Life Insurance Settlements, Medicare 101 & Small Business Benefits Explained

0:01 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. Attention to individuals, families and caregivers. It's Medicare Hour and More with Peter right here on k for HD Radio. This is the. Podcast for all types of insurance solutions while specializing in Medicare.

0:45 Because we Medicare, here's your host, Peter R. Joseph. Hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Hey. We are excited to have you guys join us again. We are on episode eleven. We are just cruising along, got a great show for you guys today. Just to remind you guys, we are live on K four HD Radio. You can download that app. You can also see us on Facebook, live on Joseph Insurance Broker, LLC, as well as YouTube. Our channel is at Medicare a Minute with Peter, so we hope to see you there. If you have any comments or questions. Feel free to chime in. We will respond back quickly. We've had a crazy amount of viewers.

1:31 I mean we've had twenty six hundred viewers already on a couple of our episodes, So I mean that is that's awesome. Thank you so much for your support, and we hope that we've been a great resource for you guys as we navigate this Medicare journey as well as other insurance products. Before I start, I do have to comment. I'm a big sports guy. So you know, last night, I don't know if you guys are watching the NBA playoffs, but everyone's been wanting the Spurs and the Oak a thunder. What a freaking amazing game. If you guys haven't seen it, you guys got to tune in. I went into Devil overtime and if you haven't seen this guy, Victor when Benama wenby, the guy is a freak of nature. Guy's an alien. I mean some of the plays that he does, some of the things he does that on the court, it is just it just blows my mind. I mean I've never seen anything like that. He's going to be dominating for years to come. But yeah, it was an amazing game. So hats off to the Spurs. I have a feeling it's gonna be Spurs Nicks in the finals and the Spurs are gonna win it all. But we'll see what happens. But anyways, enough about sports. We've got a great show for you guys today. Lisa Redberg is going to be joining us a little bit later on in the show. She's afe Insurance Settlements broker. We're going to be talking a little bit more about what that actually means and how that could be used you as a resource. Some very interesting stuff actually. So you know,

3:04 we we do offer up life insurance whole life term i u LS. We also do a newity rollovers. So this is really upper alley because you know a lot of people have these term life insurance policies and it gets too expensive or they feel they just don't need it and they end up walking away from the policy and the policy just becomes deactivated. Right. Well, at least is gonna kind of dive into a little bit deeper on what we could do with in those situations. So so that'll be exciting stuff. And then we'll have a commercial later on about a how to set up small business group benefits. There's a couple of ways that we do it. We do it through cover California out here since we are in southern California. We also do it through another program where there are more options for insurance carriers that your company can access. So we'll walk you through that as well. And we've done quite a few small business group benefits. It saved them a lot of money tax wise, and we'll share tips on how to do that, and then we'll be going through a PowerPoint we've we've started a couple of weeks ago. It's the Medicare one on one that I do with my current clients as well as my prospects who are turning sixty five.

4:34 It's a helpful guide just to walk you through the Medicare journey. So we'll be doing that as well. So a lot on the plate today. I just want to let you guys know our family is going on a summer vacation. We will be gone for three weeks. Our show will continue on though, So our next two weeks we'll have recorded sessions of some important resources for you guys to listen in on, and then the third week we'll have a replay one of our shows that got that twenty six hundred views, So we'll definitely replay that radio show for you guys. So let's carry on and move forward here. So first up, I'm gonna show you our PowerPoint, so let me present here. Awesome, okay, so this is Bettercare with Confidence twenty twenty six. There's me. Well, yeah, that is me. Like I said, if you've been listening in on our show, I've lost one hundred and forty pounds, so I definitely don't look like that anymore. But let and behold that's when we started our business. Just a little bit about myself. You know. We've been established back in twenty seventeen, so we've been around. It's coming up on ten years. I can't believe it. Based in Chino Chino Hills, California, which is an hour south of Los Angeles.

