Hosts: Nancy Hecht, CFP®, AIF® and Aaron Bert, CFP®, AIF®
It is an Ask the Experts weekend on News 96.5 WDBO and this is On the Money, brought to you by Central Florida’s oldest and largest independent —
Independent. Independent firm of certified financial planning professionals, and with us in the studio we have two of the twelve certified financial planning pros. We have with us back again Nancy Hecht, author of the Hecht Effect, and A Man is Not a Plan. And also with us today, certified financial planning professional Aaron Bert.
Good morning, all.
Good morning.
Morning.
How are you?
Doing good.
Well, it’s nice to see you both in the studio today.
Glad to be here.
Nancy, in case anybody may be new to this program, what are you all taking calls about today?
Well, primarily in reference to people’s retirements and retirement planning, but we will answer questions on 401(k)s, 403(b)(s), mutual funds, annuities, long-term care, a little bit of estate planning, a little bit of taxes, all of the pocket book questions. But again, mostly centered towards retirement planning.
Here is the telephone number: 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. You can also text us, send us a short text from your mobile device. The texting number is 21232. And if you so desire, you want your voice on the program, you could use the open mic feature that you’ll find on the News 96.5 app and you can ask a question, you can make a comment, do what you want and we’ll see about putting you on with Nancy Hecht and Aaron Bert. One of the things we’re also going to be talking about today is you can be too diversified.
Yes, you can.
Alright, and we’re also going to talk — well, let’s see. It’s 9:08, your parents are nearing their 90s. Do you know where their money is? Well, we’re going to talk about that as well. But, the first thing I wanted to ask is that you all had a workshop last week with Gary Abley.
Right.
How’d that turn out?
He had a nice turn-out. A lot of good questions asked by the participants and a lot of good information given to the participants by Gary. The next workshop that he will be hosting is titled When Can You Retire? Know Your Numbers.
Whoops.
I skipped one. I have to go back.
These workshops, by the way.
Right.
They are so cool.
Right.
They are free.
Right, well we do them for a couple of reasons. First of all, we want to introduce people to our firm so people know where we are, what our offices look like, provide some free information to them so that they can become educated, because unfortunately our educational system has done a lot of our population a disservice. They don’t teach this type of stuff in school and so the only way you’re going to get this type of information is you’re going to go online, you’re going to buy books, you’re going to read, or you can go to workshops. Unfortunately, a lot of workshops people try to sell you stuff. They try to sell you annuities, or life insurance, or some other type of product. We’re not pushing any product. We’re just there to provide information to you so that you feel comfortable with us. And if the opportunity ever arises that you need to do business in the future, then you know a reliable, trusted place where you can go and get help. That’s why we do these.
And you’re not pushing the <Inaudible>
No, no, no.
We generally do provide some food at all our workshops.
Light refreshment.
Light refreshments, yeah.
Well, Nancy Hecht, you and your colleague, Denise Kovach, you are the Social Security go-to folks in the firm, aren’t you?
Apparently.
Yeah.
Allegedly we are.
Well, you two have a very popular Social Security workshop. Folks, if you have a parent who’s nearing Social Security age, you might want to send your folks to one of Nancy and Denise’s Social Security boot camps. So, we’ll work backwards with the schedule. Our next Social Security boot camp is Thursday, July 28th and that’s from 6:00pm to 7:30pm, and yes, we will serve light refreshments. There’s a Countdown to Retirement on Saturday, July 23rd, hosted by Gary Abley, from 11:00 to 1:00 in our offices. Prior to that is When Can You Retire? Know Your Numbers, Saturday, June 25th. Also from 11:00 to 1:00. Finally, Financial Basics for Life, Strategies for Success. And this is Saturday, June 4th from 10:00 to 12:00. All of these are in our offices. If you go to our web site, financialgroup.com, you can click on the workshop tab and make a reservation.
Yeah, and these are —
And they are all of the workshops.
And once again, nobody’s trying to sell you anything. Leave your checkbook at home.
No, we’re just providing information.
No, we’re just trying to just give you some good, solid information.
