Finding The Best Rates On Life Insurance

February 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Life insurance is designed to protect your loved ones from any financial burdens that may result from you passing.  This would include loss of income or the expenses of any final ceremonies.  Understanding how to get the best rates will allow you to cover your family with the maximum amount of insurance.

Getting Premium or Standard Rate Insurance

Standard rates and premium rates are acquired by people who are in the best physical health.  This means if you are young then you are going to get better insurance rates than someone who is older and in the exact same health.  This means the earlier you get your life insurance in place and the better health you are in when you go through underwriting the lower your monthly cost will be.  This applies even more if you participate in unhealthy activities like smoking or sky diving.  If you are currently a smoker then you should stop as soon as you can.  Some companies will forgive your smoking if you have not had any cigarettes in the last two to five years.  This means you can qualify at the better life insurance rates.

What If I Don’t Qualify for The Better Rates?

If you do not qualify then you can be put into a category of high risk life insurance or be uninsurable.  With either situation there are options for you to still make sure you have insurance.  If you are in a high risk life insurance category then you can still get insurance.  The key is to shop as many companies as you can.  Some companies are more aggressive in their offering of life insurance and will not put as heavy of attention on certain activities.  Others will penalize you harshly.  So getting quotes from multiple companies is the key.  If you come back as uninsurable you can always get guaranteed issue life insurance.  These policies are much smaller than the standard life insurance route, but there is no medical exam and you do not have to worry about getting rejected.  In either of these cases if you can do something to get yourself back to where you qualify for the standard rate then you will be much better off and be qualified for much larger amounts of life insurance.

Filed Under: Insurance

What Is Medicare Open Enrollment?

February 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Medicare Open Enrollment is an annual time frame window where Medicare members are allowed to change certain aspects of their Medicare Plan. Medicare Open Enrollment is also commonly referred to as the Medicare Annual Election Period. Those Medicare members who have either original Medicare, Medicare Advantage or a Medicare Part D Prescription medication plan are eligible to make changes to their plan once the Medicare Open Enrollment period arrives. For the upcoming year of 2014, the Medicare Open Enrollment period will be between October 15, 2013 and December 7, 2013 and any new changes made to the plan will take effect on January 1, 2014.The Medicare Open Enrollment program was put in place to allow members to update their plans as their conditions or statuses change. Examples might be new medications someone has to take, a new medical diagnosis, worsening or improvement of a pre-existing medical condition or other similar information. However, items that are covered such as prescription medications may fluctuate or increase in co-pays and depends on the specific Medicare plan as they change periodically.

Open Enrollment dictates that someone may not be turned down for coverage for a pre-existing condition or health risk. So if you are a smoker, have been diagnosed with cancer, or are facing some other sort of health risk, but want to get the same Medicare supplement rates as a perfectly healthy individual, you can do it during the Open Enrollment.Other important information to remember for seniors 65 and older is if they’ve become eligible for a Medicare plan when not during the Medicare Open Enrollment period, they are given seven months to choose and enroll in a Medicare plan for the current year. Once the person has enrolled in a Medicare plan, their coverage will start on the first calendar day of the person’s birthday month; or the first day of the month after the person’s birthday month if they enrolled in their plan coverage during their birthday month. It is also important that Medicare Part D Prescription Plans be enrolled in during the appropriate time period so that the individual’s plan begins on time. For the year of 2014, the Medicare Part D Prescription Plans enrollment begins October 15, 2013 to December 7, 2013 and the plan will take effect come January 1, 2014.

Filed Under: Insurance

Finding Affordable Life Insurance for Diabetics

February 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Diabetes is one the most common health impairments life insurance underwriters see.  There are in fact over 25 million people in the United States living with diabetes.

Purchasing life insurance for diabetics can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be.  You can keep your life insurance costs down by demonstrating control and compliance of your diabetes.  Meaning you keep your blood sugar levels low and you take all your doctors prescribed medications. If you don’t want to deal with a full exam to get life insurance, you can always get life insurance with  no medical exam as an alternative.

Life insurance rates will vary by the type of diabetes you have. Type II diabetics will see lower cost life insurance the type I diabetic.  If you have type II diabetes and are looking for life insurance you can expect to get standard life insurance rates as a best case scenario.  With type I diabetes your best case scenario is most likely a table 5 rating.

The key in finding the most affordable life insurance policy if you have diabetes is finding the company that will look most favorably at your individual situation.  Every company will look at each diabetes case differently.  It’s your life insurance agent’s job to find the one that will look most favorably at your situation.

Filed Under: Insurance

Banking Trends For 2013

January 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Banking-CoinsBanking has gone through some major transformations recently, and that is certainly going to continue into 2013. Increasing demands of mobile and tablet customers, experimenting with new revenue streams, and refocusing on mass affluent customers are forcing banks to innovate or find themselves too far behind the times to catch up to competitors.