5:55 We're licensed at thirty two states. My wife is a social worker. We've got two kids, my son age eleven and my daughter age fifteen. She's finishing up her sophomore year of high school. I can't believe that. As well. Time just flies the older you get. So before this and then we've shared the story over and over again, but just real quick, twenty two years experience in the nonprofit sector before this, and again, you know, our show is called Medicare Hour and More because we do more than specialize in Medicare. We do health insurance, life insurance, business insurance, liability, earthquake insurance, umbrella, you name it, we do it. We're you're one stop shop. We even do personal auto and home out here in California, so definitely reach out if you need help with those. An ambassador for the China Valley Chamber of Commerce, I sit on the board of directors for Rebel ranch to nonprofit organizations out here, and we've had awards upon awards, which is great and it's all because of you guys, the clients, so thank you for that. We actually awarded one of the fifty under fifty by New York City Journal. We've had the inter Net Award of Expertise for Chino and Pomona, and then for three years running we've been the best health insurance brokers here in the Chino Valley in twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four. So again we're going to quickly dive into the Medicare basics, important terminology, enrollment periods,

7:26 which we've already touched on. This is hopefully a rehash for you guys, plan recommendations and cost assistance. So there's the part A and B coverage, that's what happens when you turn sixty five and you get onto Medicare. That's what we all pay into with our paychecks. And then original Medicare eligibility. We'll talk about who's eligible, the cost for Medicare. It is not free, yes, lo and behold. Medicare is not free. Yes, we pay into it, but we pay into it to keep the costs down, not to make it free. So people are stunned when they're turning sixty five gay on Medicare and they call me up and go, I thought Medicare was free. It's not, folks. I'm sorry. And then we'll talk about additional Medicare plan options and how to enroll. So again, the more you know, the easier it will be to choose the plan that's right for you. So what is Medicare well. Medicare is a federal health insurance program. It's run by CMS, which stands for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It's part of the US Department of Health and human services. So just keep these terms in mind. There is the premium, the price you pay typically on a monthly basis. You're deductible, the amount you pay prior to plan coverage, your copays, so every time you visit the doctor or a specialist, you're going to pay an office copay usually, and then co insurance the amount you pay for a service. Some of you guys are already familiar with these terms because you're on health insurance for under sixty five. So a

8:57 regional Medicare covers many, but not all, healthcare relate services. And we've stressed this before in other shows. It does not cover long term care, so keep that in mind. You want to get on the ball with us when you're around fifty fifty five years old, because the older you get, the higher the cost and the more expensive long term care becomes. It becomes to a place where it might not be affordable for you guys. So please get with adviser like myself when you're around fifty to fifty five years old. But we'll talk about what medicare does cover. So Part A is your free coverage. Everyone's automatically on this when they're eligible, so inpatient hospital stays, skilled nursing, facility care, hospice. Yes, hospice is covered, as well as home health care. And again for most people, there's no premium. For those who don't qualify, you've been like a a you have a green card, let's say, and you've only been here for a few years, there is a buy in option. It is pretty pricey, but it's not as expensive as right their health insurance. So you can talk to me about that if that's a situation you find yourself in. So what is Part B cover? Well, Part B is the one where you do pay. Medicare is not free on this part, so it covers doctor visits, outpatient care, home health care, durable medical equipment, some preventive services such as certain vaccines and cancer screenings. Cost is based on income and determined by the Center for Medicare

10:27 and Medicaid. So for twenty twenty six, that's it should say twenty twenty six. This year, the standard Part B premium for most folks is two hundred and two dollars. There is an ERMA chart, so based on your income, it could be higher. So for example, if you make over, you know, I think it's one hundred and ninety seven thousand to about two hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Your premium is actually going to be two hundred and eighty dollars per month, so you could see that it's adjusted the more income that you make. They do a two year look back. So if you get onto Medicare at age sixty five, they're going to look at your income at age sixty three, So if you're making more at that point, they're going to base it off of that, and it's your joint income tax return. It is your adjusted gross income that they look at. But again it's a two year lookback, so that premium can be adjusted because let's say in retirement you're going to be making less than what you did when you were working. Well, Social Security will take a look at that at some point.

