The Caregiving Tsunami The Ground Starte

The Caregiving Tsunami
The Ground Started Shaking in 1946. What’s That Splashing Our Ankles?
http://ow.ly/9eqfZ

How the Pension Protection Act Can Help Retired Public Safety Officers Pay for Long Term Care Insurance

Section 845 of the PPA of 20061 provides that retired public safety officers can elect to have eligible retirement plan distributions pay qualified long term care insurance premiums2 without having to include the distribution as taxable for federal income tax purposes.

Who is a public safety officer?

A public safety officer is a paid or volunteer police officer, firefighter, rescue or ambulance squad member, or chaplain. It may also be someone who is performing official Federal Emergency Management Agency duties that are related to a major disaster or emergency and are deemed hazardous.

What are eligible retirement plans?

An eligible retirement plan includes government-sponsored defined benefit and defined contribution plans3, tax-sheltered annuities (403(b)s), and 457(b) deferred compensation plans.

What premiums qualify?

The law covers not only qualified long term care insurance premiums, but also health or accident insurance premiums. Premiums for the retired public safety officer, his or her spouse, and dependents for the tax year are covered. Premiums must be paid directly to the insurance company from the plan. The maximum amount the plan may pay – and the retired public safety officer may exclude from his or her gross income – is $3,000.

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WinFlex Web Production Scheduled Maintenance

Subject: WinFlex Web Production Scheduled Maintenance
From: WinFlex Client Services Team
Date: February 2, 2012

Field Notice: FN-020212

WinFlex Web will be undergoing scheduled maintenance on Saturday, February 4th from 7:00PM – 11:00PM Eastern.  During this time WinFlex Web will be unavailable. This maintenance will include hardware upgrades and failover testing at our new datacenter. 

If you require further assistance or have questions regarding this Field Notice, please contact your WinFlex Account Manager or the WinFlex Technical Support Team at: 435.649.5300 ext 123.

WinFlex-2012 Data Center Relocation Announcement

Subject: January 2012 Data Center Relocation
From: WinFlex & VitalSales Suite Client Services Team
Date: December 30, 2011

Field Notice: FN-123011

As part of our continual efforts to improve the performance and reliability of our applications, the EbixExchange Park City Data Center-where WinFlex Web, VitalSales Suite, EbixWeb, and other applications are hosted-is being relocated to one of the main Ebix Data Centers in Georgia during the month of January 2012.

During this phase of the Data Center Move project, the actual physical moving of the servers from Park City to Georgia will occur.  This phase is the culmination of 6 months of planning.    We wanted to structure the move to minimize and/or eliminate any impact on your applications and we believe we have done so.  The move begins immediately (January 2, 2012) and will be completed by January 31, 2012. 

VitalSales Suite users should not see any noticeable performance changes.  However, your WinFlex Web (or applications based on WinFlex Web) users may experience short delays in receiving results back from their calculation requests during this time.  None of the individual WFW carriers will be affected for longer than two weeks (worst case scenario) within this time period and most will be much shorter.  There will also be a few short, planned outages during the month, but they will occur either late in the evenings or during the weekend and you will receive notice before they occur.

One of the main reasons for the move is the Ebix Data Center’s ISO 27001 certification.  This certification confirms Ebix’s commitment to the security and handling of your, and your clients’ data.  In conjunction with the move and as part of our (Park City) commitment to you, our office will be undergoing an ISO 27001 audit during 2012 to become certified as well.

If you require more information, please contact your EbixExchange representative.

Riding the Life Extension Wave

By promoting longer, healthier lives, we can provide affordable long-term care for all who need it, while contributing to a more robust society.

By Richard W. Samson

From the December 19, 2011 issue of National Underwriter Life & Health Magazine

Failure to plan adequately for the long-term care (LTC) needs of our longer-living population is putting more than just the people at risk, who stand to lose trillions. Federal and state governments along with the LTC insurance industry also face multi-trillion dollar losses, and may be flirting with insolvency. And all three constituencies – industry, government, aging Americans – face untold intangible losses as well.

This problem is highlighted by the fact that only about 8% to 10% of consumers who could benefit from LTC insurance have it, and by the likelihood that Medicaid, in a time of belt-tightening, will lack the means to care for the rest.

We can avoid the three-part wipeout by catching an unprecedented wave: the trend toward healthy life-extension. It promises not only to lengthen our lives but also to raise the quality of our lives, yielding more peak-productive years.

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House Republicans put off CLASS Act repe

House Republicans put off CLASS Act repeal until 2012 http://ow.ly/7ZpoJ

Sun Life’s surprise exit darkens mood o

Sun Life’s surprise exit darkens mood of insurance sellers
http://ow.ly/7XUtE

New Genworth Study Reveals Americans in State of Financial Planning Inertia and Are Unprepared for Long Term Care, Impact to Women Far Greater

During November, Long Term Care Awareness Month, Genworth Urges Consumers to Create a ‘Reality Check-List’ for Their Financial Futures.

RICHMOND, Va., Nov. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — According to the “2011 Financial Reality Check Study” conducted by Genworth, 75 percent of Americans have never had a conversation about long term care with their loved ones. However, 70% would not know what to do if a family member were to require immediate long term care assistance; an alarming statistic considering that 6 out of 10 people will need long term care sometime during their lifetimes.(1) The data also suggests consumers are suffering from overall financial planning inertia; however, the lack of education about long term care (LTC) planning can have significant consequences.

Women - Long Term Care Double Whammy

Women may be impacted twice by long term care, typically as the primary caregivers during an event and then as recipients themselves. When asked which family member would be most likely to provide care if professional care could not be afforded:

• Almost 40% felt it would be a female providing care
• Of those who indicated it would be themselves, 60% were female.

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The Most Overlooked Risk in Private Equity

Disability and key person life insurance help protect a valuable human asset

By EDWARD A. TAFARO

From the November 2011 issue of Agent’s Sales Journal

While investors go to great lengths to cover their bases on all of the potential issues in the private equity realm, a few things too commonly get overlooked. “They just don’t think about it,” said Daniel J. Krekeler, who has spent the last 20 years designing and implementing key life and disability insurance plans for corporate executives involved in private equity transactions. Krekeler is currently a vice president of Aon Hewitt in St. Louis, Mo. and a member of its executive benefits team.

“The private equity professionals think of key person life insurance to help protect their investment, but that’s where most of them stop. Their largest exposure is in the first two or three years after they close a deal.” Krekeler goes on to say, “It’s often difficult to get across the idea that a key executive’s disability risk is many times greater than that of death during this time period.”

Krekeler understands the thinking, since a term life policy is only about one-third the cost of key person disability coverage. Yet, he questions it. “We always point out what would happen to their investment if the key person, the one who shoulders the burden of the success of the transaction, should become disabled and be taken out of the picture.”

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Panelists Ice Out LTCI Talk

By Allison Bell
From the November 21, 2011 issue of
National Underwriter Life & Health Magazine

Howard Gleckman, the moderator of a recent Urban Institute panel discussion on “long-term care in an era of shrinking government,” greeted an audience question about private long-term care insurance (LTCI) with a polite but distant stare.

The Urban Institute, Washington, organized the discussion in response to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s announcement in October that she saw no way to create a viable voluntary worksite LTC benefits program based on the Community Living Assistance and Support Services (CLASS) Act.

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