Keep in mind, Social Security was really designed to be about a 1/3rd supplement to other forms of retirement income. Initially it was figured you’d have a pension covering about a third of what you need, your personal savings would cover a third and Social Security would take up the slack and cover the final third.

Unfortunately, for most people, pensions have all but dried up.

Will your personal savings provide a third of what you’ll need at retirement?

For many people 401(k)s have replaced their pension. As I see it, there are three problems with this plan.

First, if 401(k)s (personal savings) have replaced our pensions, that means 2/3rds of your retirement will be coming from personal savings.

Second, the only place a lot of people do save is their 401(k) plan. I’ve noticed a lot of people taking loans or closing their plans out as they change jobs. They are losing a large chunk of their money to taxes and penalties. Even bigger, the money they lose in potential earnings from then until they retire will almost never be recovered.

Third, how’s your 401(k) performing? Through either bad advice, unforeseen market changes or simple greed (investing too aggressively), plans made many years ago are way off the mark from where people thought they would be.

Social Security, for most people, is all they’ll really have unless they make some changes.

You can try to get back what you’ve lost by taking even more risk but I wouldn’t advise it.

There are some set fundamentals I would suggest. Before plowing more money into your 401(k) or 403(b) plan, make sure you have a solid emergency fund. 3 to 6 months worth of your expenses is a good start.  It’ll act as an insurance policy to keep your money in your 401(k).

A fixed annuity through Farm Bureau Life Insurance is a way to start putting the building blocks together. After the emergency fund, an annuity can offer a great place to save your money for the long term. It will offer you a guaranteed income for life when you’re ready.  It will help make your life more predictable.

Please call me to get more information. I can be reached at (231) 744-9099 or start by visiting www.muskegonlifeinsurance.com

As an applicant for life insurance, you’ll be placed in a risk category, such as “Preferred” or “Standard,” along with a subcategory of “No Nicotine” that indicates whether or not you have smoked or use nicotine.

Rates for “Preferred, No Nicotine” will be lower than “Preferred, Nicotine” despite the current health of the applicant, because of the higher long-term risk of illness or death due to smoking-related diseases.

Are you considered a smoker?
The questions about smoking and tobacco use are very specific when you apply for life insurance. A typical application will ask, “Have you used a tobacco product in the last twelve months?” You’ll need to explain whether you use cigarettes, cigars or even chewing tobacco. Most importantly, you must state how often you use each tobacco product.

Whether you smoke several cigarettes a day or half a pack, you are a smoker and should answer the questions completely and honestly. But, here’s the thing. If you only have a cigarette once a month when you’re having a beer, you’re still considered a smoker by most life insurers. The health risks are basically the same for occasional smokers – and the rates are often the same as well. However, cigar smokers who light up 3 or 4 times a year often get a break and are classified as non-smokers. From a life insurance standpoint, the celebratory cigar does not make you a “smoker” in the true sense of the word.

To tell the truth
During the life insurance application and underwriting process, you may be required to get a medical examination to verify your health. Depending on the company and the type of insurance you purchase, the exam may include blood and urine tests as well as a full check-up.

Can a smoker “cheat” the system? Your body generally rids itself of nicotine within 72 hours. So, if the blood test and urine sample are given 72 hours after you last smoked, the nicotine level may be low enough to escape detection, but know that companies are looking for a negative reading for nicotine – not just a low level. If you’ve submitted your application as a non-smoker and have a positive result for nicotine, Farm Bureau can raise the rate or choose not to issue a policy.

What happens if you are caught?
If you’re a smoker and you don’t tell the truth on an application, you can be charged with insurance fraud. In addition, if your insurer makes the discovery while investigating a claim that’s made after your death, they could contest the validity of your policy contract – and deny the claim for benefits based on your misrepresentation of the facts. If they discover your lie during the 2 year contestability period, they might choose to cancel the policy, if they don’t offer policies to smokers.