11:33 All right, So qualifications you have to be sixty five or older. If you're under sixty five, you have to have certain disabilities. You have to be on long term disability for twenty four months consecutively to actually qualify for Medicare, So keep that in mind. If you have end stage renal disease or have als in the first month of diagnosis, you have to be a citizen of the US or a legal resident for at least five consecutive years. So remember that you have to be here for five consecutive years. All right, So this is how you apply for Medicare.

12:14 We've talked about this. We're going to show commercial for you guys next week about how to actually enroll into Medicare parts A and B. Option one is you go to your local Social Security offices. Yes, offices are now open with service hours after you know for a long time they've been closed because of COVID, So that is option one. Option two is you apply online. So if you're tech savvy, you're going to create an account at SSA dot gov. You're going to do what's called a two factor authentication, So you have to have an email address and a cell phone number, So if you don't have both of those, and that's not going to be a good option for you, guys. And then option three, which I highly don't recommend, call Social Security. The reason being as you're going to be on wait for hours on end. They are short staffed right now, and so I just don't recommend you calling unless you have no other options at that point, all right. And then the number is one eight hundred and seven seven to two one two one three. Keep that number in mind, all right.

13:20 So initial enrollment period this is the seven month window that allows you to apply for and enroll in Medicare. It's three months prior to your sixty fifth birthday, so that's when you need to start getting with an advisor if you haven't already. My recommendation is when you're sixty four to start looking for an advisor, and then the month of your sixty fifth birthday and three months following. So if you enroll in that window, there is no penalty, all right. Funeral after there is a penalty ten percent per year for life. So it's really important that you find when your enrollment period is and you get on the ball to get onto Medicare. Now there is a special enrollment period. If you did not sign up for Parts IN and B and you're still on your employer health plan, then that means eight months after employment our group coverage ends, whichever is first. That's your window, so eight months if you're working, and then retire, seven months if you are turning sixty five and retiring at that point.

14:26 So keep those windows in mind. A little bit different. Now, the other important thing to keep in mind is Cobra coverage is not credible coverage with Medicare. So if you get Cobra after you retire, that eight month window starts right then and there, so keep that in mind as well. So you can only keep Cobra for about seven and a half months, okay, without any penalties for Medicare now general enrollment period if again, you can enroll from January first through March thirty first each year, and then coverage begins the first of the following month. So if you apply on let's say February fifteenth, your coverage is going to start March first, all right, So and there's examples here.

15:13 You roll in January, it's going to start February first, and so on. Now there's additional healthcare offense to assists with extra benefits, prescription drug costs, out of pocket expenses. We're going to talk about that. So here's your consumer choices, all right. So if you look at pathway number one, when you turn sixty five, you're going to get onto original Medicare. Part A is three, Part B. You're paying two two a month, and then PDP is your Part D as a dog for your prescriptions. So if you don't get on that, there is a penalty as well. You have to get on that within sixty three days. So that's the confusing part for a lot of folks is that sixty three days for Part D, but for Medicare itself it's a seven month window. How does that even work? Well, that's why I tell people, you know, just get onto Medicare when you've got that enrollment period.

16:08 Part D penalty happens a lot for those who are working past sixty five and then they retire. What happens is they get onto Medicare, they forget to get onto Part D, they get onto Medicare when their window opens up. Part D, though, is a shorter enrollment window again, sixty three days versus that eight month window. So my suggestion is always to get with an advisor right away when you come up on that kind of situation and we can help you through that pathway. Number two pathway is original Medicare, which is Part A and B plus what's called the Medicare Supplement, our METAGAP and a PDP. We're going to break down again why a supplement might be a better option for folks versus an advantage plan supplement, though you have to pay an extra premium on top of what you're paying for Medicare. The good thing about supplement is it covers the twenty percent that Medicare doesn't cover.

