What's Important to Hoosier Families? (blog post)

Google trends is a pretty cool feature on Google.  If you've never used it, you should check it out.  You go to Google Trends online and type in a search term and region (like Indiana) and Zoweee! It tells you the volume of Hoosier searches on that topic.  Cool stuff, indeed. 

Well, today I google trended "Life Insurance" as well as home, auto, and health insurance ... do you know that home, auto, and health did not have enough searches in the last 30 days to show up on this trend counter but life insurance was on evereyone's minds.

I also noticed that there was very little searching for life insurance on Sunday, it was mainly done during the work week.  Perhaps it is our daily interactions at work that make us feel our mortality or maybe we just have more free time at work than at home.  Anyway I thought that was interesting.

I also think it is interesting that the most important and complicated insurance there is is the only one that had enough people searching online for it to even register on Google Trends.  Shouldn't we talk to a real live person about the important stuff?  Can we trust Wikipedia for the really important stuff?  I don't, I try to find people that are experts and discuss my options with them.  Online experts don't have to look you in the eye (neither do the TV experts) so they don't suffer if their advice is not right for you.

Life insurance is an important topic in Indiana (more so than any other insurance type) so call an Agent to get your questions answered, because they will see you at Walmart and CVS each week and that makes them (including me) much more motivated to tell you the best information you can get.

What to do after a wreck?

"The weather outside is frightful ...", just a little snow and everyone is sliding all over the place.  I remember when we were stationed in Texas and it snowed about 1/2 an inch.  Everything shut down and we went driving around looking at all the wrecks.  That was big fun until I got in the insurance business. 

One question I get a lot is, "what do I do if I have an accident?"  That's an easy one, but it's easy to forget right after a wreck.  Everyone gets shook up whether it's their fault or not.  So let's review the basics.

1.  Stay calm.  It's never helpful to lose control.
2.  Check to see if anyone needs medical attention, life and welfare are far more important than anything else.
3.  If no one has any evident injuries the next step is to make sure you and your family are not in danger because of where you are, for example if you had a fender bender on 465 in the left lane you would want to make sure your vehicle is as far off the road as possible and that your family isn't walking out into traffic.
4.  Exchange information with the other driver, name, address, and insurance info at the very least. 
5.  Contact the police, an official record of the incident can be necessary down the road.
6.  Don't try to figure out who is to blame, that's for the police and the insurance companies to figure out. 
7.  Call your agent, unless your insurance company makes you call an 800 number.  Let the agent or his office staff know the details of when, where, who, and how. 

Once you've made the claim and started the process you can relax.  Don't spend time and energy worrying about what the accident will do to your premiums or how you are going to come up with the deductible, because you've just handled the worst of it.  If your premiums go up for a while to pay for the vehicle or someone Else's injuries, then you've still come out ahead because you don't have a huge payment at the time of the accident.  If you need to barrow $500 from you brother or your father to cover the deductible, then so be it, it's still better than paying the whole amount.

One caution though, you need to check and see that your liability limits are enough to protect you assets if the accident is your fault and the other party has big medical bills from the wreck, state minimums are not enough.  Just think how much it cost the last time you went to the doctor and imagine what trauma care for a head wound would cost.  Ask you agent if you limits are enough to save you from getting sued for all you savings and retirement.

I hope you don't have an auto claim in this icy weather but if you do, it's an opportunity to see how well you've done picking the company that will help you keep going after the wreck.  After all that's why you have insurance.

Who pays the price?

Who pays for the mistakes of others? Very often it's the ones who can afford it the least!  A week or so ago I read a story about a young man age 28 who was driving a mini Van to pick up his two young daughters.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/ford-windstar-van-defect-allegedly-fatal-crash/story?id=12453337

Because of a design flaw the rear axle broke causing the young man to wreck and die before his daughters got to see him one last time. 

Reading the story you feel a lot of different emotions; anger toward the auto maker and the government, sadness for the girls and their mother, worry for your own family.  Think about it, what would happen to your family if that was you or your spouse in that van?

In the distant future a lawyer will declare victory in some class action suit where the multimillion dollar reward will be cut in half to pay the lawyer, then the rest will be divided up between the 800 or so people that reported accidents caused by the defect.  No, the widow won't be able to depend on that money. 

We can only hope the auto maker pays in some way for this loss but the truth is that the father's life insurance will have to replace his income for the family.  Hopefully he didn't rely solely on the group term life insurance that he has through work.  Hopefully, he and his now widow took a couple of hours to review this possibility with their insurance guy, and they came up with a plan to cover the lost income in the event he died before his time.

Life is short and none of us ever know what is going to happen tomorrow, so always make the last word your loved ones heard as they exit the door, a kind one.  Enjoy your husband, or wife and your children each day, because they are only with us a little while.  Plan for the worst and celebrate everyday that the worst doesn't happen.  And make life insurance a part of your plan!

J

The Future of Health Care!

So, what's the deal with heath insurance?  It seems like heath insurance is on every one's mind today ... The cost is rising and benefits are shirking, even in the face of last year's heath care reform. 