What if you start smoking again after the policy is issued?
It is important to be truthful when filling out your life insurance policy, but if you start smoking after it’s issued, you are not required to tell your insurance company. If you die, and your life insurance premium was based on the nonsmoker rate, and you later began smoking, your death benefit will not be jeopardized. However, it’s important to note again that if your cause of death is found to be a smoking-related illness, your beneficiary could have problems when making a claim.

Looking for different information? Have questions or feedback? Please let me know.

Contacy me at www.muskegonlifeinsurance.com or (231) 744-9099

Often, drivers may wonder what other types of things they can compare besides the price that is being offered. We will go over some other factors about insurance companies that can be looked at and compared to ensure the future policyholder will be satisfied with not only the price they are paying, but also with the insurer as a whole. It is important to experience satisfaction with an insurer because a policyholder who is frustrated with any aspect of their automobile insurance will most likely spend more time looking for another company’s coverage.

Customer Service
The first aspect of auto insurance companies we will discuss is their ability to provide excellent customer service. Customer service doesn’t just include polite manners used over the phone, but it involves more than that. Any time a policyholder needs to deal with their insurer, whether it be to ask a question, file a claim, or pay a bill, their experience interacting with a representative of the insurance company needs to be a positive one. The time when a policyholder contacts the insurer directly is more important than the time spent browsing the company’s website. Both instances should be informative, easy, and not intimidating. The policyholder should feel welcomed and valued, and when the experience is completed that policyholder shouldn’t feel the desire to avoid any more contact. You can start checking us out at www.muskegonautoinsurance.net

One way to evaluate an insurer’s customer service abilities is by asking trusted family and friends about who they have used in the past and who they are currently using. Find out about their experiences, both positive and negative, and what they would like to see changed, if anything. Asking a large number of people will help give the best findings, but keep in mind that other people’s opinions about what is and is not important may differ from each other and you. Another way to gather this type of information is by turning to a third party company that evaluates insurer’s customer service abilities. One such company that does an excellent job is the  Ward Group. They evaluate many aspects from bill pay options to overall customer service. They give star ratings to each company and annually they determine which company provides the best customer service. It’s a great way to compare insurers using an unbiased reference.

Financial Strength
The next aspect to consider when comparing car insurance providers is checking into their financial strength. Wouldn’t it be terrible if you went to file a claim, only to find the insurer doesn’t have any money to pay for the damages that were supposed to be covered according to your policy? You would be left paying for those repairs out of pocket even though you had every right to hand the costs over to your insurer. Knowing the financial strength of an insurer can help drivers choose the best insurer for them according to the insurer’s ability to pay for what they’ve claimed they will pay.

Much like the customer service review, there are other companies who review the financial status of insurance companies. It would be very time consuming if drivers spent their time watching the quarterly earnings of each insurer they are considering, evaluating how much free cash flow and debt each insurer has accrued. Instead, drivers can turn to companies like AM Best and Standard and Poor’s to find these professional ratings and opinions. They are willing to share their findings to the public for free, so every consumer should take advantage while searching for their optimal auto insurance provider. I encourage you to check out Farm Bureau through these companies.

AM Best (ambest.com) gives their ratings in the form of letter grades, with pluses and minuses for added levels. They recommend a company who has earned a grade of a B+ or better. AM Best feels these auto insurance companies are financially secure, while those who receive lower grades are vulnerable to financial mishaps. Standard and Poor’s works very similar, also distributing grades for their ratings. Both of these auto insurance companies can be relied on by any driver who is comparing auto  insurers and wants to know of their financial strength. After all, no one wants to be placed in the negative situation mentioned above when an auto insurer can’t provide their coverage.

