MARCH 2009

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Editor Column: Kate Kinkade

Identifying the Mysteries of PPOs: Our Annual Survey
A Fearless Look Inside the Workings of the State’s Best Plans
• Welcome to Part I of our PPO survey. Carriers provided comprehensive information about their plans. We interpret their careful responses as a sure sign of their high level of commitment to the professional agent.

Considering a Consumer Driven Healthcare Plan?
What Your Clients Should Know?
by Jane Cooper
• Moving from a traditional health benefit plan with co-payments or low deductibles to a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) is a significant benefit change. There is only one opportunity to prepare for it and only one opportunity to make it successful.

Bad Breath: More Than Just a Foul Smell?
Research Affirms the Need For Regular Dental Care
by Karen Gustin, LLIF
• Producers have an excellent opportunity to communicate with employers about the health risks of periodontal disease and how dental benefits can help employees prevent or treat this serious oral health concern.

How to Redistribute Scarce Dollars While Adding Value to Your Client’s Dental Plan
by Michael Schwartz
• Rethinking plan design can redistribute dollars to increase plan value and patient satisfaction. If a current or prospective client has been maintaining the same plan features for several years, there is no time like the present to suggest a review.

When is the Best Time to Buy Long-Term Care Insurance?
by Tina Camiling
• While long-term care insurance may not be appropriate for everyone, the increasing costs of healthcare combined with the fact that people are living longer these days, means that most of us will need to stretch our retirement savings over decades. So, best thing to do is to have a plan.

How the Rising Cost Of Care Will Affect the Long-term Care Insurance Market
by John Noble
• Our retirement account balances have fallen as fast as autumn leaves. It has been an uncomfortable experience, but one that underscores the importance of asset-protection tools like long-term care insurance, which is designed to provide coverage when a retirement account cannot.

Using Disability Buy-Out to Create Value Where No Value Existed
by Michael Hagedorn, CFP, CLU
• Disability insurance should be the cornerstone of any financial strategy. As insurance professionals, it’s up to us to bring attention to this important coverage.

Avoiding a Financial Fate Worse Than Death: The Case for Disability Financial Planning
W. Harold Petersen, RHU, DFP
• Disability financial planning is a relatively modern concept of planning for the financial aspects of your life in the event that you become disabled due to accident or sickness and can no longer produce an income to support your lifestyle and business obligations.

Split Dollar Disability Insurance
by Larry Schneider
• When should you offer the split dollar concept to your clients? Before answering that, allow me to offer some background on why this concept was created and how it can work.

How to Stay in the Game with 403(b) Market Consolidation
by Celeste A. Gurule, CFP
• The new 403(b) regulations, which came into effect on January 1, have changed the role of the plan sponsors that offer these retirement programs.

Worksite News
by Leila Morris
• Read these useful updates to help your worksite marketing.

Reverse Mortgage Update
by Leila Morris
• The latest news from this emerging industry.

Life Settlements Subprime Life Insurance
by Bill Boersma, CLU, LIC
• Some sold subprime mortgages with escalating payments, but we advisors and producers can be proud that our industry is providing security and value to consumers, rather than fleecing them for a fast buck. Or can we?