I just wanted everybody to know that — I hope you don’t mind me talking about that.
No, not at all. Not at all.
Speaking of your website, on your website this morning, this week’s must read. Very interesting.
Yeah, this week’s must read is a retirement cost the 80% of Americans aren’t ready for and it’s referring more to — or it’s referring to long-term care. There was a new study that was just put out by Genworth, which is a big long-term care provider, and every year they do the Genworth Cost of Care Study. When it came out, the find was that the cost of long-term care for the people who needed it is now up to $3,861 a month for long-term care costs for those people that require it, whether it be in-home or in a facility. That’s an average cost. Now, the in-home cost is always going to be cheaper because —
Hmm, not really.
Not necessarily.
Well, usually it’s cheaper.
From personal experience —
Yeah, Nancy.
Not necessarily.
The only reason I say this is because you’re not paying full overhead of the facilities.
Yes, but you’re generally paying for round the clock service.
Well yes, if you need someone around the clock in your home, then of course that’s going to be a lot more expensive.
Yeah, and the minimum if you have in-home service, is — it’s in four hour clips.
Right.
Whether you need somebody just to come and babysit your parents for a couple hours, it’s a minimum of four hours generally.
Right.
And you’ve got to think about that too. You’re providing. So, a lot of people think well, I’m going to be the main care provider for my parents, but eventually you have to go out and go do things.
It is such a tough job.
You do, you’re providing for someone to come in and provide that care so that you can do the things you need to do.
Nancy, you mentioned you lived through it. You’re living through it. I’m living through it right now and it’s — if you don’t plan for it, it can be very, very, very hard on you.
Well, it is. I mean, first of all, you have all of the emotional stuff to deal with. Watching their parents aging, and their health failing —
Becoming frail.
Right. You know, and reverting to children in many cases, and then you have the expenses, which we’ve found in some cases was upwards of $8,500 a week.
Wow.
So, yeah.
So, the study goes on to say that at least 70% of Americans over age 65 are going to need some sort of long-term care at some point in their life. 70%, 7 out of 10. So, that’s a pretty significant number. A lot of people think it’s not going to happen to me. There’s a 70% chance it will. So, it’s a cost that people need to be considering in their retirement planning, thinking long-term.
Yeah. In my personal situation, I don’t want to see my parents be put into assisted living facility.
Oh, nobody does. I’d rather that <Inaudible> at home.
At home, like Nancy says, has become quite expensive and it’s gotten to the point now where I’ve investigated here at work what it would require to take a leave of absence so that I could take care of my mom <?>.
Well, an additional cost to of in-home care, and the client I met with this week is facing this situation. This is something that my husband also faced with his dad, is that one of the caregivers — they have somebody in the day and somebody in the evening — has weekly gone to the bank with her parents and is withdrawing money with full permission from the parents. And the bank has become familiar with this woman, knows that she’s a caregiver for them, and they have not been batting their eyes. And my client said to him yes, you’d better and do not allow this to happen anymore. So, there’s further steps that they have to take. But, if you have in-home caregivers, everybody thinks about personal effects, and jewelry, and family heirlooms and stuff like that, but you really have to think about the checkbook.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Hey, it’s 9:15, quarter past 9:00. Dave Wall is in the News Center and we’re going to go back to Dave here in about five minutes and I’ll get today’s top stories. One of which is there are new developments in the EgyptAir crash. He’ll have that for us and also take a look at the weather forecast for the rest of the day and the weekend. This is On the Money with the Certified Financial Group, and Aaron Bert and Nancy Hecht are in the studio to take your calls. The number again is 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965. You know, I’m fortunate, along with a lot of other people, that their aging parents still are lucid and have their faculties. They’re up in their 90s. I’m thinking if your parents are year 90, do you know where their money is?
