Insurance

Ready to gamble that your home value will tumble more?

Ann Brenoff Nov 9th 2009 @ 8:00AM EST Filed Under: Insurance, Real Estate

Queasy-stomached home owners who can't bear to watch the equity in their homes continue to dwindle have an option: Equity protection policies. These policies, will, for a fee that generally ranges from 1% to 3% of your home's equity, guarantee against further losses when it comes time to sell.

Most of the policies work like this: At the time the contract is purchased, the company takes a snapshot of the average home price in the customer's ZIP code. If, at the time of sale the ZIP Code property value has declined, the company would make up the difference -- in most cases, less a 10% "deductible."

Continue reading Ready to gamble that your home value will tumble more?

CitiGroup Says good-bye to life insurer Primerica

Jennie L. Phipps Nov 6th 2009 @ 6:00PM EST Filed Under: Insurance

The best technique for selling life insurance is known in the trade as "driving the hearse up to the door."

When the salesperson drives the hearse up to the door, he describes at length all the horrible things that can happen if the family hasn't bought enough life insurance and leaves widows and orphans to starve.

Continue reading CitiGroup Says good-bye to life insurer Primerica

Bad actors continue to prey on seniors

Amy Pyle Nov 4th 2009 @ 5:00PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Borrowing, Home, Insurance, Real Estate, Retire, Fraud, Mortgages

Bad actors have solidly shifted their attention to reverse mortgages, causing a top consumer organization to warn seniors to choose such loans carefully.

A new report by the National Consumer Law Center likens the aggressive lending practices in today's reverse mortgage lending to those common in the sub-prime mortgage heyday -- featuring some of the same players.

"Well-funded marketing campaigns and perverse incentives to brokers are targeting seniors' home equity and using reverse mortgages as their tools," attorney Tara Twomey said in the NCLC news release.

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COBRA coverage for unemployed may be extended

Lita Epstein Nov 4th 2009 @ 1:00PM EST Filed Under: Insurance, Career, Health, Insurance-health

If you lost your job, right now you can get a 65% subsidy from the government to help pay for a continuation of your health benefits under COBRA for nine months. The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act may be a weird name for a bill about health insurance, but it's basically the law that requires companies to let people pay to remain on their group health insurance plans for at least 18 months.

But that could end shortly. Congress passed the 65% subsidy as unemployment rose in this country, but it's due to expire Dec. 31. A bill to extend the subsidy for a total of 15 months was introduced last week by Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa. Originally, the subsidy was available for nine months. So someone who began collecting the subsidiary on March 1 would run out of help at the end of November.

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Grassroots health care reform: How Americans can cut $1 trillion in health care costs

Gina Roberts-Grey Nov 4th 2009 @ 11:00AM EST Filed Under: Insurance, Health

Americans are throwing $2.2 trillion at rising health care costs. But experts say there's a way we can cut out as much as $1 trillion. "Take better care of ourselves," says Margaret Lewin, MD, medical director of Cinergy Health.

It sounds simple. Take care of yourself, spend less on health care.

But experts say Americans are missing the mark when it comes to smoking, diet and other lifestyle choices.

Continue reading Grassroots health care reform: How Americans can cut $1 trillion in health care costs

AARP offers help to young people planning their financial future

Tom Barlow Nov 2nd 2009 @ 6:00PM EST Filed Under: Budgets, Insurance, Technology

In 1999 the American Association for Retired People officially changed its name to AARP to avoid the misconception that it was only for retired persons. Since that time, it has vigorously pursued baby boomers as they enter their golden years.

Now, the association seems to be reaching even further down the ages, all the way to young people interested in gaining financial wisdom, by unveiling a new Web site, LifeTuner.

LifeTuner is "an online personal finance community site born out of a growing recognition that young adults need to take a much more active role than previous generations in planning and preparing for their own financial security."

The site contains the usual personal finance background information, calculators and other tools, expert Q&A and a community section where users can engage with one another. Like most AARP products, it seems well thought out and professional, and will probably be as good a resource as any for young people who want to start down the road of financial independence.

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Health care just became a bit more transparent

Gina Roberts-Grey Oct 29th 2009 @ 1:00PM EST Filed Under: Home, Insurance, Health

For the second time in as many weeks, upstate New York's ailing economy got a $100 million shot in the arm. Today, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced a historic nationwide reform of the consumer reimbursement system for out-of-network health care charges. A new not-for-profit company, FAIR Health, Inc., and an upstate research network headquartered at Syracuse University will develop a new, independent database for consumer reimbursement. The team will also create a new website that gives consumers the chance to compare prices before they choose their doctors--something that's never been done before.

