Prudential is exiting the long term care field on 3/31/2012.  John Hancock policy owners are realizing a 30-90% rate increase on customers existing policies.  What is happening? 1. Insurance companies assumed their reserves would rise at 7.5% per year.  That didn’t happen. 2. They had a lower lapse rate.  This means that fewer people dropped [...]

Whenever TV pundits talk about investments, you generally hear them mention price/earnings (PE or P/E) ratios as the best way to value a stock, and there is usually talk about earnings estimates and whether a company beat or failed to live up to analyst forecasts.  But behind the camera, most investment professionals recognize that a [...]

At a recent informative presentation, Judith Mauer, CEO of Low Load Insurance Services presented some tips on applying for insurance (any type including life insurance and long term care).  After going through the underwriting process for the various forms of insurance, she highlighted two items for anyone who is seeking new insurance coverage to consider:  Be [...]

In a surprisingly candid opinion piece in the New York Times yesterday, recently resigned Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith essentially pulled the curtains opened and showed how Wall Street really works. Smith declared that he was resigning from the large brokerage firm because, in his view, its culture is all about putting the client’s interests last.  “To put the problem [...]

Most of us have heard way too much about the finances of a relatively small member of the global economy: Greece, and its debt crisis.  Recently one economist described the Greek debt default as “the slowest-moving train wreck in history.” But now, the constant parade of headlines may be over. On Friday, March 9, holders of [...]