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How To Save Money On Your Health Care In Retirement
The cost of health care just seems to go up and up and up. If you have original Medicare and have purchased a supplement you may have noticed that each year your coverage tends to get more and more expensive. The problem is when you are living on a fixed income these increases can really hurt. So what are some [...]
Why Am I Getting Called And Mailed About Medicare So Much Lately?
In case you did not know October 15th Through December 7th is the annual Medicare Open Enrollment Period. This is the time during which Medicare enrollees can re-evaluate their Medicare coverage and make changes if they want to do so. For this reason, you may be getting phone calls, emails, and postcards from every yahoo with an Insurance License trying [...]
Did you Know Medicare Is a Means Tested Government Program?
If you are like most of the people I tell that to they usually say, what does that even mean? (No pun intended) Well, a Means-tested program from the government is one where they first look at your wages before they see how the program applies to you. Now, you might be saying, that does not sound right because everyone [...]
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Helpful Glossary
The Four Financial Advisor Business Models And How They Charge You
The Stock Broker
The Stock Broker business model is one where the Advisor does not charge you ANY fees at all and simply gets paid a commission for selling you a particular investment.
Mutual Fund / A Shares
Product may charge a Front end load of 3.75% to 5.75% on Average* as an upfront off the top charge in addition to annual management fees of about 1.44% per year**
Variable Annuities
Typically don’t carry a front end charge but in addition to annual management fees usually around 1% they may also charge a Surrender Charge of 6% or higher decreasing over a period of years if you take all of your money out.
Mortality and Expense Fees
Most Variable annuities also charge a fee for Life Insurance that can tack on an additional 1% per year or more on top of the other mentioned fees.
The Insurance Agent
The Insurance agent business model works very similarly to the Stock Broker Model above. The Insurance agent Advisor does not charge you ANY fees at all and simply gets paid a commission for selling you a particular Insurance Product.
Fixed Annuities
Most have a back-end surrender charge that decreases over a period of years. You only pay this charge if you take all of your money out early or withdraw more than the allowed percentage in a given year. Typically you have access to 10% without a fee.
- NOTE: Unlike Variable Annuities Fixed Annuities typically don’t have ANY front end or ongoing annual management fees or life insurance costs built in.
- Life Insurance: Most life insurance plans charge Front end fees and back-end fees as well as ongoing costs to cover the charge for the death benefits.
The Fee-Only Advisor
A Fee-only Advisor business model is one where the Advisor charges a fee for advice or for managing money.
The Hybrid Advisor
A Hybrid Advisor is a business model that is a blend of two or more of the business models above.