17:04 So Medicare covers eighty percent, Your supplement comes from behind and covers the rest of twenty percent. The only thing you're responsible for on a supplement plan, usually if you're on the highest tier plan, is two hundred and eighty dollars deductible per year. Once that's met, everything's paid out one hundred percent, So you can see your costs are negligible. I mean they're very low, but again you're paying an extra premium for your supplement, so some folks can't afford to do two premiums a month. And that premium is usually when you first start out, about one hundred and thirty one hundred and forty dollars a month, and it increases every year you get older. The last pathway is a Medicare advantage plan. Members continue to pay the Part B premiums. A lot of advantage plans, especially out here in California, are zero dollars and they include your Part D plan, so you're just paying two O two for Medicare and that's it. And then you get usually extra benefits like dental, vision, hearing, over the counter allowance, transportation, all those. Here's the downfall for advantage plan. You're in what's called a network, so you're in most likely an HMO or PPO network. You have to get authorizations. You could get denials for certain authorizations. So that's that's the detriment of a Medicare advantage plan, all right. And then prescription drug plans get specific lists of covered drugs. They're sold by private insurance companies. They have monthly premiums. There

18:37 are tiered cowpays. You can enroll again in a standalone party plan, or you could have it included in the Medicare advantage plan. All right. Okay, so Medicare supplements over th team million Americans are on a supplement that help covers cost services not covered out of pocket. Costs can include copaid, deductibles, and co insurance plan types or standardized identified by letters of the alphabet. So you've got f G N as a Nancy as an apple. So we'll talk about that another time, because I don't want to go into details and confuse all of you. But those are the supplement plans that you hear about those letters, all right. They're sold by private insurance companies. Premiums vary by stating plan. They can require underwriting, So when you're turning sixty five or your first eligible for Medicare, there is no underwriting you're guaranteed in. However, if you start with a Medicare advantage plan and decide you want to go to a supplement at some point, then you have to go through underwriting and they're going to pull your medical records, which means there is a chance you could be denied for it. So my recommendation to my clients is, if you want to get onto a supplement plan, then the best way to do that at is the best way to do that actually is to basically get onto

20:09 it right away and try it out for a year or two and then if you feel like you're not using it as as much as you should, then that's where you go to a Medicare advantage plan. So that's a better opportunity, better pathway, per se, if you want to try a supplement plan and they're not going to ploy your medical records, all right, and then covers parts A and B benefits. This is the part seed advantage plan. It includes Medicare advantage only. It can also include your Part D. Monthly premiums vary by plan. Like I said, out here in southern California, majority of plans are zero dollars, generally have a network of doctors and hospitals. They're sold by private insurance companies, typically guaranteed issue, and they're not going to look at pre conditions. You either have to have an advantage plan or supplement. You can't have both, so just keep that in mind. You have to be in Parts and B to be eligible, all right, So again seven month window, that's the initial when you're turning sixty five. Special enrollment is year round. Special enrollment includes you know, FEMA disaster responses. So let's say a hurricane happens or a big storm out here in California, then you can actually enroll at that time into Medicare advantage.

21:34 The other special enrollments would be if you move out of state, if a situation happens where you've got diabetes or chronic health condition like lung disease or heart disease, that's also a special enrollment period. And then annual election period is October fifteenth through December seventh. Open enrollment period is January first to March thirty first, So there's so many different enrollment periods. This is another reason why you should get with a expert like myself, just because you want to get walked through and make sure when those enrollment periods come up that you're able to review your plan with your advisor, that you know when to enroll and when to switch your plans. Oh kay, we've already talked about this. It's just a rehash again. These are the special reasons. Remember, Cobra and retiree health plans are not considered credible medical coverage. When this coverage ends, you may increlate enrollment period. So remember you're when you're on Cobra that window starts. Okay, all right, again just an overview.

22:45 We've covered this in other radio shows. But January first through March sery first, you can switch to a different Medicare advantage plan, or disenroll from a Medicare advantage plan, switch back to original Medicare and roll in the Part D plan. So that's another open enrollment period for you guys. There are cost assistance, there's extra help, it's called Low Income Subsidy LIS. Again, if you don't qualify for medical or Medicaid, you might still qualify for prescription drug help. So again this is why you want to get with an expert to see if you fall in that window. It's very easy to apply for it and it's free, doesn't cost you anything. They'll just get an approval or denial in the mail. Again, there is medical out here in Southern California or Medicaid. You do have to be about a nineteen thousand dollars single gross income for the year are below that to qualify. There is a lot of paperwork and it does take a long time to process.