Here are some trends we are sure to see in retail banking in 2013.

What is the Impact of Mobile and Online Banking? Banks are still not certain what the impact of mobile and online banking is on customer retention. It is also still a bit cloudy trying to quantify its impact on the customer’s relationship with the bank across different channels. With drastic increases in non-branch banking, branch staffing and operating hours need to evolve to maximize profits. Online and mobile banking can reduce the cost of physical banking, but banks need to be careful to not cutback current staffing too far and negatively impact the customer experience.

Making Money From Mobile. The majority of banks are not currently charging for mobile or online banking transactions, however that is starting to change. BB&T and U.S. Bank both are charging 50 cents per check for mobile check deposit. Charging for some of the conveniences mobile and online banking provide for customers could be a big source of fee revenue for banks. The other side of the coin is that it could generate massive customer backlash and see some customers fleeing to competitors not charging for such transactions. The more likely scenario will be for banks to charge for new services they offer, rather than adding new fees to existing services customers have been taking advantage of. Once banks do start charging fees, they will need to determine the optimum fee levels and identify which customers should be exempt from these fees to avoid losing their most valuable clients.

Smaller Branches. It is not likely we will see branches disappear anytime in the near future, but it is inevitable that they will get smaller. For account openings and to discuss mortgages and investments, customers are likely to continue coming into the branch. A large network of branches will give customers the convenience they want, but many routine transactions are moving to alternate channels.

Branches will get smaller in the future with more “café” style branches. The key for banks is going to be knowing where to put these smaller branches and where a traditional branch will best serve the needs of the customer.

Branch staff will, if anything, shrink over time, so banks will need to do more with less. This will require hiring people who have a broader variety of skills and offering more training to help existing staff learn new skills. Banks should also work to develop new technology platforms to help branch staff have these broader and more complex discussions with customers.

Banking is a drastically changing culture, and that trend will continue in 2013.

Filed Under: Banking

3 Real Estate Trends To Watch In 2013

January 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Rising Property PricesIt has been a little over four years and 16 million foreclosures since the housing crash in 2008. Surprisingly, most Americans have not lost faith in real estate.

Home buyer website Trulia conducted a survey this summer of 2,000 people. They found that 61 percent of those surveyed predicted that prices in their local market would rise in 2013. In the survey, 58 percent responded that they believed prices would take 10 years or less to get back to their pre-mortgage crisis peaks. Of the renters in the survey, 80 percent indicated they plan to buy a home someday.

Whether or not you share the same enthusiasm for the housing market that the participants of this survey seem to have, the signs of a turnaround are certainly out there and hard to ignore.

For eight straight months, national home prices have increased, and they have increased 6.3 percent year-over-year in October. That increase is the largest we have seen since June of 2006.

California was without question one of the hardest hit states. In 2012, 57 percent of the homes for sale of had multiple offers.

Bidding wars are on the rise in Florida and Phoenix.

It is tough to make broad predictions for real estate in 2013. Most real estate experts will emphasize that real estate markets are local. Beach property on the East Coast is a completely different market than homes in Midwestern Iowa. That being said, here are some trends and predictions to keep an eye on for 2013.

Fewer Foreclosure Deals To Be Had

While many people have found some great deals on foreclosure properties the past 4 years, those opportunities are drying up fast. In March of 2011, foreclosure sales made up 28 percent of all home sales. In June of 2012, that number had fallen to 11 percent and continues to dwindle. That is partly due to the Federal Housing Finance Agency and banks selling off hundreds of distressed home loans in bulk to purchasers who agree to work out new terms with the borrowers rather than simply foreclosing on the properties. The equity position of thousands of borrowers has improved with rising home prices, which has corrected many upside-down loans.

Increased Short Sales

A short sale is when a home sells for less than what the borrower owes on their mortgage. The bank agrees to accept a lower price for the home rather than going through a lengthy and costly foreclosure. The Federal Housing and Finance Agency (FHFA) issued new rules on short sales on November 1st for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. One of the biggest changes is that the new rules drastically reduce the amount of documentation required for borrowers to demonstrate hardship. Borrowers also now are not necessarily required to pay the difference between what they owe on the mortgage and the final sale price.

So while foreclosure sales will keep falling, short sales will likely be on the rise.

Rising Mortgage Rates

For the past 3 years, mortgage rates have been at historic lows. Of course, that means there is likely only one direction for them to go in 2013. Average mortgage rates were at 3.5 percent in September this year. It is being predicted that rates will gradually rise up to an average of 4 percent this year.

All signs are pointing to an even better year in the real estate market in 2013.

Filed Under: Real Estate