Posted by Victoria Milson | January 22, 2012

Nationwide Is Protecting Your Identity

When a policyholder’s bank account was drained, Nationwide came to the rescue.

What do you do when your bank account’s been drained by someone writing duplicate checks and you’re receiving notices from a check verification company about checks returned unpaid? If you’re a Nationwide ID Theft policyholder, you call the bank to close the account, call the police and call your Nationwide agent.

That’s when the system really went to work for one policyholder who faced exactly that challenge. Her agent, working with Nationwide’s ID theft partner, Europ Assist, was able to get the customer’s permission to take over the response.

Europ Assist’s ID Theft Resolution Specialist placed a 7-year fraud alert on the customer’s credit report, filed a complaint with the FTC and activated identity and credit monitoring to track the illicit use of her identity and monetary information. The specialist resolved charges resulting from the fraudulent checks and activated an alert to prevent additional bank accounts from being opened in the customer’s name.

Then, when additional fraudulent activity turned up on bank accounts the policyholder had not opened, the specialist followed up, resolving the charges there and having the accounts closed.

Ultimately, Nationwide and Europ Assist were able to get the fraudulent charges removed from the customer’s accounts and the money returned to her bank account. At the same time, the

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Posted by Victoria Milson | January 12, 2012

Six Things You Need to Know About Protecting Your Paycheck

While most of us understand the need to insure our cars and homes, many do not consider insuring what pays for those things our paychecks. It is crucial to understand the importance of properly insuring your paycheck with disability insurance. Here are answers to six of people’s most pressing disability insurance questions:

1. Where does disability insurance fit within my financial plan?

Disability insurance is there to protect your income, should you become ill or injured and unable to work. In essence, it protects your paycheck. Your financial plan needs to begin and end with income planning. Unless you first protect your income, there is no financial plan!

2. What about disability insurance through my work—isn’t that enough?

That’s called group disability insurance. With this particular coverage, you are just a tenant. You are not in control because you do not own the policy. It can be taken from you in an instant; your employer may give it up or the insurer may decide to stop insuring the group. You are at their mercy.

Plus, 70% of employers don’t offer long-term disability insurance at work, which means if you do have coverage, it’s probably short-term disability insurance, which would not help you meet your financial obligations if you were sick or injured for an extended period of time.

Also, keep in mind that group long-term disability insurance typically only covers your base salary, so bonuses, commissions, incentives, deferred compensation, stock options and pension contributions are generally not covered. In most cla

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Posted by Victoria Milson | January 08, 2012

Long-Term Planning and Social Security: Be Prepared When Aging In to Social Security

When we first begin to think about and take steps towards retirement, Social Security and financial planning, we often think about what we want to leave behind for those we leave behind. With the current issues surrounding Social Security, it’s best to start planning sooner than later.

Originally intended to provide “senior citizens” with income continuation after retirement, Social Security now includes benefits like survivor’s benefits and disability benefits. Currently, the retirement age at which you are entitled to full social security benefits is between 65 years and 67 years of age, depending on when you were born. Many people consider collecting Social Security benefits early, as young as age 62, however, collecting retirement benefits early will reduce the monthly benefit received by as much as 30 percent. Although often done out of economic necessity, early receipt of Social Security retirement benefits can have a long term negative effect on income continuation and the quality of a person’s life after retirement.

Great care should be taken in financial planning as it relates to Social Security. Social Security benefits should not be the sole safety net upon which you rely once you stop working, especially if you intend to leave money to loved ones. For example, survivor’s benefits will likely be insufficient to provide financial security to your dependents and cover the costs of final expenses after you pass.

As a supplement to Social Security, life insurance is the key.

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Posted by Victoria Milson | December 31, 2011

Study In Peace with College Student Health Insurance

Come December, and some college students are trying to switch colleges. Some subsidized health insurance for college students is valid only in the state that the college is in, and coverage outside the state is limited. However, some student insurance plans, especially those purchased independently, offer a wider coverage throughout the country. A student will then be covered under the same insurance policy, and need not go through another application process.

Health insurance for college students is especially useful for those who enroll in college after a few years of graduating from school, and their parents’ health insurance plan ceases to be effective. It is also useful if the college or school is outside the student’s current HMO/PPO region.

Coverage is typically like a long-term health insurance plan, and covers regular check-ups and scheduled visits to the physician. However, all types of dental care may not be covered under all student health insurance plans. While a student, insurance is the last thing on one’s mind.

However, it is important to be covered adequately, as any mishap during college can be devastating not just on the pocket and mind, it can also be disastrous on the mind, unless college student health insurance covers most of the costs.