23:45 I will have you keep that in mind as well, all right, And then there are Medicare savings programs programs for all inclusive care for elderly programs are called PACE, and PACE actually can go for people age fifty five or older, so that's an option as well. So when you choose a plan, you're going to get with an expert like myself, and you're gonna you know, we're going to go for your budget, your doctors, your drug costs, your frequency of care, your likes and dislikes, travel, habits and what's important you benefit wise, all right, and then this is where you know, obviously I ask Q and a's with my prospects. So I show this slideshow to again my current clients, people looking to enroll into Medicare.

24:36 So they're they're called prospects, people who are at assistem of living centers or senior centers. We do this presentation and then we have a Q and A at the end, so I know I went through that really really fast. Again, this is recorded, it's live. We'll be on Apple Podcasts so you can re listen to all this. But again, we also have this Medicare one on one webinar that you can sign up for on our website Josephinsurancebroker dot com. We go through this a lot slower, I promise, and you know, we can walk you through each of the parts. We can stop, have you you know, ask questions and we can answer them right on the spot. So if you want to sign up for a seminar, please just go to our site and it is in big blue.

25:23 You just click that button, put in your information and schedule a time with me to walk through this seminar. All right, I will be right back. I'm gonna grab something real quick, give me one sec insurance settlement broker and let me exit out of do this. There we go? All right? All right, Lisa, are you there here? I'm right here. Hey, how are you? I'm doing good? Thank you. I'm so glad to have you on our show. We appreciate you and the time for us this morning. Why don't you just give us a little background of yourself, where you're located, and how you got into this business. Yeah.

26:10 So my name is Lisa Raber, the company's Rayberg Life Insurance Settlements, and I have been in the insurance industry. Gosh, I'm going to have to admit this over thirty five years. Wow. Wow. Yep, just focused on life settlements for the last ten years. And it's awesome because we are another way for clients to receive money and more money for their life insurance policies than just walking away from them with zero. Okay, well we're going to get into that. I did briefly share with my audience about that. Obviously, you know, our brokerage offers life insurance and so this is key for them because we do run into situations a lot where people walk away and so we're going to talk about that. So what is basically a life insurance settlement, Let's start there.

26:59 Yep, it's just a financial transaction. So think about it like selling your car. Your life insurance policy is an asset that people own and they don't realize it. Any life insurance policy, including term policies, and so this is going to parallel selling a car. When you sell a car, which is another asset, you receive a lump sum of money and you sign the pink slip of the car over to the buyer, and the buyer walks away with it. Right, it's very similar. Clients receive a lump sum of money, they're going to sign the pink slip of their life insurance policy a change of ownership form to the buyer. The buyer's taking over the policy, they're making the premium payments, and they're making themselves the beneficiary. So the client is still insured now with a lump sum of money. But for the buyer, which tends to be institutional money by the way, it's an investment, it's pure numbers for them.

27:50 So they're important because without them we can't help clients. But we're on team client. Okay, and then so what kind of policies are we talking about? Are we talking about term? You alls? All of it? Yes, yeah, all of it. Okay, here's what we see most often, though. We see universal life policies a lot, and the reason for that is as we get older, the cost of insurance goes up. Most people think, I buy this universal life policy and I pay one hundred dollars a month or whatever it is forever, and that's not true. It accumulates cash, as you well know. But over time, if the client is still paying one hundred dollars a month but the cost of insurance is five hundred dollars a month, four hundred dollars a month. Is going to come out of that. So we see clients all the time that have.

28:34 Little cash or no cash, and they have to put more money into the policy and they either don't want to or can't. And so that's our number one seller, if you will. And the second is term policies. Actually, especially if they're still convertible to permit policies whole life we do sell. They're just a little bit tougher because they sent they tend to hold a lot of cash, and the prems tend to be more expensive but still doable. Now, does the term life have to be convertible? Can I just be a regular term life? Yeah? Typically, most term policies are convertible to permanent policies at some point in time, right during the term period. And convertible means you can literally you can convert it to a permanent policy like universal life or whole life with no health questions. And that's really important. So ninety seven ninety eight percent of the time the policy does need to be convertible. Still, but doing math being the finance major, I am right two the time, two to three percent of the time, we can still sell non convertible term policies.