Alright, so I’m going to try and be brief with this, but if you want to read more of the story, it’s on my blog which is hechteffect.net and it’s titled I’m So Disgusted. But, I have some clients that were referred to me a number of years ago from their accountant because they were getting hounded by insurance agents to buy annuities. So, I put together a nice, conservative portfolio for them, did my regular reviews and updates, and then I got a call the middle of last year from the wife and her voice was shaky saying that the family has decided that they’re going to liquidate everything and put it all in annuities. And she was talking about their IRAs, their Roth accounts, their non-retirement assets, and some old annuities that I had not done anything with because they still had surrender charges. And the lady sounded a little bit afraid, but she was — don’t call us, don’t come out here, and I asked her who was there. She said there were other people there and I said is the insurance agent? And she said yes. So, bottom line, here we are. She came crying to her accountant with a box of papers. $80,000 in a tax bill from last year. They no longer have any liquid assets. The only thing that is liquid is the pension and the Social Security. It is such a mess it is ridiculous, and we have brought in an attorney to try and wade through all of this stuff.
So, they liquidated everything and put it in an annuity?
Everything into a variety of annuities. There’s five or six different contracts, but it’s really all the same type of annuity and it’s a fixed index annuity. Everything is based in the S&P 500 with three or four different calculation formulas as to what they get credited annually.
And surrender charges probably for 12 years?
Surrender charges for 10 and 11 years. This is a couple in their 80s. It is so disgusting and ridiculous, and I have boxing gloves and it makes me want to pull them out.
Wow.
It just — it’s —
Unfortunately, it happens. I mean, it’s — and these people just selling indexed annuities, they don’t even have to be security licensed. They just have to have an insurance license.
No, and they are not. It was obviously their <Inaudible> — I figure from the middle of the summer when this started through the end of the year, that the agents at worst made something like $76,000 in commissions.
Oh yeah.
Wow.
So, this is somebody who was definitely putting their pocket before the needs of the client.
Wow.
Don’t they have an overseer so people who look over these people and can take their license away?
Well, the state does have a Senior Abuse Hotline.
I hope you called in.
Well, I had asked the accountant to call them because that was the first contact from the client.
If that’s not abuse, I don’t know what is.
And there’s an attorney involved now.
Yeah, yeah.
And we bring that up just to say if you have parents who are in their — who are old, you’ve got to be watching over them, and their accounts, and make sure they’re not being influenced by things like this. Because there are people out there who are very lightly regulated because they’re just insurance agents. Not just insurance agents — but they’re insurance agents and they’re not — they don’t undergo FINRA or SEC scrutiny like we do every day. And they sell these fixed or equity indexed annuities, they make them sounds like they’re securities.
10 year surrender to someone who is nearing 90.
Right, right, well and it was even more disgusting that the tax liability they ended up with and taking stuff that has surrender charges and then paying the surrender charges, and paying —
Did you say you have boxing gloves?
Well, I have some at home.
I’d have brought a gun. Alright, well, that’s enough.
On that note —
Yeah.
It is an Ask the Expert Saturday morning on News 96.5 WDBO. We’ll have the latest on EgyptAir. That’s coming up at the bottom of the hour with Dave Wall in the News Center on WDBO. This is On The Money brought to you by the Certified Financial Group in Altamonte Springs and in the studio, Nancy Hecht, author of the Hecht Effect and A Man is Not a Plan. She’s here to answer all of your financial questions along with Aaron Bert. The number to call 844-220-0965. Let’s get right to Todd in Windemere. He’s been patiently hanging on with a question about long-term health care. God morning, Todd.
Good morning.
Hey, Todd.
What can we do for you?
Good morning. Well, regarding long-term health care insurance, I’m a shareholder in a sub-S corporation.
Okay.
And is it — are premiums towards a long-term policy, are they taxed — can they be taxed as regular income depending on how much I decide to invest in a policy or in premiums on a yearly basis?
Are they taxed as regular — so —
So, if your sub-S bonuses you or pays you the premiums, is that what you’re asking?
Yes, yes. If we — if I decide to spend $10,000 a year on policies for the shareholders, will that — is that $10,000 — will that, since it’s an investment in a personal policy, will that be taxed as income?
If the company pays for it, yes, I believe it will be.
But it may be an expense to the business.
