June 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Guest Editor's Column

Ancillary Close-Up:
Specialty Benefits: Flexible Enough to Help Any Business
by Mark El-Tawil
A majority of American employees are unprepared for medical expenses that aren’t covered by insurance. Specialty benefits, such as vision, dental, life, disability, supplemental health, critical illness and accident insurance, can be used to supplement regular health insurance.

Ancillary Close-Up:
Enhanced Wellness Coaching Can Help Your Clients Face Tough Challenges
by Dr. Charles Nagurka
Employers are discovering that they can reduce healthcare costs by embracing wellness programs.

Ancillary Close-Up:
Five Ways to Help Your Clients See Their Vision Benefit in a New Light
by Robert Pariseau
You’ve just signed up some clients for their first-ever vision benefit, giving their employees access to comprehensive eye exams and numerous eyewear options. Fantastic! Now you can sit back and relax. Not so fast.

Ancillary Close-Up:
See the Light: Lens Treatments Add Value to Vision Plans
by Mark Sachs
Vision plans that go beyond allowances for basic eyeglass lenses can add extra value to a benefit package and foster eye health.

Ancillary Close-Up:
Enhancing Value With Dental Benefits
by Karen Gustin, LLIF, Ameritas Group
Producers have an excellent opportunity to enhance relationships with employers by recommending dental benefits that meet employers’ budget challenges, but still provide employees with valuable dental care.

Ancillary Close-Up:
Why Employers Should Offer Critical Illness Coverage
by Randall C. Finn
Voluntary critical illness plans can soften the blow to employees’ financial safety nets and create appreciation for efforts to help clients manage their increasing financial risks.

Ancillary Close-Up:
Voluntary Legal Plans Gain Popularity
as Employees Take Control of Their Financial Future
by Marcia Bowers
As the economic pendulum shows signs of swinging toward a recovery, Americans are looking to get back on their feet and secure their financial future. Many employees are taking advantage of group legal plans offered by their employers.

Health Reform Spotlighted at the Los Angeles Association of Health Underwriters (LAAHU) Show
by Leila Morris
The conference in Woodland Hills offered some encouraging words about how brokers will fare in the new healthcare system.

Self-Funding In The Era Of Healthcare Reform
For Brokers, it’s a Matter Of Survival
by Mark Reynolds, RHU
How brokers will survive in the era of national healthcare reform and how the concept of self-funding or shared funding will become your new lifeline.

New Healthcare Taxes Leave Health Savings Accounts Untouched (almost)
by Martin Trussell
With all of this taxing and the closing down of tax breaks going on, one tax break that healthcare reformers originally targeted has gone largely untouched: The health savings account.

Long-Term Care…Three Words that Make a Hero
by Dan Nicholas, CLU, CLTC, LUTCF
I make sure no client or prospect gets out of a long-term care insurance appointment without hearing Efrod’s “clear the shaft” story from California’s most famous ghost town, Bodie.

Writing The Large Life Insurance Policy:
How To Increase Your Chances Of Landing The Big Case!
by Dave Donchey, CLU
Writing a large life insurance policy is a lot like fishing. When you finally hook the big one, you still have to land it.