29:30 Okay, good to know. And then let's start with what can people do with the money that they would get from this settlement. Yeah, it's awesome. So like you sell your car, you can do anything with the money you want, right, same thing at the house, do anything with the money you want. It's the same thing. So clients can pay for long term care expenses or buy long term care insurance from you, Peter, or you know, maybe invest that in an annuity or pay down their house. Or we had a client got funded. You called on Saturday morning. He got funded on Friday night, and he's like, we're paying off the car on Monday. Yeah, going around the world cruise. Does it matter? There's absolute no restrictions, Okay, okay. And then so we know that there's tax benefits to having life insurance, right, and so the death benefit isn't tax So in this case you get a settlement, is that taxed?

30:22 It's a good question. And here's my caveat. I'm not a CPA or a tax professional to give tax advice, right, you know that caveat. But here's the answer to the question. Think about this once again, like an asset. So the premiums that a client has put into the policy from the beginning of the policy, the very beginning, that is a basis. It's what they've paid for this asset. So if the settlement money's underneath that amount, and many times it is, there should be no tax on it because they're getting less back than what they paid into it. Over that amount I'm going to use their typically is typically long term capital gains. So up to that basis should be no tax over that's typically. Long term capital gains. And I don't want to get too wonky. There could be a you know, there's a gain inside the policy that little cord or could be ordinary income but typically not taxed long term capital gains.

31:13 Okay, okay, And then let's say, because we've got clients listening in, I'm sure. So if my clients have something where they want to walk away, what's their first step. The first step is to call you right and have the conversation about the policy, because I look at us, it's the last stop on. The bus line. And the reason I say that is clients have already had conversations with their advisors like you that have talked about can I reduce the face amount to reduce my premium? Are there other ten thirty five exchange? Are there other options for the policy to do what the client needs it to do. But once it becomes apparent to you and the client that the policy is not wanted, not needed, or they want to repurpose it into making their life more comfortable, like maybe paying for us to live our home care whatever bottom lines. Once we get to that point, that's where we come in. We're here to get clients more money than just lapsing or surrendering.

32:09 Okay, that makes sense. So you guys heard it here. You call me first and then we'll get your ball rolling. So are there certain age ranges or health situations that make someone more likely to qualify it? Yeah, So think about us like opposite regular life insurance world, like literally completely opposite. Turn it upside down and that's our world. The buyers, bluntly are not looking for their investment to pay off in forty years. So if someone's thirty three years old and running marathons, we are not going to be. The best solution. The older somebody is, the more health impairment somebody has, actually the better, the more valuable their policy is. The shorter that life expectancy is, the more valuable the policy is, because once again bluntly, the investors believe they're going.

32:57 To get their payoff sooner. So there's not an age guideline, if you will, it's a combination of age and health. We do have clients in. Their fifties they have significant health issues. If someone's in their eighties they can be pretty healthy. So it just depends. The buyers are looking for clients bluntly with ten to fifteen years, sometimes twenty years of life expectance or less. Okay, good to know, good to know. And then you know, we talked about what people can do with the money. How much money are we talking about in certain situations? I mean, can some policies actually be worth quite a bit? They can? And I love the opportunity to be here to raise visibility because so many people will just walk away from their policies because they don't know there's an option.

33:44 Here's the answer to your question. The short answer is it depends. It depends upon a client's policy. Because No. Two one hundred thousand dollars term policies are the same No. Two hundred thousand dollars and one hundred thousand dollars a face value or death benefit of hires. Typically we're looking for No. Two hundred thousand dollars. Universal life policies will saying the clients to seventy six year olds can be completely different from a life expectancy perspective. But here's the answer to your question. Literally, policies can be worth tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once again, from an asset that the client's going to walk away from with little or nothing. Wow, okay, okay, all right, So we're gonna We're going to end our session today with just rapid fire questions.

