Politicians need to take a fresh look at health care funding...
Raymond A. J. Digby, an Ann Arbor, Mich., resident, is a member of the Association of Home Office Underwriters and was formerly in actuarial practice.
In August, Dr. James C. Mitchiner of the Washtenaw County Medical Society wrote about the merits of single-payer coverage, noting it's been available in the United States for more than 40 years in the form of Medicare. The four decades of evidence shows an administrative burden of 3 percent compared with 18 percent or more for some for-profit insurers. Single payer compares favorably against the inefficient duplication of administrative costs inherent to the current system of 1,200 private health insurers, and the increased out-of-pocket cost to consumers from 1,200 risk pools.
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Insurance Agents Are Like Toasters by Michael Beck
Written by Michael Beck, "The Insurance & Advisor Coach". Michael, an Executive Coach and Recruiting Activist, helps insurance and financial professionals succeed faster and easier. He can be reached at 866-385-8751 , mbeck@theinsurancecoach.com or mbeck@theadvisorcoach.com
We work in a unique industry – one in which insurance agents are like toasters. Let me explain…
Everyone owns and uses at least one small appliance at home. It might be a toaster, a garage door opener or a microwave oven. No doubt it’s something we use every day. And yet, we can’t recall the brand name of the appliance. We all know what it looks like and how it operates, but generally can’t remember who the manufacturer is… until it breaks. When it breaks, we check to see what brand of "widget" it is and whether repair or replacement is covered. We decide whether we want to purchase the same brand or try a different brand altogether. It takes a problem to draw our attention to the brand – and until that time, since we aren’t really aware of the brand we’re using, one brand is as good as another! Insurance agents are essentially like toasters. We’re generally not thought of by policyholders until something breaks – that is, until there’s a claim.
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WILLS AND ESTATES: PRESUMPTIONS OF RESULTING TRUST AND ADVANCEMENT
with the permission of Eugene Meehan, Q.C., Chair, Supreme Court Practice Group, Lang Michener LLP Ottawa, eemeehan@langmichener ca
Pecore v. Pecore (Ont. C.A., September 8, 2005) (31202)
" An ageing father gratuitously placed the bulk of his assets in joint accounts with his daughter P, who was the closest to him of his three adult children. Unlike her siblings, who were financially secure, P worked at various low‑paying jobs and took care of her quadriplegic husband, M. P’s father helped P and her family financially, including buying them a van, making improvements to their home, and assisting her son while he was attending university. P’s father alone deposited funds into the joint accounts. He continued to use and control the accounts, and declared and paid all the taxes on the income made from the assets in the accounts. In his will, P’s father left specific bequests to P, M and her children but did not mention the accounts. The residue of the estate was to be divided equally between P and M. Upon the father’s death, P redeemed the balance in the joint accounts on the basis of a right of survivorship. P and M later divorced, and a dispute over the accounts arose during their matrimonial property proceedings. M claimed that P held the balance in the accounts in trust for the benefit of her father’s estate and, consequently, the assets formed part of the residue and should be distributed according to the will. The trial judge held that P’s father intended to make a gift of the beneficial interest in the accounts upon his death to P alone, concluding that the evidence failed to rebut the presumption of advancement. The Court of Appeal dismissed M’s appeal, but found that it was not necessary to rely on the presumption of advancement because the presumption is only relevant in the absence of evidence of actual intention or where the evidence is evenly balanced."
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Long Term Care Insurance (LTCi) - The Financial product for the next 40 Years!
Tim Landry is currently the director of living benefits at MSA Financial Services in Montreal. He can be reached at (514) 343-0200 ext. 228 or at tim@msafinancial.com . He has been in the insurance industry for 37 years. He has been a specialist in living benefits at insurance companies (Crown Life, Canada Life, Paul Revere) and MGAs.
By Tim Landry, Quebec Canada
I will begin and end this article with personal notes – the first to say that, when I started in the insurance business in 1969, people who were 65 were at the “beginning to get old” stage; people at 70 were OLD and those at 75 were either VERY OLD or dead. Back then – excluding school gyms, there were 3 gymnasiums – the MAAA, the YMCA and YMHA. Today? Forget the change in perspective caused by being 37 years older! Age 65 is not even beginning to be old. Age 70 MIGHT be where age 65 was in 1969 – and it is certainly reasonable to say that 75 is not even truly OLD any more. I had a 70-odd year old man walk into our office last year – WITH HIS MOTHER (who was age 100).
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Ross Morton has spent 36 years in the life reinsurance world and throughout that time has played a very visible role in the life insurance industry in Canada and the world. Ross has made the transition from executive of major international companies to independent advisor very easily. His services, best described as mentor, advisor and reassurer, are now available globally to companies, governments or individuals wanting assistance with a variety of specific tasks from the life broker producer to the most senior of executives in insurers. Ross retains strong ties to RGA in its global risk management.
I do not think there is malice of forethought amongst advisors but rather just clumsiness when dealing with the words, written or spoken, of someone from the product manufacturing side of life insurance. In the past I have written about the “Two Hymn Books” and how insurers themselves quite frequently use one set of verbiage for the advisor and then a second set for the risk assessor (underwriter). That strategy of poor communications has created dozens of issues between marketing and risk selection to the point one would assume it is a prescribed management style.