Yeah, well, I think you have to be a C corp to — so, if you’re a C corp and the company is paying your long-term care policy premium, that could be a business expense that is not passed on to the employees. It can be an employee benefit, but it doesn’t work with an S corp. It’s got to be a C corp.
Yeah, that’s kind of what I thought. And then with those policies, does the premium — do the premiums accumulate to any type of a cash value over the course of time? So, you know, if you invest $10,000 a year in a policy and you pay in for 15 years, and then if you get hit by lightning and you never used any of that policy, is any of that ever accumulated into any type of cash value?
Todd, there’s a couple different companies that issue policies that we like to use that do exactly that. They have three different buckets for the uses of the premium dollars. One is deposited into a fixed account that earns a tax deferred rate and that rate changes annually. With one of the policies, the worst that you would ever get back is what you’re depositing. The second use of the dollars is for long-term care and generally the one that I like to use, home health care, adult day care, assisted living, full nursing is afforded the same monthly benefit. If you don’t use the cash or you don’t use all the cash or you don’t use all of the long-term care premium, then the remainder goes to your heirs as death benefit.
Yeah, that only works in what’s called asset-based care, so there’s some different types of long-term care policies. There’s the traditional kind where you pay a premium and hope you never use it like your fire insurance.
Right.
And then there’s asset-based care, which wraps either an annuity or a life insurance policy into it. So, as you’re paying those premiums, you’re building up cash value in a life insurance policy or cash value in an annuity. If you never use it, there’s a death benefit paid out or a cash value that’s available for your beneficiaries.
Okay.
If you’re interested in getting some quotes, Todd, just give our office a call or you can e-mail us and we’d be happy to get you a quote.
Okay, and then lastly, if I purchase a policy and I end up not using it, is there a way that your spouse can become part of that policy or have access to the dollars that have accumulated in that policy over the course of time?
Depending on where the deposits are coming from. If it’s coming from cash, then there are policies that can be taken out as joint.
Okay
Right, so if you do the life insurance type, you do it joint and so it’s a second-to-die policy. So, both of you have to pass away for your children or whoever your beneficiaries might be to receive that. But then that death benefit is available for long-term care for either of you or one of you depending on who needs it.
And same with the cash value.
Right, right.
Okay, well very good. I appreciate your insight.
You’re very welcome, thanks for the call.
Thank you, Todd, and we have an open line for you as well. The number is 844-220-0965. We have some texts to get to. We’ll get to them after Dave Wall in the News Center. The texting number if you want to join us is 21232. And before we go to Dave, I just want to say Nancy told us a horror story a little bit ago about an insurance guy who did wrong.
Mm-hmm.
And we’re not meaning to <Inaudible> on all <Inaudible>
No, no.
99% of the insurance people are wonderful people, do great things. Unfortunately, there’s a couple bad apples out there that spoil it, not just for the insurance guys and give them a bad name, but give all financial professionals a bad name. Because we all get lumped together, which is why we bring stuff like this to light so that people know what’s going on out there. It’s an Ask the Expert weekend on 96.5 WDBO. It’s an Ask the Expert weekend here and this is On the Money brought to you by the Certified Financial Group. I thought I’d just spice up your —
I have nothing wrong with that. I have no problem with that music.
No, not at all.
It’s got a good rhythm.
There you go. We’ll just play it under you every time you speak.
Thanks Kurt.
Alright, this is Nancy —
Under or over?
Over.
Alright, this is On the Money brought to you be the Certified Financial Group. A quick reminder, after the news at the top of the hour it will be your chance to meet the morning guy, Joe Kelly from Orlando’s morning news. Yeah, he’s going to be out and about for a couple of hours this morning at All Seasons Pools. They’re starting off their summer with a beat the heat cookout. All kinds of pool specials. They’re even giving away — I think what they’re doing is giving away free pool upgrades. And you can go to their Facebook page, allseasonspools.com. Check out their Facebook page and you can see what they’re giving away; LED lights, ultraviolet sanitizing systems, ozone systems.
They’ve got a really catchy song in their commercial.
It sort of sticks in your brain.
