Insurance Policies are designed to restore and enhance those depleted assets upon the eventual death of the insured, through its payment of a death benefit that increases annually.
Here's how they work:
1) All insureds age 65 and older are eligible for coverage, regardless of their current medical condition;
2) Policy owners pay level monthly, quarterly or annual premiums until the insured reaches age 100 or passes away; 3) To minimize the required premiums, DBL Policies develop no cash or surrender value, and pay no death benefit during the initial "Benefit-Deferral Period" selected by the policy owner (ranging from 3 to 20 years in duration); and
4) Following the Benefit-Deferral Period, the policy's death benefit increases each year per the schedule specified by the policy owner in their DBL application.
Legacy Funding's Managing Director and Chief Actuary, John R. Skar, FSA, CLU, ChFC, noted that, "by providing a death benefit that increases as the insured ages, DBL Policies effectively protect not only investors funding our LegacyLoan(TM) product, but also families, pension funds, care-providers and other benefactors holding a risk of material longevity-related loss. In particular, the product offers an interesting alternative to long term care insurance, as an estate preservation tool."
Legacy's founder, Larry E. Fondren, CLU, ChFC, FLMI also added that, "in many cases, a DBL Policy can provide greater and more cost-effective benefits to seniors, and their family and estate, than a retirement annuity and other less tax-efficient solutions."
For more information, or to speak directly to John Skar or Larry Fondren, please contact Melinda Staab at (973) 400-1341 or melinda@jcpublicrelations.com.
www.insurancenewsnet.com
How Crafty Insurers Deny Care
Monday, September 22, 2008 5:02 AM
Criticism of Britain's government-run health system, known for its rationing, became red hot last month when patients and doctors got wind of government plans to say no to several new lifesaving drugs because of cost. In an op-ed in the Daily Mail,one of Britain's leading oncologists, Jonathan Waxman of Imperial College London, reflected public sentiment as he decried a "misguided and barbaric decision to ban four kidney cancer drugs" that double life expectancy--adding years of life for many patients. You may think this is just happening in Britain. Not so. Only here in the United States, it's the apparatchiks in private insurance companies, managing half of America's medical expenditures for the non-Medicare population in ways often hidden and arbitrary, who hold the broad authority to deny coverage--and therefore, care.
The public is generally unaware of the denials unless the human drama triggers media interest. There's the 17-year-old girl who died before her liver transplant was approved. Or the people in California whose insurers canceled their policies retroactively after they got sick. But these cases are the tip of an opaque iceberg. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of claims are denied for various reasons. Some of them are technical, such as not meeting filing deadlines or failing to get pretreatment authorizations. Denials that produce the most disputes are those where insurers judge the care to be unnecessary or unproven, pitting a proverbial sick David against a multibillion-dollar Goliath. What few Davids know is that insurance contracts grant companies the legal right to manage a patient's care, sight unseen, overruling physician decisions.Iffy and arbitrary. Some denials are reasonable, but many are iffy and seem downright arbitrary, with one insurer saying no to care that others with similar policies reimburse. An FDA-approved drug might be denied because it's used "off-label," even if it's recognized therapy in peer-reviewed medical reports. In cancer care, intravenous chemotherapy drugs given in a doctor's office may be covered, while equivalent, if not better, medicines taken orally are not. When insurance authorization is required for each scan or hospital stay for the same major illness, who's best to say what's medically necessary? Doctors and their staff will spend hours trying to get approvals, but patients should be warned that if the company denies the claim, payment is the patients' responsibility--with bill collectors ready at their door.
Here's how they work:
1) All insureds age 65 and older are eligible for coverage, regardless of their current medical condition;
2) Policy owners pay level monthly, quarterly or annual premiums until the insured reaches age 100 or passes away; 3) To minimize the required premiums, DBL Policies develop no cash or surrender value, and pay no death benefit during the initial "Benefit-Deferral Period" selected by the policy owner (ranging from 3 to 20 years in duration); and
4) Following the Benefit-Deferral Period, the policy's death benefit increases each year per the schedule specified by the policy owner in their DBL application.
Legacy Funding's Managing Director and Chief Actuary, John R. Skar, FSA, CLU, ChFC, noted that, "by providing a death benefit that increases as the insured ages, DBL Policies effectively protect not only investors funding our LegacyLoan(TM) product, but also families, pension funds, care-providers and other benefactors holding a risk of material longevity-related loss. In particular, the product offers an interesting alternative to long term care insurance, as an estate preservation tool."
Legacy's founder, Larry E. Fondren, CLU, ChFC, FLMI also added that, "in many cases, a DBL Policy can provide greater and more cost-effective benefits to seniors, and their family and estate, than a retirement annuity and other less tax-efficient solutions."
For more information, or to speak directly to John Skar or Larry Fondren, please contact Melinda Staab at (973) 400-1341 or melinda@jcpublicrelations.com.
www.insurancenewsnet.com
How Crafty Insurers Deny Care
Monday, September 22, 2008 5:02 AM
Criticism of Britain's government-run health system, known for its rationing, became red hot last month when patients and doctors got wind of government plans to say no to several new lifesaving drugs because of cost. In an op-ed in the Daily Mail,one of Britain's leading oncologists, Jonathan Waxman of Imperial College London, reflected public sentiment as he decried a "misguided and barbaric decision to ban four kidney cancer drugs" that double life expectancy--adding years of life for many patients. You may think this is just happening in Britain. Not so. Only here in the United States, it's the apparatchiks in private insurance companies, managing half of America's medical expenditures for the non-Medicare population in ways often hidden and arbitrary, who hold the broad authority to deny coverage--and therefore, care.
The public is generally unaware of the denials unless the human drama triggers media interest. There's the 17-year-old girl who died before her liver transplant was approved. Or the people in California whose insurers canceled their policies retroactively after they got sick. But these cases are the tip of an opaque iceberg. An estimated 10 to 15 percent of claims are denied for various reasons. Some of them are technical, such as not meeting filing deadlines or failing to get pretreatment authorizations. Denials that produce the most disputes are those where insurers judge the care to be unnecessary or unproven, pitting a proverbial sick David against a multibillion-dollar Goliath. What few Davids know is that insurance contracts grant companies the legal right to manage a patient's care, sight unseen, overruling physician decisions.Iffy and arbitrary. Some denials are reasonable, but many are iffy and seem downright arbitrary, with one insurer saying no to care that others with similar policies reimburse. An FDA-approved drug might be denied because it's used "off-label," even if it's recognized therapy in peer-reviewed medical reports. In cancer care, intravenous chemotherapy drugs given in a doctor's office may be covered, while equivalent, if not better, medicines taken orally are not. When insurance authorization is required for each scan or hospital stay for the same major illness, who's best to say what's medically necessary? Doctors and their staff will spend hours trying to get approvals, but patients should be warned that if the company denies the claim, payment is the patients' responsibility--with bill collectors ready at their door.
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