Friday, March 21, 2014

Guaranteed income for life

Retirement Income Annuity: Guaranteed income for life
Never outlive your assets
Never give up control
Assets grow to fight inflation
Inflation-proof your income for the rest of your life without giving up control of your assets. Reduce income taxes. Create your financial future:

Uninsured did not hear about ObamaCare subsidies YET
One-third of uninsured Americans plan to remain uninsured despite the Affordable Care Act's requirement that they obtain health insurance or pay a fine, according to a new Bankrate.com report. The most common explanation (given by 41% of respondents who plan to stay uninsured) is that health insurance is too expensive. However, a whopping 70% of uninsured Americans do not know about the subsidies that reduce the cost of health insurance.
Seventeen percent of uninsured Americans who will continue to go without health insurance say the reason is that they oppose the Affordable Care Act.
13% say they do not need insurance because they are healthy.
54% of uninsured Americans with annual household incomes between $50,000 and $74,999 intend to stay uninsured.

AXA Equitable mislead annuity buyers
New York's Department of Financial Services said AXA Equitable Life will pay a $20 million fine under a consent order following changes in its annuities that regulators say were not adequately explained and affected thousands of New Yorkers. AXA changed some investments that limited potential returns without adequate notice. Consider alternatives before committing to non recourse annuities: http://www.amazon.com/Not-Buy-That-Annuity-Guaranteed/dp/1466494573

Long-term care insurance premiums rise
John Hancock has asked regulators to raise the prices on its LTC business. If approved, annual premiums on those policies will rise from the current range of $950 to $2,500, to a new range of $1,246 to $3,280. Many, if not all, long-term care insurance firms have asked states to approve rate hikes. Experts say companies are trying to make up for incorrect assumptions made when long-term care insurance policies were created and sold. Check alternatives before buying eternal price increases: http://www.amazon.com/Long-term-Care-Insurance-Updated-2013/dp/148274001X/

Maximize your SS benefits
There is a "huge gap between what most Americans think they know about Social Security and the actual rules governing the nation's primary retirement program," according to this InvestmentNews article. It is costing the typical retiree as much as $100,000 in lost benefits ($250,000 or more over the joint lifetimes of a couple).  http://www.amazon.com/Maximize-Social-Security-Benefits-Retirement/dp/1495439224/



Beware of what your broker has in your portfolio—MLP are hot BUT …
Because they distribute income to investors, MLPs rely on borrowing and selling shares, or units, to grow. Wall Street banks love MLPs because they earn fees on those transactions, said Kevin Kaiser, an analyst at Stamford, Connecticut-based research company Hedgeye Risk Management LLC.
In the past year, bank fees for MLP deals totaled $890.3 million, led by Barclays Plc with $126.7 million, Citigroup Inc. with $96.7 million, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. with $78.2 million, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“MLPs are Wall Street’s dream,” Kaiser said in a phone interview. “They’re fee machines.”

Kaiser Foundation and SelectHealth ranked highest overall, J.D. Power survey
Top health insurers were rated by users in the 2014 Member Health Plan Study. Kaiser ranked highest for the seventh straight year in many states. Compare your insurer.

IRS says scammers call, demanding payment NOW
"If someone unexpectedly calls claiming to be from the IRS and uses threatening language if you don't pay immediately, that is a sign that it really isn't the IRS calling," spokesman George said in a statement. The callers may have your SS# and fake IRS badge numbers, in addition to manipulating caller IDs, to appear more legitimate, officials say. Some also follow up with false IRS emails and with phone calls in which they pretend to represent the police or motor vehicles officials, TIGTA said.
The IRS generally contacts taxpayers first by mail or with personal visits from field agents, and it does not accept credit card information by phone, officials said.


SCAMS           Why are we still paying $700 Billion a year for WWII deployments?
We are paying for 164,253 of our active-duty armed personnel to be in 150 countries around the world. We have about 50,000 in Japan and 50,000 in Germany.
Are we preparing for WWII again? There are 1,208,083[1] armed personnel in the United States. Our taxes pay for about HALF of the WORLD’s military expenditures every year.
We just can’t afford to pay for everyone else.
DoD head Hagel proposes budget cut but still pay for F35 plane failures.
Cheney cut 25% of DoD budget starting in 1990 as ‘peace’ dividend. Again?

G.M. chief executive, Mary T. Barra, has called an “unvarnished” investigation into why the company failed for more than a decade to alert regulators and consumers to the Cobalt defect that caused the death of 12 people. 
GM knew 2005 Cobalt ignition problem in 2004
1st victim, Amber Rose’s death was apparently the first related to the defect, General Motors knew it had a problem in 2004 soon after the Cobalt replaced the Cavalier. GM made sealed settlement with family so no publicity. There was “at least one incident” in 2004 in which the engine was shut off after the driver “inadvertently contacted the key or steering column,” according to the chronology. 12 have died since. A G.M. engineer proposed redesigning the key head in 2005 but the proposal is ultimately rejected. Lori Queen was in charge of G.M.’s small cars at the time but says she doesn’t remember. Regulators ignore complaints in 2007. Ms. Barra, you don't need an investigation to know why GM never told us: MONEY
Same reason why GM seals the "pay for silence" money settlements to victims. 
Same reason corporations call us "consumers." 

Corporations are amoral and irresponsible. They never have to admit wrong doing. They never go to jail. They just pay a fine—a cost of doing business—and continue to do what they did. Regulators as well as courts don’t punish non-persons, as corps are called, with jail time. If you have ever been the recipient of their work, you know first hand that they don’t care about what they do and there is very little you can do and no one is going to punish them in any meaningful way. 
Did any corporate elite go to jail for the bank mortgage mess that nearly ended Western Civilization?

Insurer caught shorting Katrina victim using lies to win—no jail time
A federal judge has ordered State Farm Fire to pay $750,000 in damages, plus $2.9 million in attorney's fees and expenses, for defrauding the U.S. government on a Hurricane Katrina homeowner's insurance claim. Independent adjusters, the Rigsby sisters, who filed their lawsuit in April 2006, allege the insurance company minimized its losses for wind damage by blaming Katrina's storm surge, covered under the federal government's National Flood Insurance Program. Insurance companies adjust their own wind claims, and NFIP pays them to adjust flood claims.

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