They’re on Airport Road in Sanford and Joe Kelly’s going to be out there for a couple of hours and we’ll here from him at the top of the hour right before Florida Homes and Gardens on News 96.5 WDBO. But right now, we’ve got Nancy Hecht, author of the Hecht Effect, and A Man is Not a Plan. And like Aaron Bert just said, we’re kind of light on calls today. So, if you’ve ever wanted to call and talk to Nancy or Eric, here’s the number; 844-220-0965. 844-220-0965.
We may be light on calls, but our text <Background Noise> blowing up.
We do have a lot of texts, though.
We probably need to start getting to some of these.
Should we get to it?
Yes, let’s get to it.
Okay, I definitely need a new roof.
No.
No, I don’t think that’s for us.
I have a defined benefit plan, which should be more than enough for monthly expenses. How do I decide how much additional money I need to retire?
Well, it’s nice that the person has a defined benefit plan, but have they done a financial plan? Part of what we do, a big part of what we do, is looking at where people are now, when they want to retire, how they’re living their life, include inflation regardless of what the government says about lack of inflation, and take it out through a life expectancy somewhere in the 90s. And that could answer the question of how much additional needs should be saved for these people to maintain their lifestyle plus inflation through 20, 25, 30 years from now.
For our listeners out there, what’s a defined benefit plan?
A defined benefit plan is a plan where the company is planning for — they look at somebody’s income and the age at which they are going to retire, and they are planning for the specific benefit to replace income as opposed to defined contributions, commonly known as 401k/403b. So, a defined benefit is more from the corporate side than from the employee side.
And so that’s going to provide them a pension when they finally retire with income for the remainder of their life. On top of that — so they’re saying how much extra income do I need on top of my pension in order to retire. Like Nancy said, the only way you do that is you do a financial plan to figure out what you spend and what you’re going to need to spend in the future, factoring in things like taxes and long-term care and life insurance, and all that stuff that we deal with day in and day out. So, that person is in need of a financial plan, whether you do it with us or another certified financial planning professional. That’s the first step that you need to take.
We have a very extensive expense summary report, trying to look at every single thing that people are spending on in their daily life. Most people look at and they say well, my expenses aren’t that much as my mortgage, my basic insurances, groceries, gas, and we look at everything. We looked at pet care, we looked at travel, we looked at eating out, we looked at cable, we looked at hair care, clothing.
It’s eye opening for a lot of people when they finally start writing all those things down.
Yeah.
So, this person, if you’re interested, we can send you that blue form. Send a message to Nancy at our office, nancy@financialgroup.com and she will send you that blue form if you’re interested in getting that with our personal expense summary.
The blue form is our expense summary.
Yup.
Cool.
Here’s an interesting text because I was told this week that, for the first time —
In 13 years.
Warren Buffett made a big move this week. You know the Warren Buffett <Inaudible> Berkshire Hathaway.
Yeah.
I think he runs Geico.
He’s like the Oracle of Orlando, but he’s the Oracle of Omaha.
For the first time ever, he bought Apple stock this past week, lots of it. So, here’s our text question. I was told since Apple stock is down, it was probably going to go back up, that I should put all my investments in Apple stock for retirement. What do you think?
You never put all your eggs in one basket. I don’t care what the company is, I don’t care how good it is, I don’t care how great you think it’s going to be in the future, diversification is extremely important. And I personally feel that there’s been a shift in how Apple is working as a company. We have looked upon them for annually coming out with the latest and greatest tech thing that everybody wants and they don’t even know that they want. I think that they’re transitioning more into a value company. I don’t think Apple is going away. I think Apple is going to be a good, solid company for many, many, many, many years to come, but again, the basic question is should you put all your assets in there? No.
I mean, I don’t think you’re going to get the share price growth necessarily.
No.
You’ll probably get a dividend.
Dividends.
Continued from them because they are still — continue to make a lot of money, but the share price may go down. I mean, we don’t know and that’s why we don’t buy and sell individual securities because you never know what’s going to happen with that individual company.
Okay.
