy foods, healthy fats, fruits and vegetables. It can lower blood pressure.

How can you add DASH to your lifestyle? Make small changes first by changing only your fruit and vegetable intake. You can do this! Keep track of the fruits and vegetables you eat and slowly add more to your diet. Your goal is 8 to 10 servings a day. A serving of most vegetables and fruits is only ½ cup, about the size of an ice cream scoop. If you have health issues that cause you to have too much potassium in your blood  you may need a diet that is lower in potassium than the DASH diet.

Consider these suggestions for eating more fruits and vegetables:

• Try to eat fruits and/or vegetables at every meal. Take fruit to work or school as a snack.
• Make a baked potato bar. Serve baked potatoes with a variety of toppings such as broccoli, chili, salsa, and beans. If you use toppings from a can or jar be sure to choose low-sodium varieties, or even better, make them yourself from fresh ingredients. Be creative. You could end up with 4 to 5 servings of vegetables at one meal.
• Try nonfat or low-fat yogurt topped with fruit and unsalted nuts.
• For a snack, have a smoothie made with low-fat or fat-free milk and frozen fruit chunks.
• Combine a ready-made pizza crust with low-fat mozzarella cheese and lots of vegetable toppings. Use tomatoes, squash, spinach, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, peppers and onions.
• Use a variety of cut-up vegetables with a low-fat dip as an appetizer instead of high-fat chips and dips. Try some new vegetables.
• Make a stir-fry containing lots of different vegetables and serve over brown rice.
• Try some vegetarian meals using beans and peas.
• Add garbanzo beans to a salad.
• Use fat-free refried beans.
• Make split pea or black bean soup.
• Buy a vegetarian cookbook and try one recipe each month or each week.

Once you are eating the right amount of fruits and vegetables each week, move on to other changes. Eat less saturated fat found in meats, dairy products and processed foods. Use vegetable oils such as canola, olive, and corn oils. Eat healthy fats from nuts and fish. Eat less sodium by cutting down on how much processed food you eat such as snack items, lunch meats and canned soups. Buy frozen meals that have less than 400 milligrams of sodium listed on the label. Drink fat-free (skim) milk. A glass of fat-free milk has only 80 calories and no fat and is packed with blood pressure-lowering nutrients. Get 2 to 3 servings of milk or milk products every day. For breakfast, have whole-grain cereal, fruit and skim milk.

Try these suggestions and you will be on your way to a healthier diet.

(Dietary suggestions offered by c. miller of aetna)

The National Association of Insurance & Financial Advisors ( NAIFA ) Smart Brief reported that a major reason consumers are shying away from purchasing life insurance is due to complexity in the application process. I do understand that this society is all about point and click then on to the next flash of information or on to the next barrage of daily activities.  Having been involved in the Group Insurance/Worksite Marketing stage of life insurance selling, I know firsthand that people do love simplicity when it comes to making life insurance decisions. Younger and middle-aged consumers will often leave family life insurance needs unmet  and perhaps it is due to lack of simplicity in the application process.

Employers are shifting more and more to a self enroll model thereby eliminating face to face consultation.  Life Happens notes that 66% Americans under the age of 40 indicated that “purchasing a life insurance policy is complicated.” And 54% of the U.S. adult population feels the same way. Perhaps I am “old school” but what about just meeting with an agent? They can help explain the products and facilitate the application process.

If you insist you can do it all over the phone and internet but we have Qualified Top Agents that you can talk with about your life insurance needs.  Additionally, we have a very simple application process available. You can get a rate and even start the application process by spending less than 10 minutes. The rest of the process is handled by the pros. It is really streamlined and easy for the consumer.

Additionally, we have carriers that will underwrite life insurance applications on a non-medical basis, meaning No Medical Exams are required in order to be considered for approval. You can apply and have an approval all within 30 minutes.

If our Agents can be of help to you, please Click Here     or call us at 817-545-3900.

