The
News section will alert you to information that may effect your insurance
planning, this may include health insurance premium rate increases, change in insurance regulations,
deadlines, news, and other special offers that are available. The news
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Updated
March 4, 2021
GENERAL
Obtaining disability
insurance is now easier to obtain than ever before!!
Through
Principal's simplified underwriting program, you can obtain up to $ 4,000 per
month of disability benefit with no blood, urine, or medical
records. You can even obtain up to $ 1,000,000 of term life
insurance if you meet certain criteria.
Through Guardian's Enhanced Quick Issue Underwriting (Not
available in CA) you
can obtain up to $ 5,000 per month of disability benefit with no blood, urine
or medical records. Standard Insurance will allow you to obtain up to $
5,000 per month with no blood, urine or medical records. These programs
are not guaranteed issue.
Pay
Off Your Student Loans!! If you are a physician in
training and are concerned about paying off your student loans in the event of
a disability, you will be pleased to know that Ameritas and Guardian Life now can help you
pay off your debt through their Student
Loan Protection Program. For
more information click on the link above. Guardian and Ameritas are the only
companies that offer this type of coverage.
You will be pleased to know
that if you have purchased a life insurance policy within the last four years
from one of 90+ insurance companies, now is the perfect time to increase your
coverage with Guardian’s Take Advantage Rapid App program.
You may purchase additional
permanent life insurance, up to two times your original policy’s face
amount up to a maximum of $ 3 million. All with a simplified underwriting
process: no routine medical or lab tests are required. If you would like
additional information, please let us know. Please see the following
link
Guardian
- Take Advantage Program
Over
the years we have been honored as a member of the Guardian Life Insurance
Company/Berkshire Life Insurance Company's DI Inner Circle. The DI
Inner Circle was developed to recognize and reward producers of exceptionally
high quality disability business. The rewards include enhanced underwriting,
higher non-medical limits, and priority underwriting for all clients and
prospective clients. Obtaining your coverage early in your career has its
advantages. You can lock in your contract, rates and future benefits and
obtain enhanced underwriting, higher non-medical limits, and priority
underwriting. There is no better time to obtain your coverage.
Please call us to design a plan that fits your needs.
Principal
Life Insurance Company has increased issue limits for physician's who are
finishing their training to $ 7,500 per month of benefit. If you
would like additional information, please select quote request.
Guardian
Life Insurance Company has announced a new disability product offering.
The new products are the Provider Choice and the Provider Choice Limited. The
new product will include, 1) Lower rates, 2) Choice of True Own Occupation or
Modified Own Occupation definition of total disability, 3) A lump sum or
continuous monthly payment of benefits.
Principal
Life Insurance Company has upgraded their disability insurance portfolio and
own occupation coverage is now available for invasive specialties which include
anesthesiology, emergency medicine and surgical specialties.
Increased Issue and Participation Limits, True Own Occupation Definition for
Physicians. Benefit periods To Age 67 and To Age 70 and NEW combined
Residual Disability and Recovery Benefit Rider. If you would like to
obtain a comparison quote between the leading carriers, please select quote
request and a quote will be emailed within 24 hours.
Disability
Insurance Companies have recently announced that they have increased their Issue
and Participation Limits. If you are earning $ 220,000 per year you
qualify for $ 10,000 per month of disability benefit. If you are earning $
350,000 per year you qualify for $ 15,000 per month of disability benefit.
If you are earning $ 750,000 per year you qualify for $ 20,000 per month of
disability benefit. If you have not increased your coverage lately, this
might be the time to do so. Please contact our office and we will help you
obtain additional coverage.
If
you are a house
staff physician finishing your training Summer 2021, please contact our office if you would like to have your employment
contract reviewed by legal counsel, obtain individual health insurance and/or
obtain a "Specialty Specific" disability insurance policy. It is
advantageous to obtain your coverage before you finish training. If
you have received an employment contract you may be able to obtain coverage
based on your new income level. However, if you sign an employment
contract which provides group disability insurance, you may not be able to
obtain an individual "Specialty Specific" disability coverage. It is always
prudent to obtain your individual coverage before you sign an employment
contract otherwise you may not be able to obtain your own individual policy. We also provide review and analysis of
your employer
sponsored benefits including health, dental, disability and life insurance
programs.
Ameritas
(Union Central) will issue up to $ 5,000 per month of
disability benefit for those physicians in their last two years of training
including fellows. Standard Insurance will insure up to $ 5,000 per month. Guardian will
insure up to $ 5,000 per month and Mass Mutual will insure up to $ 7,500 per month of
benefit.
For
those of you who have estate planning needs. We encourage you to discuss
your needs with us as we have planning methods that will help you increase your
estate's value, reduce your estate taxes, increase your charitable deductions and
reduce your children's taxable burden. How would you like to increase your
estate by 100% and still provide your children with 100% of your estates
value?
The
specimen policies from the leading DI carriers are now available for viewing
by accessing our products section and selecting the Disability Button.
If
you are a physician in practice, you
will be pleased to know that you can now obtain up to $
26,500 of monthly disability benefit depending on the state you reside and your adjustable gross income.
If
you are an internal medicine physician in training, you will be pleased to know
that you may obtain a crash course for the American Board of Internal Medicine
Certification/Recertification Exam by visiting the following link. http://vitalboardreview.com.