34:25 You can just answer them the best you want and then and then we'll finish things out. Just to let our audience know, Lisa is going to be back on a couple more times. So there's a lot of helpful information. Thank you so much for sharing this, Lisa. My clar first question, most surprising thing people learn about life settlements? Ah, they are legal and highly regulated by departments of insurance across the country. And qualify that too by saying most people have no idea this exists, so I should probably say that it exists to start with. Okay, No, that's great, that's great, Okay, keep it, surrender it, or explore selling it? What should people do? First? They should talk about you know, they should they should do explore selling it. Bottom line, sorry, they should explore SELLI it because worst case scenario is that we don't If we don't sell it, maybe the buyers don't have any offers for a client. Then at least they know what the best solution is and they have all the information to make the best decision for them their family.

35:22 Okay. Perfect. One reason a policy owner should pause before letting a policy lapse. Yeah, you know, ask yourself do you need this policy? Right? And second of all, if a policy lapses, there's no asset to sell. So please do not let a policy lapse or surrender before you talk to you Peter about a life settlement. Okay, one myth about selling a life insurance policy that needs to disappear. Ah, there's a lot of gosh the good questions. There's a lot of compliance in our market. Beneficiaries must sign off and a client's doctor must sign that they're have sound mine to complete the transaction. So so many people think, oh, this is only for people that are in their eighties or nineties, and that's not true, and that oh, this is unregulated and there's a ton of compliance in our market for all the right reasons.

36:12 Okay, all right. Most meaningful use of settlement money you've seen in your experience. Oh wow, you know, I've seen clients use it to fund long term care. They're in assisted living, they're running out of money, or maybe the long term care policy isn't covering everything, whatever it is, so they've repurposed the money into making their life more comfortable. That's great, that's great. And then one word you want people to associate with life settlements, just one word money. All right, that's awesome. Well, Lisa, you've already taught me so much about life settlements and our clients definitely appreciate this information. Again, if you guys are interested in learning more about this, you know, he leads Lisa's advice, do not let your policy lapse before talking to me, and then we will advise you on what the best thing is to do. All right, all right, Lisa, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you. We hope you have a wonderful week and we'll see you again in a couple of months.

37:17 Sounds great. Thank you so much. Peter, have a great day. You're welcome you too. Bye bye. It all that was awesome. Wow, that is some great information stuff that I didn't even know about until now. And so you know, we have a lot of our clients that we service uh term policies that are convertible and universal life policy. So again, you know, if you're older and you're looking to get some cash for a certain reason, especially if it comes to long term care assisted living, please reach out to me. My number is nine oh nine two one seven two six three zero. We can get you on our calendar and definitely walk you through that process. All right, So I'm going to try to show a video, so give me one second here. So this is going to be a commercial and we're going to talk more in length about this next radio show. But this is a commercial to walk you through how Cover California can set up your small business. Group benefits for you if you have employees of up to one hundred employees, and there are tax benefits to this.

38:31 So today Californias have improved access to something they truly deserve, healthcare, and Covered California for Small Business is uniquely designed to help you provide affordable health insurance to your employees while staying within your budget. The laws are changing to offer healthcare coverage to even more small businesses. Find out how they impact your business and if you qualify by contacting a Covered California Certified insurance agent. It's free and you can meet with them in person to help you determine your eligibility and to find an option that best fits your needs. Your agent is your direct link to all the answers. They will walk you through the process and provide multiple solutions to help you make those important decisions. Your agent can tell you if you qualify for small group insurance through Covered California, what your choices are, and if there are federal tax credits available to you.

39:20 That's right, you. Could actually save money on your health insurance costs, but it's only available if you enroll through Covered California, if you are self employed without any employees, or if your business is run only by family members. Your agent can also tell you about individual plans available through Covered California. It's easy to find. A certified Covered California insurance agent for free in person assistance to walk you through the enrollment process. Visit coveredca dot com, slash for Small Business or call Covered California for Small Business. We're here to help, all right, that was awesome. I'm starting to learn more about our radio show and what I can and can't do, so thank you all for bearing with me. But again, you want to call me directly, and don't call that number. We are certified Cover California agency.

40:08 We've set up clients before with small business group benefits through Cover California. Again, you know, there is another program that will offer a little bit more insurance carriers than cover California does, but you do get tax breaks on those health premiums. Just keep in mind that you do have to pay at least fifty percent of your employee premium. If you set up these benefits for your employees, you can actually cover up to one hundred percent, but the minimum is fifty percent, and so it might be a cheaper way, especially if you're a smaller business with just a couple employees versus justus getting your own family plan.

