In 2010, companies have a whole new retirement plan option.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdmDandRL84

What is a DB(k)? Basically, a DB(k) combines a pension plan with a matching 401(k) plan. As the name implies, it is a defined benefit retirement plan with some of the features of a 401(k).

DB(k)s could become great recruiting tools. These hybrid retirement plans will be very attractive to employees looking to restore pre-bear market retirement savings levels – not to mention workers who want to retire with a pension-style income like the one Mom and Dad had. In the coming years, firms in especially competitive industries may be prompted to offer DB(k)s as perks.

Won’t it cost a lot for a company to fund one? Not necessarily. It is likely that the companies that do create them will have sizable cash reserves and profit margins. However, it isn’t as if a business is funding two retirement plans at once. In fact, any businesses that offer both defined benefit plans and 401(k) plans may unite them in this new option.¹

A DB(k) could save a business paperwork & money. These plans are exempt from “top-heavy” rules, and a company can put one in place with just one Form 5500 and one plan document. Principal Financial Group vice-president Chris Mayer, whose firm helped to develop the DB(k), told the Washington Post that the cost of providing a DB(k) will probably work out to 6-8% percent of payroll for most companies. This is certainly beneath the administrative costs of having both a 401(k) and a pension plan. Companies with 2-500 employees are eligible to have DB(k)s.^2,3,4

What do employees get? An income stream, an employer match and a really neat tool to save for retirement. In brief, the DB(k) has four compelling attributes:

• An arrangement for lifelong monthly income. The income stream won’t replace an employee’s end salary, but it certainly will help. Loyalty is rewarded: the pension income equals either a) 1% of final average pay times the number of years of service, or b) 20% of that worker’s average salary during his or her five consecutive highest-earning years.⁵
• Employees are automatically enrolled in the 401(k) portion. (They can choose to opt out.)²
• The company automatically directs 4% of a worker’s salary into his or her 401(k) account. The company also has to match 50% of that amount, which is vested upon the match. (Employees do have the choice to alter the contribution level up or down from 4%.)³
• It only takes three years for an employee to become fully vested in a DB(k) pension plan. So even if they leave the company, the money is theirs.⁴

The best of both worlds? Maybe. The DB(k) is shaping up as an intriguing 401(k) alternative, a new IRS-sanctioned way to offer valued employees something more than the usual voluntary retirement savings program. If you are saving for retirement, ask your company about it. If you own a business in a very competitive field, it may help you recruit, impress and retain the caliber of employees you really want.

If you can’t afford a long term care policy, this may be a good alternative.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt6wDdc7qsU

Are you familiar with critical illness insurance? Some people aren’t. It doesn’t get as much attention as disability insurance or long term care coverage. But if you face a serious health threat, a critical illness policy can help to ease a financial burden.

A tax-free lump sum at a crucial time. That is what critical illness insurance provides. If you have a life-threatening illness severe enough to prevent you from working, the money from a critical illness policy can be used to pay medical bills and even some costs not covered by medical insurance. While the insurance premiums are not tax-deductible, the insurance proceeds come to you tax-free.¹

A few years ago, a Harvard University study determined that about half of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. happened as a result of the debts incurred by a critical illness.² Imagine having $50,000, $100,000, even $500,000 in tax-free cash to help you out in the event of a heart attack, a stroke or cancer. That is the kind of coverage we’re talking about. In 2007, the average payout was $100,000 with the average recipient being just under 50 years old.³

What illnesses does a policy cover? Critical illness insurance can cover two dozen or more health circumstances. Nearly all policies cover most forms of cancer, heart attacks and strokes, renal failure, multiple sclerosis, and operations such as heart bypass surgery and major organ transplants. The tax-free lump sum comes to you within 30 days of a diagnosis of a life-threatening disease.⁴

Critical illness insurance doesn’t cover everything. For example, early-stage prostate cancer and less lethal forms of skin cancer aren’t usually covered. Some policies don’t provide coverage if you have lymphoma, or Kaposi’s sarcoma related to HIV. If you have already beat back a serious health threat or if cancer or heart disease runs in your family, then you are undoubtedly going to have to pay more for this coverage – and a disease you fought into remission may be excluded from the policy.

Who buys this coverage? Well, it is often sold in tandem with life insurance – but not always. There are a few different scenarios in which critical illness insurance can be a great help:

• You have a major medical problem and you don’t have health insurance.
• You have health insurance, but it won’t pick up the cost of the treatments you need.
• You face a major health scare, and you are unable to pay your bills and your mortgage because you can’t work.
• You worry about winding up in a nursing home or an assisted-living facility someday, but you can’t afford to pay high premiums for long term care insurance.

Sometimes you can guarantee the premiums on a critical illness policy so they won’t rise with time.