Did you know that delaying the age at which you receive your Social Security benefits could give you a nice increase in benefits rather than receiving 100 % of your Social Security Benefits at age 66?

Yes, if you waited until age 68 you can multiply your Full Retirement Benefit by 116%.  If you waited until age 70 you can multiply your Full Retirement Benefit by 132%. Half of all Americans retire between age 61 and age 65. Read the Money Magazine article below for more information.

Despite a severe retirement income crisis, many Americans still stop work too

About half of Americans call it quits between ages 61 and 65 while 18% retire even earlier, according to the data shown here from LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute. By age 75, 89% of Americans have left the labor force, LIMRA says.

The retirement statistics no doubt include some people who can’t find work or who can’t work because of health problems. Still, early retirement can mean an income squeeze.

Along with stopping work early, most Americans begin collecting Social Security before their full retirement age, which is 66 for many and rises to 67 for those born after 1960, LIMRA says in a recent report.

The percentage of those claiming Social Security early is declining. That’s generally good news because monthly benefits rise by roughly 6.5% to 8% a year between ages 62 and 70. Still, in 2014, 57% of men and 64% of women took the benefit early, LIMRA says.

Half of leading-edge baby boomers, those ages 61 to 69, have fully retired and about 15% of the U.S. population is now finished with work. Among this group, the presence of a traditional pension or retirement plan is often what separates those considered income-rich from those who are not, LIMRA found.

Retired Americans receive $1.3 trillion in income. The vast majority of this income comes from two sources: Social Security (42%) and traditional pension and retirement plans (30%). Traditional pensions remain fairly common for those over 75 but are virtually nonexistent for those under 34, LIMRA found.

Some 41% of retirees have annual income less than $25,000, and of those, only 21% receive income from a pension or retirement plan. Meanwhile, of retirees with income over $50,000 a year, about 80% draw from a pension or retirement plan.

To get a picture of how severe the retirement income crisis is—and why more Americans should consider working longer and delaying Social Security—LIMRA looked at total savings. U.S. households own $31 trillion of investable assets. That’s an average of $253,200 per household. But most of that is owned by the wealthy. The median holding is just $17,500 and three in four American households have saved less than $100,000.

Lite Brite

Crisp black paper in palpable suspense stretched out eyes ready for creation. We found its joy in Lite Brite, in clowns and trains of rainbows, where the warm buzz of the lamp turned to magic in our hands; in the clink and clank of Lincoln Logs; in the tap-tap-tap of Tinker Toys—a greenhouse, a tropic, a Hawaiian Delight of imagination, where flora flourished and fauna came to dwell.

Questions sprung across the twin hills of my cerebrum, flowers cheering each other, “Rise! Leap!”—not a one so inhibited that it would settle into abstinence. Silver vines wove a carpet of complexity, an unmyelinated beauty that, thanks to you, I never lost.

Tropical summer and Eskimo kisses—real kisses, too—felt as finger paints of freedom, and hugs squished like turtle box sand, the kind we made tunnels out of. Whistling raspberries that smelled like lipstick, cologne, and little boy smiles, you wrapped me in bear blankets and garden hose showers.

We spend the day on Lite Brite. Splashes of color tingle in my heart like the lamp tingles on my skin. Your smiling face feels peg-glow good. The world we create looks small, but happy. Outside, you can find Doodle Bugs and grass blade whistles. Tiny things fit into your hand, you see, but they fill up your heart like Meme’s breakfasts fill your tummy.

Bacon crackles on the stove; I watch it sizzle, legs kicking free, held up by little boy arms strong from when we wrestle. We sample grapefruit, pucker, and laugh. At bath time, we make George Washington Hairdo bubbles, and belly buttons have magic, like Treasure Trolls. You bring every moment the most wonderful magic in the world.

You tuck me up in a taco roll (all the way around), and I tell you: I never want to stop needing you.