Retirement
Protection in the Event of Disability
Ok,
so you are smart enough to get a good individual disability insurance policy
with all the right bells and whistles such as the own occupation definition,
residual disability, and cost of living benefits. You get disabled and you
receive benefits and live until 65/66/67 or lifetime. What's
missing? Your retirement money. When you became disabled you no
longer had earned income and you and/or your employer stopped making
contributions to a retirement plan like a 401(k), SEP, profit sharing or other
pension plan. What could you do about this? There's an additional
new disability program available that will cover your
retirement contributions up to $4,350 (individual pay) or $ 6,650 (Employer
paid), per month if you're
disabled. This would be in addition to any disability insurance you
already have. The way this program works is after disability and after 6
months or 12 months of disability (depending on how you set it up) the
contributions - up to $ 49,080 (Individual pay) per year, go into a trust for you for
retirement. When you get to age 65 the money gets paid out to you as a retirement
benefit. If you should die before age 65, your heirs would get the
value in the fund. It's a great idea. It really could be a
multi-million dollar idea when you add up what it could be worth to your
retirement. Please contact us for more information. Click
here for presentation.
If
you are a house staff physician you can
obtain a "Specialty Specific" own occupation disability policy
regardless of your post graduate year or any group disability insurance provided
to you by your employer. By obtaining coverage early in your career you
can lock in your rates and benefits to age 65/66/67 or lifetime. Ask us about the special
Student Future Purchase Option for
physician in training. To obtain a quote,
please click quote.
If
you are a house staff physician, you will be pleased to know that you receive a discount when you use our tax preparation services.
Please contact us for your 2021 Tax Organizer and 2021 Expense
Worksheet. Please click on the following links for the 2021
Tax Organizer and the 2021
Expense Worksheet. Please click on Advanced
for information on
expenses that are common to young health care professionals. Please mail
your 2021 Tax Organizer and tax documents to our office address.
DISABILITY INSURANCE
Medical Management Company
has recently been honored as a member of the Guardian Life Insurance Company/Berkshire Life Insurance Company's DI Inner Circle
for 2016. The DI Inner Circle was
developed to recognize and reward producers of exceptionally high quality
disability business. The rewards include enhanced underwriting, higher
non-medical limits, and priority underwriting for all clients and prospective
clients. Obtaining your coverage early in
your career has its advantages. You can lock in your contract, rates and future
benefits and obtain enhanced
underwriting, higher non-medical limits, and priority underwriting. There
is no better time to obtain your coverage. Please
call us to design a plan that fits your needs.
If
you have long term disability benefits provided to you by your employer you
may not be eligible for individual coverage, depending on your annual
earned income. Group coverage is
less liberal than individual coverage. Please contact our office to
discuss your specific situation. For a quote, please email or contact our
office.
If
you are a Senior Medical Student
you may apply for $ 2,500 per month of coverage without providing income
documentation. Apply now to lock in your rates and contract. For a quote,
please email or contact our office.
LONG
TERM-CARE INSURANCE
You
can now include a long term care rider when you purchase a universal life or
whole life policy.
LIFE INSURANCE
Accelerated
underwriting is available through Banner Life (Legal and General), John
Hancock, Lincoln Financial, Mutual of Omaha, Principal and SBLI. You can
not be on any medications or have any chronic medical conditions to
qualify.
You will be pleased to know
that if you have purchased a life insurance policy within the last four years
from one of 50+ insurance companies, now is the perfect time to increase your
coverage with Guardian’s Take Advantage Rapid App program.
You may purchase additional
permanent life insurance, up to two times your original policy’s face
amount up to a maximum of $ 3 million. All with a simplified underwriting
process: no routine medical or lab tests are required. If you would like
additional information, please let us know.
Should
you purchase level term or level term with a Return of Premium (ROP)
feature. Usually the ROP rate would be 250% more than normal level
term. If you invest the difference you would save by not purchasing the
ROP term and if you received an 8% average return in a mutual fund over the term
period, you would be 46% further ahead. You would owe tax on the mutual
fund proceeds, but your federal tax rate would have to exceed 40 percent for the
ROP level term to be a better deal. If you cancelled the ROP plan during
the term period you would lose all the extra funds you invested and if you were
to die before the term period, the face amount paid to your beneficiary would be
the same. Medical Economics September 21, 2007.
Return
of Premium products are available from many companies. Would it be great
to get a portion of your premiums back if you do not die. If this is the type
of term insurance that you are looking for, please let us know and we will
search our database for the lowest cost ROP plans
HEALTH INSURANCE
IRS
has raised HSA limits for 2021. The maximum individual HSA contribution
has increased to $ 3,600 per year. The maximum
family HSA contribution has increased to $ 7,200 per
year. Also, you may contribute the maximum allowable amount regardless of deductible
amount and you may make contribution for the entire amount anytime during the calendar
year.
Anthem
offers employers in California with 10 to 50 employees can add short-term
and long-term disability coverage to their benefit packages. Anthem already
offers these products to larger groups. But now, for the first time, as a small
group employer, you can offer your employees this valuable coverage.
By
adding disability coverage, Anthem now offers a total benefits package for small
group employers.
Check into
obtaining a HSA qualified high deductible health
plan. These health plans are combined with a Health Savings Account (HSA).
An HSA gives you the ability to pay for qualified
health care expenses with pre-tax dollars. Please contact our office for details. For
more information about an HSA, please check out articles found under Health
Insurance heading by selecting the button Links to your left. HSA plans are now available through most health carriers. Please
speak to your tax advisor to see if you are eligible for a Health Savings
Account. You may increase the allowable amount for retirement by
obtaining an HSA qualified health plan and savings account.
If
you are a business owner and want to provide your employees with benefits, you
will be pleased to know that we have many insurance companies and plans that you
may tailor to fit your needs. Please
click Group Quote.
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