This leads me to one of our topics this week that Nancy and I were talking about before the program about being too diversified. Is it even possible? We hear always pounded into us that we should be diversified.
Right.
And is it possible to be too diversified?
Yes. One of the services that we offer is a second opinion and I met with a couple recently that has a very nice nest egg and they wanted a second opinion on their investments. Well, their portfolio consisted of 62 stocks and a handful of mutual funds. It took me hours just to analyze the different categories, and what was the best, what was worth hanging on to, what wasn’t worth hanging on to. We were just talking about Warren Buffett. I just looked at Berkshire B.
Right.
There’s $128B in that holding.
Sure.
47 stocks. That’s it. Compared to my clients that —
Had more stocks that Berkshire Hathaway.
62 stocks and a handful of mutual funds. So, yes. And then to me, that’s a red flag that these people are put into a bucket of investments based on the dollars they have and the age with absolutely no consideration to what their risk tolerance is, how they are living their lives, what their temperament is. It’s just thrown into a bucket. There’s no management to the person.
Were they coming from a brokerage relationship?
Yes, yes they are.
That’s another reason why they had 62 different stocks in their portfolio. Because the brokerage — in the brokerage world, they’re generating commissions on the buys and sells of the stocks, versus in our world we charge a fee for our services.
Yes, yes. Yeah, I mean aside from the over-diversification, there’s a myriad of other issues that don’t make me happy.
It’s 9:45, quarter until 10:00, on News 96.5. Thanks for joining us. I really mean it. Thanks for joining us here on this <Inaudible> for Saturday morning with Nancy Hecht and Aaron Bert from the Certified Financial Group. Call us at 844-220-0965, or text us at 21232. By the way, Dave Wall is in the News Center. He’s coming up in about five minutes from now with the latest on this EgyptAir tragedy. I think there’s some new news coming out of that, and also something about the NFL Pro Bowl. Is it really coming to Orlando? There seems to be some kind of doubt.
Really?
Yeah, I don’t know.
Well, I hadn’t heard —
Dave will fill us in on that coming up.
Okay.
Let’s talk to Val in Marion County. Good morning, Val.
Good morning.
Hi, how are you?
I’m doing pretty good. I had questions concerning my father’s trust. My father passed away on August 22nd and I am the trustee, I am the executor. I don’t know — well, obviously I’ve never done this before. I don’t know what — who I need to notify, what I need to notify. I have been moving forward with organizing things and keeping records of everything, but I don’t know if I am required to have an attorney, do I need an attorney, do I notify government agencies of things?
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Where do I go?
Is this all state of Florida?
Yes, yes.
Okay, alright. And you say that you’re — did he just have a will?
He has a trust and the trust also has a will.
Okay, so the will does have to go through probate. So, if you need an estate planning attorney to file the will for you, you can contact our office and we can give you a recommendation. So, I mean if you have a will, will says probate me and there does have to be a legal notification that this person has passed and if anybody has any claims again the estate, now is your time to do it. As far as your trust goes, you can disburse the assets of the trust as the trust is written.
Were all the assets in the trust or were there assets that he held outside of the trust like his home, or IRAs, or any bank accounts, or was everything in the trust?
Not everything.
Okay.
Some of it was <Inaudible> and one account — he had <Inaudible> account in <Inaudible>, I would say <Inaudible> through the joint account. So, what I have been doing is I’m transferring those funds into the trust. I don’t know if that’s the correct way to handle those funds or not.
Well, if there are some claims against the estate, you might want to keep that bank account with assets in it to pay. I will tell you thought, if there are bills that your dad incurred and he was listed as the responsible party, notify whomever is issuing the bills, generally medical facilities or something, that he has passed on. If you pay one bill, then you’re saying to the world I will take responsibility for everything.
Oh. Alright.
So you want to be cautious of that.
Yeah, I mean it’s never a bad idea, I think, to approach an estate planning attorney when something like this happens and if you have questions, have them review the terms of the trust, bring things to them. They may charge you a couple thousand dollars now to review everything, but really it will save you a lot of headache.
Yeah.