Price Isn’t Always Everything
To emphasize once more, there is more to choosing an auto insurer besides the price they are asking. A smaller, local company may charge a little bit more money for the same policy offered by a national insurance chain, but that smaller company may provide much better customer service and give more care and attention to their policyholders than what the national chain can. On the flip side, the national chain may have stronger financial strength when compared to the smaller local companies. It all depends on what is important to the policyholder. Knowing what is important before looking for a new or evaluating a current auto insurance companies is key when trying to choose the best insurer.

Take into consideration these elements of an insurer when looking for top rated auto insurance companies.  In a matter of minutes we can provide you with a quote for insuring the things that matter most to you.

Visit us at www.SteveBedgoodAgency.com

How Likely Is a Rate Increase?

The chance of an increase in premium rises along with several factors:

• Accident severity.
• Your degree of fault, unless you’re in a “no-fault” state.
• The value of the insurance claim you or the other driver files.
• Type of violation, if you get a ticket at all.
• Whether the violation or accident appears on your MVR or CLUE report.

How Much Money?

Like everything else about insurance prices, the amount of an increase, if any, varies by company. However, based on a 2008 Insurance.com study of the effect a violation or insurance claim has on premiums, the price can be high. Drivers who had an additional ticket saw their rates increase from $157 to $248 a year while those who had an additional claim saw increases ranging from $302 to $458 annually.

When Will It Go Up?

These increases are typically seen at renewal time, but if you didn’t notify your insurance company (please do!) and no one made a claim, it could take awhile for the company to find out. Rest assured that they will not be happy to uncover a ticket or accident you failed to report. If you’re switching companies, they may not find out until they order your driving or claims history, at which time they may decide not to issue you a policy.

Accident Forgiveness

Some insurance companies, including us at Farm Bureau,  offer an accident forgiveness feature for our clients. If yours does—and you qualify—your rates may not increase if you’re found to be at fault in a relatively minor accident. However, there could be severe consequences if you’re involved in a major accident and you’re driving under the influence. Remember that there are worse things that can happen than a higher insurance premium, like license suspension and jail time.

MVR = Motor Vehicle Report. Not every traffic ticket actually appears on your MVR. In fact, in some states only 75% of all moving violations are ever recorded on an MVR.

CLUE = Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange. C.L.U.E. is a claims history database created by ChoicePoint that allows insurance companies to access your claims information when they underwrite or rate a policy. The report includes claim information such as date of loss, type of loss and amounts paid, and vehicle description.

Car Insurance can vary widely from company to company. Come see me at the Steve Bedgood Agency and we’ll do our best to get you get you the best policy we can based on your situation.

Contact me at www.muskegonautoinsurance.net or call me at (231) 744-9099

Dividends:
FB Essential Whole Life provides a level or fixed death benefit for a level premium. As a participating policy, FB Essential Whole Life gives you the right to “participate” in any distributions of surplus funds generated through careful investing by Farm Bureau Life and receive policy dividends.

Options:
With FB Essential Whole Life you can take advantage of a variety of optional coverages to make your policy meet your specific needs. Some of the options include:

* Paid-Up Additions Rider
* Waiver of Premium Rider
* Base Insured Term Rider
* Additional Insured Term Rider
* Children’s Rider
* Accelerated Death Benefit Rider
* Accidental Death Rider

Whatever your situation, you can make FB Essential Whole Life provide additional security.

Contact me at 231-744-9099 for more information or e-mail me at steve.bedgood@fbinsmi.com

As we all know, insurance can be expensive. However, like my attorney says “sometimes the least expensive option is the most expensive attorney”.

 When she said that I had to think about it for a moment. What she was saying is that the quality of service and what that attorney can save your family in time, money, estate taxes etc. can be far greater than the fee.

 I’m not saying that you need the most expensive insurance. What I am saying is that going to the “cheapest” insurance can really end up costing you or your family thousands of dollars if a claim doesn’t get paid.

 As a Farm Bureau agent I do my best to educate my clients on all thier options and still keep thier budget in mind. 

 Please check us out at www.SteveBedgoodAgency.com