I quote health insurance for a bunch of families each week.  I really don't like to though, because the premiums are high and most folks need the coverage because their company has either cut benefits or personnel.  So they've had a bad week before they sit in my office and I'm just going to put another log on the fire.

One thing is for sure, we have not heard the last of heath care reform, There are too many open ended questions with the legislation that passed last year.  One of the most glaring is, what is the maximum that a health insurance company can charge for the insurance that the government is saying everyone must have in the next 4 years?  The cost of this program will fall to those that can pay for the coverage.  Those that can't pay will be in violation of the law and will still be treated with care bought by the tax payers ... in other words the middle class will foot the bill!

I'm not sure how to improve the system but I can say it is obvious that tort reform is necessary before the other issues can even be addressed.  Tort reform would be changes to the civil justice system that would limit the amounts paid out in minor health care related claims.  If a doctor or drug maker or hospital must pay hundreds of thousands each year to fend off lawsuits they will charge more for the end product or service to make up for that loss. 

Stopping predatory lawyers from getting huge settlements for minor claims (and taking 60% of it for their firms) will free up cash flow that can help lower the cost for health care without hurting the quality!  And that will lower health insurance premiums which will get more people buying it!

J

2011 Predictions!

I love to read the newspaper and magazines this time of year, they always recount what has happened over the last twelve months and they predict what is to come in the upcoming year!  Will it be feast or famine, will we have peace or war, Will the weather be good or bad?  So many questions to ask and answer, and in the end it is just a guess by the author.  If they are right, they can build credibility in their next prediction, if wrong no one will remember by the end of the next year and they will still be able to try again.

I don't have a crystal ball and I can't know for sure what will happen with the weather or war but I have a couple of ideas about what we will see in 2011.  I imagine that Oprah will continue to make money even though much of the world is not.  I foresee that wives will write out lists for their husbands to do and husbands will try to figure out how to keep  from doing everything on those lists.  The sun will rise and set each day, babies will be born and old friends will pass away.  In other words the cycle of life will continue without regard to the financial health of Greece, the EU or even the United States. 

We will have good days and bad days and all we have to do is enjoy the good and weather the bad.  The last year has been a great one for me.  I've enjoyed my business life and seen some success, I've enjoyed my family and I feel like I made a difference through my church, business and family.  In the end that is the measure of a good year for me, did I make a difference?  

Thanks to everyone that made a difference in my life and who allowed me the honor of making a small difference in their lives. 

God Bless you all and a very Happy New Year!

What Christmas is all about - Read ... Pray ... Help!!!

Have you ever wanted a chance to really show the meaning of Christmas?  Yesterday I received an email from Emmanuel Mustapha, he is a former Muslim who after his conversation to Christianity became a Baptist Minister and who is doing great things in Africa right now, both as a christian spreading the word and as a humanitarian helping those in need.  His wife Felicia is in desperate need of cancer treatment.  A hospital in the States will do the treatments for about half price but the remaining funds must be in place to get things rolling.

First I ask that you go to the facebook page we set up, read the details ... then I would ask you to pray ... finally, if you are able I ask that you sent a few dollars to the church that is spearheading this effort.  I know Emmanuel (Muss to his US friends) personally and I know that this is a real situation and that your donation, and prayers will make a real difference.  I would encourage you to call the church (the number is on the facebook page) and ask about the details if you have questions.  I would also encourage you to sent Muss a message of support on his facebook page.

Now, please after you view the facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Felicia-Mustapha-Breast-Cancer-Fund/114971868572349 ) ... click like and then suggest it to your friends!

Thanks for reading.

Merry Christmas

Help! My retirement is Shrinking!

With the continuous losses in the stock market many folks have put their money in secure vehicles like CDs but now CD rates are below inflation which means that their money will not buy as much next year as it does this year and the interest they are earning on the CD is too little to even keep pace with the ever growing costs.  In short they are losing money everyday that they own a CD with interest rates below the current inflation rate.

In 2010 the average inflation rate has been 1.7% while the average interest rate on 1 year CDs is .49% up to 1.5% on 5 year CDs, neither of which will keep your money from shrinking in value.  Think of it this way if you had $1000 in a CD making .49% you would make you $4.90 (minus $1.23 in taxes) during this year and your $1003.67 will buy you the same in the next year as $986.61 this year.  Yep even with the gains you lost money because it buys less this year than it did last year.  So what do you do with  your nest egg so it is safe and still protect it from lost value due to inflation?

I like the way fixed annuities look for this ... they offer substantially higher rates than CD's (Farm Bureau's are at a guaranteed 3% and some even offer a bonus of 2% on the first year) and they grow tax deferred (so you will get second year interest on 100% of the interest you earned in the first year).  Using that same example your $1000 in a fixed annuity would earn $30 (taxes are deferred) and that $1030 will buy you the same amount in the next year as $1012.49 so you still have the same (or at least a little more) buying power that you started with.

This may not be the strategy for everyone but for those wanting to preserve their nest egg it is a much better option than losing their purchasing power every year until they have lost all that they worked for through their whole lives.

Take a look at fixed annuities to see if they make sense for your retirement plan, I think you will find that they can be an important part of your overall plan.