Joining Syracuse University in the upstate research network are the State University of New York at Buffalo, Cornell University, University of Rochester, and SUNY Upstate Medical University. The new database will make FAIR Health a center for health care research and an engine of health care reform.

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Don't be duped by fake health discount plans

Lita Epstein Oct 28th 2009 @ 12:00PM EST Filed Under: Insurance, Health

Television ads promote health discount plans in a duplicitous way to make them sound like insurance, but in reality, they're no more than a discount off the bill if you go to a member provider. You could still be stuck with thousands of dollars in health costs.

Unfortunately, Mary Lloyd found out the hard way when she and her husband signed up for a plan from Cinergy Health after seeing an ad that she could get health coverage for as little as $5 a day. She checked it out because her husband was set to retire, and health insurance was going to cost them $1,200 a month to continue his coverage. She got a quote for one plan that sounded good at $588, but was switched to a cheaper plan during the sales process when she did not get acceptance from the higher-priced plan. The key problem: The higher priced plan was true insurance, while the lower priced plan turned out to be a discount card.

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Two-year-old Colorado girl denied health insurance for being too skinny

Sarah Gilbert Oct 20th 2009 @ 6:15PM EST Filed Under: Insurance, Kids and Money, Health, Insurance-health

Health insurance companies, it appears, are uncannily skilled at creating cute, sweet poster children... for the other side of the health reform debate. Just two weeks ago, Colorado insurer, Rocky Mountain Health Plans denied health coverage of four-month-old Alex Lange because, by growth chart standards, Alex is obese.

Now, according to a report by The Denver Channel, a local affiliate of ABC News, little two-year old Aislin Bates of Erie, Colo. is getting a similar dose of rejection. This time, however, it is because she's underweight and, this time, it's a much bigger insurer: UnitedHealthcare.

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Should new flood insurance program include wind coverage?

Tom Barlow Oct 20th 2009 @ 2:30PM EST Filed Under: Insurance, Insurance-home

Flood insurance is only available through the federal National Flood Insurance Program, and this program is scheduled to expire in March.

Now groups are lining up on both sides of the question of whether to include wind damage in the coverage. The Hurricane Katrina experience showed how difficult it can be to separate damage from moving water from that caused by wind.

U.S. Representative Gene Taylor of Mississippi has proposed the Multiple-Peril Insurance Act, which would expand the government's program to include wind damage. Taylor accused major insurers of ducking payment for damages from the hurricane by claiming that damage was due to flooding, which was not covered under their policies, rather than wind, which was.

Continue reading Should new flood insurance program include wind coverage?

If four-month-olds are being denied health insurance coverage, is anything sacred?

Sarah Gilbert Oct 12th 2009 @ 5:30PM EST Filed Under: Insurance, Kids and Money, Health, Insurance-health

In yet one more reason why the national dialog has changed from "health care reform" to "health insurance reform," Grand Junction, Colo. native Alex Lange was denied insurance coverage by Rocky Mountain Health Plans. Lange has never smoked, drank alcohol, nor has he ever been diagnosed with a chronic disease. In fact, he's only been to the doctor a few times for checkups, and has never missed a day of school or work in his life.

That impressive track record can be credited to the fact that Alex is just four months old and, in his short life, he has been fed nothing but breast milk. Nevertheless, he was denied health coverage because, according to growth charts, he's obese.

Continue reading If four-month-olds are being denied health insurance coverage, is anything sacred?

Gen Y is staying away from the banks and Wall Street

Vanessa Richardson Oct 9th 2009 @ 12:02PM EST Filed Under: Banks, Insurance, Kids and Money, Saving Money, Wealth, Recession, Investing

Just like the Great Depression shaped the financial mindset of our grandparents and great grand-parents, so the Great Recession right now is doing a similar thing to teens and twentysomethings.

They don't trust banks, don't plan to invest in the stock market, they don't even want to get insurance. Microsoft funded a study done by KRC Research that surveyed 500 "Milennials" ages 18 to 29 about their take on personal finance.

Their trust in the U.S. government and the financial markets are shot but unlike their parents, who usually have some experience with investing in stocks, mutual funds and retirement plans, this younger generation doesn't want to touch those with a 10-foot pole.

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