You don’t have to be employed to collect the benefits from a critical illness policy. You don’t have to be disabled to collect the benefits either. You don’t even have to spend the lump sum on medical expenses – you can spend it as you wish.⁵

Critical illness insurance has been around since 1983 – it was first offered in South Africa, became popular in Canada and Europe, and has become an option more people are exploring in the U.S. A 2010 study from the nonprofit American Association for Critical Illness Insurance found that 89% of those opting for the coverage were under age 45.⁶

If you’re self-employed, in a high-risk line of work, or just want to have little more protection in case a serious illness strikes, take a look at critical illness insurance. Ask your insurance agent to show you some options. You might be very thankful for it someday.

You can thank the Pension Protection Act.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXF09-F84SE

More options. On January 1, 2010, owners of non-qualified annuities were allowed some new tax benefits. On that date, the Pension Protection Act (PPA) of 2006 was fully implemented and brought about dramatic and interesting changes for those who had started annuities with after-tax dollars. At the start of 2010:

• Non-qualified deferred annuities with added long term care insurance riders were now characterized as tax-qualified LTC insurance plans.¹
• As a result, all withdrawals from these “hybrid annuities” are income tax free so long as they are used for qualified long term care. So you can use the cash value of the annuity to cover the cost of LTC insurance premiums without triggering a taxable event.¹
• Annuity owners were now allowed to make tax-free 1035 exchanges into appropriate hybrid annuities with long term care riders.²
• Additionally, an annuity owner can do a 1035 exchange for the cash value from any annuity into a single-premium qualified LTC insurance policy without incurring any gains.²

Now these annuities are even more attractive. Hybrid annuities with LTC insurance riders already offer their owners tax-deferred growth – and sometimes, a return-of-premium option that gives back the investment to an owner’s estate if no LTC claim is made. These linked-benefit annuities (and linked-benefit life insurance policies) can provide something like a “money-back guarantee”, as well as the capability to multiply the benefit value of idle cash sitting on the sidelines. The new allowance of what could be sizable tax-free withdrawals makes them look even better.

In addition, the new freedom to make a tax-free exchange means that an annuity owner can now leave a current contract for a hybrid annuity that may provide a much greater pool of money someday to cover LTC costs.

Are they for you? These hybrid annuities are certainly worth a look. If you can’t qualify medically for LTC insurance but still need to be protected, a hybrid annuity may be an excellent option. Many people fund these annuities by redirecting cash from a bank CD or an annuity they already own. You might want to talk to your insurance or financial consultant about the possibility.

Four tips for recovering from unemployment.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp5S6YhxpjY

Any period of unemployment is fraught with stress – both personal and financial. While landing that formerly-elusive new job can be a relief, it is only the first step on the road to recovery from unemployment. This transition time is akin to breaking the surface after being underwater for several minutes. It’s a relief to be breathing again and feel the sun on your face, but it’s no time to relax. You must start swimming right away to get back to a healthy financial shore.

Here are four steps you can take to help make sure your recent unemployment doesn’t cast a long shadow across your future financial health.

Continue to live lean. More likely than not, you weren’t buying $4 coffees while unemployed. Five star restaurants were out too. Hamburger may have replaced steak. You may want to continue to follow that pattern. We tend to grow into our incomes, our budgets bloating along with our salaries. Fighting that urge will help with the rest of the steps to unemployment recovery.

Protect yourself ASAP. The longer your unemployment lasts the more important basic survival becomes. Someone who is unemployed may let life insurance, disability insurance or health insurance policies lapse as they try to keep current on the mortgage, pay utilities and put groceries in the pantry. Sometime during the first few days of your employment you should enroll in whatever benefits you need that your company offers. If the new firm does not offer the coverage you need, make an appointment with an insurance professional and use part of your first paycheck to protect you and your family. Remember, the income from your new job won’t benefit anyone if a catastrophic illness, disability or death suddenly takes it away.

Develop a plan to pay down your debts. When you have a job, debts are a nuisance. When you don’t have a job, they may become a threat to your future financial well-being. While it’s normal to hope that you never have to go through unemployment again, you must start preparing for the possibility.

If you are behind on your mortgage, call your lender to let them know of your new job and to work with them on a plan to catch up on your payments. If they are unwilling to work with you, consider using a Federal resource such as those offered by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Administration.

While there are fewer similar programs for car loans, calling your lender and trying to develop a plan for a loan you’re behind on should be your first step.

All too often during unemployment, credit cards may be used to get by when cash is low. While your interest rates may have been low when you initially signed up for the card, new legislation has caused a spike in credit card rates.¹ Rates of 20% – 30% are not uncommon as banks react to new rules. Paying down these balances should also be a primary goal.

