The Internal Revenue Service has raised the income-tax deduction limit for Long Term Care (LTC) policy premiums that are paid in 2012. As in the past, the deduction varies by age of the insured person— for example, someone who is between 50 [more...]
Jan 242012
Jan 072012
Health savings accounts (HSAs), Archer medical savings accounts (MSAs), health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), and flexible spending arrangements (FSAs) are all personal health accounts that may help you control your health-care costs. But trying to figure out what’s what can be confusing. Here’s [more...]
Life Insurance Policy Loans: Tax and Other Implications As the owner of a life insurance policy, you can generally borrow the policy’s cash surrender value and use the proceeds for any purpose. Before you take a policy loan, be sure you understand [more...]
The prospect of paying costly premiums for long-term care insurance that you might never use might discourage you. Enter the long-term care annuity. An advantage of stand-alone long-term care insurance over a long-term care annuity is the fact that the medical expense [more...]
What is the Medicare open enrollment period? The Medicare open enrollment period is the time during which people with Medicare can make new choices and pick plans that work best for them. Each year Medicare plans typically change what they cost and [more...]
Apr 112011
The primary goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act (collectively, the 2010 health-care reform legislation) are to ensure that all Americans and legal residents have access to a minimum [more...]
Mar 272011
The Fundamentals of Disablilty Insurance Disability insurance pays benefits when you are unable to earn a living because you are sick or injured. Most disability policies pay you a benefit that replaces a percentage of your earned income when you can’t work. [more...]
Mar 262011
Life Insurance Basics Life insurance is an agreement between you (the insured) and an insurer. Under the terms of a life insurance policy, the insurer promises to pay a certain sum to a person you choose (your beneficiary) upon your death, in [more...]
Long-term care is not just provided in nursing homes–in fact, the most common type of long-term care is home-based care. Understandably, many people put off planning for long-term care. But although it’s hard to face the fact that health problems may someday [more...]
