National Life of Vermont

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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.

THE MET AND AMERICAN EXPRESS - In the first-ever agreement between these two financial giants, MetLife will provide American Express Financial Advisors with 401(k) products under the American Express brand. AMEX's 9,000 advisors will sell the product, but all investment and administration services will be provided by Met.

CHARITABLE CONCERNS - Two "heavyweight" House members (Archer/Republican and Rangel/Democrat) have introduced legislation to kill split-dollar charitable life insurance. If you're active in this market, take note: the proposed legislation would apply to policies issued after February 8, 1999 (for more information on the charitable split dollar legislation, go to http://www.deathandtaxes.com/nptoc.htm). In addition, the IRS is taking a hard look at donor-advised trusts. It appears some donor-advised trusts are using the approach of "give money to charity, take the tax deduction and then use the donation for your own benefit." That does seem like a bit more than "pushing the envelope." Investment News also has a story on a "charity scheme" being marketed by National Heritage Foundation (check it out at http://www.nhf.org). Needless to say, most charities are not happy to be back in this kind of spotlight again.

SHOPPING FOR HEALTH INSURANCE - We recently revisited Centerstone, the first on the Net (that we know of) to provide group insurance quotes. It's worth another look on your part in order to see the future of group health quoting services (http://www.centerstoneinsurance.com). Centerstone is a GA and sells through agents, while eHealthinsurance.com (http://www.ehealthinsurance.com) goes directly to the consumer. Both have a limited number of states at this time.

"FIVE TRAITS OF GREAT STOCKS" - Morningstar has identified "five simple points that focus on the most important areas to consider when picking stocks." These are:

• Growth: Ability of the company to increase the size of the business consistently over time.
• Profitability: A consistently high return on shareholder investment.
• Financial Health: Keeps debts low and generates cash every year.
• Stock Performance: Long-term record of enriching shareholders.
• Valuation: The stock is reasonably priced.

CROSS SELLING? - "Crossing the Line" is a new book about ways to write significantly more life insurance. The book is loaded with practical, useful tips on how to cross sell, as well as some good information on how to get up-to-speed technology-wise. Check it out in the National Underwriter online catalog at http://www.nuco.com (look in Property and Casualty) or call the National Underwriter at (800) 543-0874.

Y2K ADVICE - Want some common sense advice on preparing for (or avoiding) potential Y2K problems? Then check out the new FDIC booklet, "The Year 2000, Your Bank and You." It's free at http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/money/fdic-y2knews/

COBRA REGULATIONS - The IRS recently issued long-awaited regulations providing employers with guidance on the application of COBRA requirements. The new regulations address and clarify what had been a wide range of gray areas in the law.

STREAMING NEWS - Here is a site you might want to bookmark... http://www.newstream.com. It contains streaming news on current events. Also, if you haven't been to http://www.broadcast.com lately, you might want to check it out and see how some of the newer Net technology is working.

THIS SHOULD BE INTERESTING - It seems that a Pennsylvania state representative plans to introduce a bill that would allow people to cancel the portion of their health insurance that covers abortions. Now, just how would that be priced? Do politicians ever think of the turmoil and extra costs they can create with some of these off-the-wall ideas?

HAD TO HAPPEN - Remember the Beardstown Ladies? They're the group of women who published a series of "do-it-yourself" investment books, but later had to "fess up" to a series of accounting errors that reduced their highly-touted 23.4% annual returns between 1984 and 1993 to a mediocre 9.1%. Well, through Daniel Gross in Investment News, we now learn that a New York lawyer is organizing a class-action suit against the Beardstown Ladies' publisher...had to happen!