40:48 If you're a family that owns a business and have just a couple employees, it makes it just makes more sense to set up group benefits because you're going to save exponentially more on those taxes versus just having a private health insurance plan yourself. All right, So please reach out to me and we can walk you through that again. Josephinsurancebroker dot com is our website and you can find more information about that on our site and we'll dive a little bit deeper into the benefits and the negatives of setting up small group benefits on our next show. I did pull up because I did go through that power presentation pretty fast, but I did pull up the IRMA chart for this year, so I just want you to hear this. If you are filing jointly or single, so single is one hundred and nine thousand or less, you'll be paying that two O two a month for Part B for Medicare. If you're making a joint to eighteen k or less, you're paying that two two anything above to eighteen all the way up to two hundred and some four thousand dollars. For joint, you're gonna be paying two hundred and eighty four dollars a month on Part B, and then Part D you're gonna pay an additional fourteen dollars a month. If you are a single, you're making one hundred nine thousand dollars through one hundred and thirty seven thousand dollars, you will be paying that

42:18 two eighty four a month and fourteen fifty again, and then the next level. I'll just go for the next two and I'll have this sheet available for you guys in our presentation if you ever sign up for a webinar. But again, if you're making two hundred and seventy four thousand through three hundred and forty two thousand joint, then your Part B jumps up to four or five a month, so you could see it is significant your Part D will be thirty seven dollars a month. If you're single and you make one hundred and thirty seven K up to one hundred and seventy one K, then you will be also paying that four or five a month as well that thirty seven dollars for Part D as a dog for prescriptions. And then the last one I'm going to do is if you are making three hundred and forty two thousand dollars up until four hundred and ten thousand dollars per year joint, you will be paying five twenty seven a month for Part B and sixty dollars a month for Part D. If you are single and you're making one hundred and seventy one K up up to two hundred and five thousand K, then you are paying that five to twenty seven a month and sixty dollars Part D. So the more money make, you know, obviously, the more costly your premium becomes on your Part B as well as your Part D plan, So keep that in mind. It's still probably gonna be cheaper than being on a traditional private health insurance plan because a lot

43:48 of those costs are covered hospitalizations are covered through even the Medicare advantage plan out here in Southern California. So it's just that premium that you would be responsible for. And remember, if you're married and you're both running sixty five, you each pay that premium. It's not just one premium for the couple, So also keep that in mind. All right, while we are starting to close down our show again, I hope you found a lot of information on our show helpful. I'd like to give a shout out to a lot of our sponsors. We've got quite a few.

44:29 Lisa Reberg is one of our sponsors. Now we also have Everything Senior Insurance. They are a marketing organization that helps agents get the Medicare contracts and get the resources to build their businesses. Lead Heroes is a lead source company that's another sponsor of ours. John Alina Aladna sorry realtor out here in Southern California, is another sponsor. So we cann't do these shows without our sponsors. We thank them so much much for their support. You can find them on our past episodes. Again, we are on Apple Podcasts. We are also at YouTube live at Medicare Minute with Peter and We're on Facebook Live Joseph Insurance Broker LLC, So we thank Lisa so much for shedding light on our financial option many people probably have not even ever considered in their lifetime. And to our listeners, sometimes the policies and plans you already own may hold more value and the opportunity than you really than you realize. So at Joseph Insurance Broker LC, we're proud to connect with professionals and small businesses that help educate and empower our communities.

45:45 This is Medicare Hour and More with Peter. We will see you next time. Remember I'm on that RV trip for three weeks so but we will have recorded shows for you guys with new content. Excited to push that out for the next three weeks. But keep us in your thoughts for safe travels and we're glad that you've joined us this morning because we medicare. Thanks for listening. Tune into Medicare Hour and More with Peter every Tuesday at nine am Pacific time right here on KFOURHD Radio at kfohd dot com for more real life stories from experts who medicare about you and protecting your health, your finances, and your future. See you next week.