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Ross Morton has spent 36 years in the life reinsurance world and throughout that time has played a very visible role in the life insurance industry in Canada and the world. Ross has made the transition from executive of major international companies to independent advisor very easily. His services, best described as mentor, advisor and reassurer, are now available globally to companies, governments or individuals wanting assistance with a variety of specific tasks from the life broker producer to the most senior of executives in insurers. Ross retains strong ties to RGA in its global risk management.
Anecdotes About Reinsurance
1. A large producer of life reinsurance in Canada had a very knowledgeable president who was very cognizant of how reinsurance pricing and mortality curve could benefit his company. As such he was one of the most astute reinsurance purchasers ever seen and he in turn passed this skill to his pricing and underwriting teams.
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There are so many professions that seem to have a language entirely their own. The medical profession is a great example. Unless you have Masters degrees in Latin, biology, and medicine, it’s hard to decipher what they’re talking about.
Law is another profession where you need a handy dictionary. And you need to keep a magnifying glass nearby so you can read the fine print. Pharmacists, investment dealers, bankers, computer technicians and hospitals all have their own acronyms and ‘user’ language unique to them. Outsiders feel like, well, outsiders. If you don’t speak the lingo, you don’t belong. You don’t fit in. And if you don’t understand the language, you somehow feel inadequate. Uninformed. Even stupid. When we don’t understand something, our tendency is to shy away from it. Avoid it. Perhaps ridicule it. But most of all, we dismiss it.
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Critical Illness - Some facts about the financial impact of critical illness.
Is insurance against the financial impact of a critical illness a "need" or just a "want"? The following are several facts that may shed some light on this question:
Critical Illness Fast Facts:
· One out of every three people will be diagnosed with cancer (approximately 1,250,000 Americans annually). The five-year survival rate for all cancers is 62%. (American Cancer Society, 2004 Facts and Figures)
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Four years to go. Perhaps five. Or three, if the budget is strictly adhered to and the market performs well. Ah, the heady dreams of retirement. Most of us look forward to our retirement years most of our working lives. And a lot of us will spend as many years in ‘retirement’ as we did working. The challenge, of course, is to ensure that we have properly prepared for our leisure years.
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Practice Management... Ideas for the living Benefits Practitioner: By Terry Zavitz B.Mus.A. CFP RHU CLU REBC
Article originally published in CALU INFOexchange 2002, Vol. 4. and was reprinted by permission of the author Terry Zavitz B.Mus.A. CFP RHU CLU REBC, Terry Zavitz Insurance Inc. (519)667-0116. terry@zavitzinsurance.com
Living Benefits insurance, although an important part of a balanced financial plan, is wrought with underwriting and contractual complexities. A small detail omitted from the application can cause problems should there be a claim, especially in the first two policy years. Clients often do not understand the reasons for the lengthy and intense underwriting procedures and agents can get confused about the various contractual details, especially with older policies. Below is a list of procedures that can be followed to ease some of these problems and protect you and your client in the event of a claim.
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Plan for Living: Will Illness Destroy your Retirement? By Kim Stanley, B.A., CFP, CLU, CH.F.C.
Article originally submitted to "The Care Guide" and reprinted with permission of the Author Kim Stanley, B.A., CFP, CLU, CH.F.C. The Canadian Living Benefits Centre Ltd. 905 457 9506 kstanley@canadianlivingbenefits.com
We close our eyes and we dream. We dream about foreign travel and exotic locations. We dream of a quiet country home and peaceful surroundings. We dream of a stress-free lifestyle and idyllic family life. Are these visions mutual fund commercials? No. Retirement dreams. Oh they may be idealistic, but they’re ours, and it doesn’t seem to matter if you’re in your 20s, 40s or 60s, we all dream of a retirement free of day-to-day pressures and oodles of time and opportunities to pursue all those dreams and leisure activities we’ve delayed doing. We all believe that we will lead better lives when we ‘retire’.
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Anatomy of a Lawsuit A Failure to Provide Service. By Peter Maddocks, CFP, CLU, CH.F.C.
Republished with permission of the author: Peter Maddocks, CFP, CLU, CH.F.C., Fact & Opinion Matters, Inc. www.factandopinion.com
Advisors often encounter legal problems because of things they don’t do rather than something they actually do. Oversights in procedures frequently surface only after many years when a client or beneficiary is concerned to the extent that they seek legal advice At that point an expert is called in to review the files and offer an opinion. We look at everything available and I do mean everything. Expert witnesses are nitpickers looking for anything that has been done that does not fit with their experience of prudent, ethical practices.
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Over the past few years a number of agents have contacted us to discuss the merits of various disability insurance policies. Each wanted to know what we looked for in a disability contract that we recommended to clients. To each our response was much the same. We look for a contract which will pay our clients a benefit in the event that their ability to work is interrupted by a disability, whether physical or emotional, no matter what the cause or degree of disability.
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We work in a unique industry – one in which insurance agents are like toasters. Let me explain…
Advisors often encounter legal problems because of things they don’t do rather than something they actually do. Oversights in procedures frequently surface only after many years when a client or beneficiary is concerned to the extent that they seek legal advice At that point an expert is called in to review the files and offer an opinion. We look at everything available and I do mean everything. Expert witnesses are nitpickers looking for anything that has been done that does not fit with their experience of prudent, ethical practices.
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Over the past few years a number of agents have contacted us to discuss the merits of various disability insurance policies. Each wanted to know what we looked for in a disability contract that we recommended to clients. To each our response was much the same. We look for a contract which will pay our clients a benefit in the event that their ability to work is interrupted by a disability, whether physical or emotional, no matter what the cause or degree of disability.
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