I really think it’s probably worth it for you to engage somebody to do that. Whether it was the person who wrote the trust originally or somebody else that you feel more comfortable working with.
Well, the person who wrote it, my dad, I guess, found him on a late night TV show. He’s out of Tampa. And he has been responsive in the past and in updating it, and getting things changed, but I did e-mail them that he has passed, but I’ve gotten no response. So, I don’t know if —
Okay, well, Val, if you would like to contact us on Monday then we would be happy to give you a referral to a local estate planning attorney.
Alright, that would be good.
That speaks plain English and has very reasonable fees, Jodie Murphy. You can contact us at 407-869-9800. Or if you would like to e-mail me, it’s nancy@financialgroup.com.
Financialgroup?
Correct.
@financialgroup.com. Okay. Alright, I appreciate your help.
Alright, thank you, Val.
Alright, seems we have an accident on I-4 Eastbound at mile marker 44. That’s right after the Auberdale exit. The left lane is blocked. The right two lanes are getting by and we have a half a mile back-up. And for that, I want to thank our traffic tracker who sent in that information on our texting board. And you can text us as well at 21232. Nice picture there sent in as well. Text us at 21232. This is On the Money, brought to you by the Certified Financial Group and in the studio, Nancy Hecht and Aaron Bert. And we’re taking your calls at 844-220-0965. Coming up right after Dave Wall at the top of the hour it’s Florida Homes and Gardens with S and W Kitchens, the three big reasons for a turn-key renovation. Bring that kitchen up to at least 1970s. Like mine is. Green shag carpeting and everything. Real quick text question. My wife and I are in our mid-to-late 40s. When do you recommend getting long-term health care insurance?
You get it now.
Is it cheaper to get it now?
It is. Well, long-term care is underwritten a little bit different than life. It’s a little bit easier, but the younger you are, the more benefit you get per dollar invested. So, if you can do it in your 40s, then go right ahead and do it. I’ve written long-term care for somebody who’s in their 30s, who sadly had to use it before they hit 50. You just never know. So, if it’s top of the brain and they can do it, go right ahead and do it.
Do you remember Mr. Ed?
Of course.
Actually yeah, I do.
Alan Young just died. 96 year old Wilbur, the owner of Mr. Ed, just passed away this morning.
I watched that no Nickelodeon when I was a kid.
I watched it network TV.
Yeah, so Mr. Ed died a long time ago, I heard.
And <Inaudible> is like what’s Mr. Ed?
Young folks won’t remember, but you can see that show if you go back on some of these nostalgia TV channels. It was great. It was about a talking horse.
On YouTube you can find it also.
Mike in Longwood, you’re on News 96.5 WDBO.
Hi, Mike.
Hi, good morning.
Hey, Mike.
What’s your question?
My mother-in-law is going to pass away soon and I have the durable power of attorney for finance affairs. My son and I are both successor trustees to the trust and co-personal representatives on the will. But, she has a checking account in her name only. Should I open a new checking account <Inaudible> in the trust, or should I make that checking account payable on death to me, and then I will open a trust checking account after death? In either case, what <Inaudible> will I need to have?
I vote for the payable on death, and if you have durable power of attorney, she’s not able to speak for herself right now or regular power of attorney —
She’s incompetent.
Okay, then bring that with you to the bank. If you do not name a successor beneficiary on that account, then that account will have to go through probate. So, excellent thinking on your part, Mike. I think that is great.
Okay, so all I need to bring is the financial durable power of attorney?
Correct.
Okay, thank you very much.
Sure.
Alright, we’re being told of an accident at Lake Jessup Bridge on Northbound 417. All traffic is stopped, police are forcing everybody off the highway <Inaudible> 34.
Be careful out there, people.
Yeah, people are driving like crazy today. Nancy, how do we reach you at the Certified Financial Group?
Well, the easiest way is through our website, which is financialgroup.com, that’s financialgroup.com, and you’ll get a plethora of information. If you want to call our offices Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5:30pm. The number is 407-869-9800.
The information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up to date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice, but is limited to the dissemination of general information. A professional advisor should be consulted before implementing any of the options presented.