Remember to start paying yourself. Whether you call it a rainy day fund, a nest egg or emergency cash, slowly, paycheck by paycheck, begin paying yourself a fraction of your salary. Some experts will argue that a family should keep six months to one year’s worth of expenses in the bank for unexpected events such as a blown car engine, the roof caving in, or another round of unemployment.¹ For many families, that may feel like an insurmountable sum. But as the old joke goes “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer: “One bite at a time”. Paying yourself has to be done paycheck-to-paycheck, little by little.

1. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/credit-cards-gouge-consumers-ahead-of-new-law-2009-11-06 [11/10/09]

It just might be. Here’s why baby boomers are choosing immediate annuities.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhicx0y43ho

Nobody wants to outlive their money. In fact, somebody recently asked me, “How do I organize my money so that I spend my last dollar on my last day of life?”

Since neither of us knew when that day would occur, we selected an immediate annuity as the solution.

An immediate annuity is a good component of any retirement plan. Immediate annuities are issued by insurance companies, and they are one of the few retirement income sources that guarantee an income until death (like Social Security does).

As long as my client lives, the insurance company must send him income payments resulting from his annuity investment. Upon his death, payments will cease.

Immediate annuities provide “immediate” income. There are two phases to an annuity: the accumulation phase and the income phase.

With a deferred annuity, assets grow during the accumulation phase. Then, at a certain date, the income phase begins – and payments are made to the annuity holder out of the accumulated principal.

With an immediate annuity, you don’t have to wait years for income payments to start. You put a lump sum of money into the annuity, and the payments begin – usually about a month after you set up the annuity contract. (Some “immediate” annuities let you defer income payments for up to one year.)

As owner of an immediate annuity, you have different payout options. A life-only option gives you an income for the remainder of your life. Select a joint and survivor option, and you can add a second life to the contract – that is, payments will continue to be issued to your surviving spouse for the rest of his or her life after you pass away. Or, you can simply structure an annuity payout to last a set number of years.

Longevity has its rewards. If you know a little about the insurance industry, you know insurance policies and annuities are structured around projections of life expectancy. With an annuity, if you die sooner than expected, the insurance company won’t have to pay you as much income as projected. If you outlive their projections, they will have to pay you more. So the healthier you are, the more attractive immediate annuities are.

If your immediate annuity is a life annuity (income payments for life), the older you get, the greater those payments will be. (Life expectancy for annuity payout purposes is determined by insurance company experience and not as a result of a physical examination. If you have a joint and survivor annuity, two lives are used in the calculation and the amount of the payout is smaller than with a single life contract.)

Immediate annuity income can also be affected by insurer assumptions. That is, it may be assumed that the balance of the annuity will earn __% interest or a ___% return annually. Lower interest rates or investment assumptions will lead to a lower income stream.

The after-tax advantage. If an annuity is purchased with after-tax money, the income stream comes with significant tax advantages.

Let’s compare and contrast here. In a deferred annuity, all earnings and investment results grow tax-deferred during the deferral phase. But when income phase starts and the tax-deferred earnings are paid out, the tax collector wants his fair share.

Since an immediate annuity is paying back both principal and tax-deferred earnings, a portion of each payment is considered to be income, and a portion is considered to be tax-free return of principal. The shorter the payout period, the greater the amount that can be excluded from tax.

Immediate annuities can be used in IRAs that require minimum distributions beginning at age 70 ½. These minimum distribution rates are designed to distribute out the entire balance of an IRA over a person’s lifetime. With longer lifespans, the tables the IRS uses for this calculation are fast becoming obsolete – and that raises the very real threat of outliving your IRA assets. However, if those assets are invested in an immediate annuity, a lifetime income stream can be assured and the IRS will accept that income stream amount as an acceptable minimum distribution.¹

So, does it make sense to annuitize? If you’re healthy, active and mature, an immediate annuity can potentially be a great income source for you. Before you arrange an annuity contract, talk to a financial advisor or insurance agent who understands these investments thoroughly, one who can explain your options.

Citations. ¹ irs.gov/publications/p590/ch01.html#d0e1252

An estate planning option more families ought to know about.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Zf4B0uROA

You may think of life insurance in very simple terms: you buy a policy so that your loved ones will have some financial assistance when you die. But if you have assets of $1 million or more, you should view life insurance as a tool – kind of a Swiss army knife, in fact. Life insurance has many potential uses in estate planning, and a life insurance trust can certainly help a family.

What does a life insurance trust do? It enables you and your family to do three things in particular. One, it provides you, your spouse and your heirs with life insurance coverage after it is implemented. Two, it allows a trustee to distribute death benefits from a life insurance policy as that trustee sees fit. Three, it gives you the chance to reduce your estate taxes.