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Posted by Victoria Milson | December 16, 2011

What to Expect After an Accident

Do you know how an accident affects your insurance premium?

Getting into an accident is a bad experience all-around—even more so if it’s your fault. Since safe driving is rewarded with lower insurance premiums, you need to know what’s at stake if an accident occurs.

  • Make sure you’re covered. Each state requires auto owners to carry certain types and amounts of auto insurance coverage. If you have an accident where you are at fault, and you don’t have the appropriate insurance policies, some states will require you to carry an SR-22 form and an additional insurance policy—at additional expense—for about three years after your accident.
     
  • Expect to pay. “Running red lights, speeding, drinking alcohol or using your cell phone when the accident occurs is a signal to the insurance company that you’re not a careful driver,” says Andrew Schrage, editor of MoneyCrashers.com, a personal finance site. “Typically, your rate will go up 20 to 40 percent after your first at-fault accident. And you could lose any safe driver discounts you had on your policy.”
     
  • Be forgiven. When you add Accident Forgiveness to your Nationwide auto policy, Nationwide will not raise your rates if you have your first at-fault accident. This means significant savings if you have an otherwise good driving history.
     

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Posted by Admin | December 05, 2011

Why Is It Essential To Have Good Health Insurance Cover?

If there is anything that is certainly the most uncertain, it is life – while on a given day you might feel the most secure in terms of health, employment and safety, the next day might turn out to be the most horrid day of your life as regards the very same aspects. In such a situation, people often wonder as to what would be the best form of protection for them as also their families and the time-tested answer to this is none other than acquisition of good health insurance cover.

Health insurance is a broad term which encompasses a wide range of plans and policies which is why the decision as to which policy would be the most suitable is a personal one and depends on individual preferences. While in most cases, the insurance cover might be meant for a single individual as a way of covering his medical expenses, another option which is strongly recommended is a family health insurance plan.

One of the main advantages of acquiring a comprehensive insurance policy for the entire family is that contrary to the popular belief it is affordably priced. For an individual who works from home, a self employed family health care insurance plan would be an ideal option not just in terms of premium but also in terms of preventive care benefits and coverage offered during accident or any other unprecedented medical problem.

An important aspect which should be borne in mind while deciding on a health insurance plan for the family pertains to the inclusion of college going kids. I Read more…

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Posted by Victoria Milson | November 22, 2011

Navigating Life as the Sandwich Generation

Two months before my wedding, my soon-to-be husband got a call from an emergency room near his mother. She’d come in with bad flu symptoms, and they wanted us to pick her up and take her home so she wouldn’t have to drive herself. When we arrived, it was immediately clear to us that she was completely mentally altered and a simple flu couldn’t be the explanation. After much insistence and fuss-raising, we got her evaluated by a neurologist. She had one of the worst cases of viral encephalitis the doctor had ever seen.

By the time our wedding arrived, she was in rehab recovering. The brain injury caused by her encephalitis, sadly, escalated her next big health crisis: Alzheimer’s. During the next 10 years, my husband slowly began taking over most of her care and managing her finances until we had to finally put her into a facility that could care for her escalating needs.

During those times, one thing that helped us immensely was rather unexpected. It turned out that many years earlier—right after her husband passed away—my mother-in-law purchased a very, very good long-term care insurance policy. This enabled her to have a home-care aid for several years, and helped in placing her in a better quality home when it came time. It was a tremendous boon to our family.

This was never clearer than this past January when it was my turn; I got a call from my mother’s doctor saying she was in for an appointment and clearly had some sort of very severe pneumonia. My mother was

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Posted by Victoria Milson | November 19, 2011

Life Insurance Myth #2: My Work Covers Me; I Don’t Need Additional Life Insurance

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As the second in our series of posts on life insurance myths, this is another of the most common misconceptions consumers have when it comes to term life insurance coverage. Many people think that their family and/or loved ones will be provided for in the event of their untimely death, as they have life insurance coverage through their employer.

While people may claim that they do not need life insurance because they are covered at work, most will also admit that they have never actually reviewed their term life insurance coverage and do not know whether it will meet their family’s financial obligations and needs should they die.  This is particularly alarming when considering the debt that the average American carries.  Between credit cards, school loans and mortgages, many Americans carry thousands of dollars in debt; debt which is left behind for family members to repay in the event of an untimely death.

So how do you determine if your term life insurance coverage is enough?

Life insurance is intended to help with a number of things: covering funeral expenses, paying  remaining debt and providing daily living expenses for surviving dependents, just to name a few. In order to det

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