National Life of Vermont

Ascensus

LUTC

Souper Shops - Online shopping!

TurboTax 99 - 30-day free trial!

FINANCIAL SERVICES ONLINE (FSO) operates two Internet sites for the exclusive benefit of financial service professionals:

The VIRTUAL MARKETING DEPARTMENT (VSA) is an "extranet" that containing over 2 gigabytes of interactive sales and service material that is owned by LUTC and operated by FSO. Company sponsorship and/or membership is required for usage. To determine if the VSA would help your practice, visit the Demo Main Menu at http://www.lutc.com to see the hundreds of sales ideas, concepts and resources available.

The FINANCIAL SERVICES CENTER (http://fsc.fsonline.com) is a free site that houses archives of Financial E-News and the Financial Services Journal Online, the Financial Net Director and more. Check out the Journal for articles and sales ideas from leading industry professionals and use the Net Director to quickly find all the good financial services sites on the Net.

"I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have is that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people." * Former Vice President Dan Quayle

"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it." * A congressional candidate in Texas

"Outside of the killings, Washington DC has one of the lowest crime rates in the country." * Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC

"The streets are safe in Philadelphia. It's only the people who make them unsafe." * Frank Rizzo, ex-police chief and mayor of Philadelphia

STILL DROPPING - According to a Roper Starch study, households having life insurance are down from 83% in 1976 to 74% today. Reasons cited: fewer agents, bad reputation of the industry and lack of proper financial planning by U.S. families.

ECONOMIC ABCs - Northwestern Mutual and the National Council on Economic Education have developed a free, non-commercial Internet site to help educate middle and high school students on personal finances and economics. Call "The Mint," it is located at http://www.themint.org and has lesson plans for teachers and interactive programs for the students. Maybe this will help turn around the trend mentioned above.

SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM - In his State of the Union address, President Clinton proposed that the government invest a portion of Social Security reserves in the stock market. The prospect of this level of government participation in private financial markets has raised concerns, including those of Fed chairman Alan Greenspan. Under such a plan, the potential exists for the federal government to influence not just a company's lines of business, but its very success or failure. When it comes to issues such as government lawsuits (e.g., the Microsoft suit), campaign contributions and the possibility of government officials holding corporate board seats, the "can of worms" factor in this proposal becomes enormous. Then we have the issue of the so-called government surpluses to be used in shoring up Social Security and Medicare. The much-heralded $70 billion surplus from last year resulted from the government borrowing the $99 billion in Social Security overpayments. Do some simple math and you see that federal spending was really $29 billion in the red. Until the non-Social Security part of government produces a surplus, the national debt just continues to grow, along with annual interest payments on the debt. It seems that a more common-sense approach would be to use current Social Security surpluses to pay down the national debt and reduce annual interest payments. Common sense, however, appears to be in short supply, at least in Washington.

GROUP TERM VALUATION TABLES - The IRS is updating the valuation tables it uses to impute income to employees who receive more than $50,000 of employer-provided group term insurance. The revisions, which are to take effect July 1, will result in less imputed income to employees.

GROWTH MARKETS - Add legal insurance to LTC and workplace marketing as growth markets for agents. The largest such provider, Pre-Paid Legal Services, reports a 38% increase in membership in 1998.

"HELLO, PRUDENTIAL" - Pru recently commissioned a study of its telephone customer service. The results were awful, but you do have to give them credit for conducting the survey and making it public.

STOPPING MISMANAGED CARE - The law firm of Anderson, Kill and Olick has started an interesting concept on the Net. Their (pro bono) client had liver cancer, but the HMO refused to pay for a transplant. A lawsuit reversed the decision, but the patient died during the operation. In order to save time for other attorneys, they have created a mail-merge "pleadings generator" for use by other attorneys with similar cases. Check it out at http://www.andersonkill.com. It seems almost inevitable that some sort of "patient protection" legislation will eventually pass Congress. One of the big questions, however, is whether and to what degree such legislation would give patients the right to sue managed care companies for damages.

1-888-2PAY-TAX - That's the phone number taxpayers can call to pay the balance due on their 1998 Form 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ with their credit cards. The company processing the transaction, U S Audiotex, charges a "convenience fee" for the service. Additional information can be found at http://www.8882paytax.com.

STRUCTURED SETTLEMENT LEGISLATION - Structured settlements are designed to provide long-term financial assistance to injury victims and protect against the dissipation of a lump-sum award. Injury victims, however, may sell their structured settlement rights to companies that buy them, often for sharply-discounted lump sums. The insurance industry and industry trade groups are pushing legislation that, at the state level, would require advance court approval of such sales, as well as increased financial disclosure. At the federal level, proposed legislation would impose a 50% excise tax on the "factoring" (purchasing) company, except in court-approved hardship cases.

LTC INFORMATION - If you're active in the LTC market, "Mr. LTC" (Martin Bayne) offers a free, three-times-per-week LTC e-mail newsletter. You can subscribe at http://www.mr-longtermcare.com/ltc/subscribe_enews.html.