When you create a life insurance trust, you are creating an entity (the trust) to buy life insurance policies for you and your loved ones. You don’t own the policies, the trust does. So the insurance proceeds go into the trust when someone passes away. Because the trust owns the insurance policies instead of a person, the insurance proceeds aren’t subject to probate, income taxes or estate taxes. The trustee can distribute those proceeds to one or more parties as stipulated in the language of the trust. Also, if your estate ends up really large, the trust can buy additional life insurance to provide additional cash to pay additional estate taxes.

Sometimes these trusts establish investment policies for life insurance proceeds, and even timelines for who receives what when (families may want to delay an heir from legally receiving an inheritance until age 18 or 21, for example).

Why not just have someone else own my insurance policy? That scenario can lead to major financial and familial headaches. If that person dies before you die, the cash value of the policy will be included in their taxable estate. So the heirs (and relatives) of that person will have higher estate taxes to pay as a result. Also, if you do this, you surrender control of your policy; the loved one you trust could end up naming another beneficiary or even cashing your policy out.

A decision for life. Almost all life insurance trusts are irrevocable trusts. That is, they are legally “set in stone” once created, unlike a revocable trust which can be amended or revoked after creation. You can make these trusts revocable, but if you do, you lose the tax benefit: the insurance proceeds will be included in your taxable estate when you die, which could increase the estate tax bill for your heirs. However, some irrevocable life insurance trusts purchase survivorship life insurance in a profit sharing plan to permit the ability to change beneficiaries.

If you’d like to know more about life insurance trusts or the potentially significant changes in estate taxes over the next few years, talk me by calling 800-990-2734 or by sending me an email at Pete@PeteMitchellinc.com.

Breaking down the enrollment periods and eligibility.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4ENb65-dc

Medicare enrollment is automatic for some of us. In fact, anyone who has received a Social Security check or 24 months worth of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) is automatically enrolled in Medicare Part A and Part B.¹ Part A is hospital insurance; Part B is medical insurance.

If you’re getting Social Security checks and approaching age 65, you’ll get a Medicare card in the mail three months before your 65th birthday. Medicare benefits begin on the first day of the month in which you turn 65. If you are getting SSDI (regardless of your age), the card will arrive coincidental with your 22nd monthly payment and you are entitled to Medicare coverage with your 25th monthly payment.^1,2

Oh yes, there is another important criterion: you must be a U.S. citizen or a legal resident of this country for five years or longer to be eligible for Medicare.¹

Some of us have to contact the SSA. If you’re coming up on 65 and not receiving Social Security benefits, SSDI or benefits from the Railroad Retirement Board, you can still apply for Medicare coverage. You can visit your local Social Security Administration office or dial (800) 772-1213 or go to www.ssa.gov to determine your eligibility. (If you’re going online, don’t just type in ssa.gov; you need the www. to get to the site.) Remember this is a government run site which means they overpaid for lower functionality.

In this case, if you are eligible you have the choice of accepting or rejecting Part B coverage. If you want Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B, then you should sign your Medicare card and keep it in your wallet. If you don’t want Part B, you put an “X” in the refusal box on the back of the Medicare card form, and send the form to the address shown right below where your signature goes. About four weeks later, you will get a new Medicare card indicating that you only have Part A coverage.³

When can you add or drop forms of Medicare coverage? Medicare has enrollment periods that allow you to do this.

• The initial enrollment period is seven months long. It starts three months before the month in which you turn 65 and ends three months after that month. You can enroll in any type of Medicare coverage within this seven-month window – Part A, Part B, Part C (Medicare Advantage Plan), and Part D (prescription drug coverage). AS it happens, if you don’t sign up for some of this coverage during the initial enrollment period, it may cost you more to add it later.¹
• Once you are enrolled in Medicare, you can only make changes in coverage during certain periods of time. For example, the annual enrollment period for Part D is November 15-December 31, with Part D coverage starting January 1. (You can also select a health plan for the next year or drop or change Part D coverage in this period.)^4,5
• Additionally, there are also open enrollment periods between January 1 and March 31. These dates frame an open enrollment period for Part D; if you enroll in Part D in this window, coverage starts on the first day of the month after the plan receives your enrollment form. There is also an open enrollment period for Part B coverage from January 1 to March 31; if you sign up for such coverage within that period, it begins in July of that year.^1,4

Special situations. Individuals with end-stage kidney failure who need dialysis or a transplant may qualify for Medicare regardless of age. Upon diagnosis, they can contact the SSA. Medicare coverage usually takes effect three months after a patient begins dialysis. People with Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS) are automatically enrolled in Medicare as soon as they begin receiving SSDI payments.¹

Do you have questions about eligibility, or the eligibility of your parents? Your first stop should be the Social Security Administration. You can also visit www.medicare.gov and www.cms.hhs.gov.