Health and Wellness Show 02-01-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Good morning. If you're just joining us, and thanks for
sticking with us. If you were here for the Home
Improvement show last hour, it's not time for the Health
and Wealer Show on one of the three point five
FM five sixty AMWVOC and of course on the new
and improved iHeartRadio app. Of you download the upload yet,

(00:31):
very cool. It's good to have you with us, and
coming up, we've got lots of great information to pass
along to you. John Farley, Matthew Terry, preservation specialist, will
be in here in just a short while. Diversification well
in the stock market, yes, but broader than that is
what we'll talk about this morning. Jim Snell lost James

(00:53):
Nell will be in He'll be joining us in the
next half hour right now. Though, let's get you covered
here when it comes to all your insurance needs. Health
Insurance Day's Jeff how is joining us from health markets
once again this morning.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Jeff, Good morning, my friend, Good morning Gary.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
How you doing, my friend?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm doing well on this Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Good health insurance. And I hate to make this all
about myself, but you know I'm the kind of the
perfect example right now. I turned sixty five this year
and we have had conversations in the past about Medicare coverage.
I guess the secret is this, Jeff, you don't have
to wait until you're almost sixty five to start thinking
about this.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Right, that's correct. I meet with many people who are
just turning sixty, sixty three, sixty four, and they come
into my office at the flight right by the flight
Deck restaurant in Lecxing ten and we do some planning.
Because health expense is the number one expense that a
person has after they retire, so it's good to plan
with someone like myself and see exactly what those expenses

(01:50):
are going to look like.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, because I was going to ask you so, so
if somebody who's sixty years old listening and they're thinking, Okay, gosh,
I got five more years, why do I need to
start right now? I guess there's a lot to a
lot to consider.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Here, that's true. And a lot of people are thinking
about retiring before they're sixty five. So what does health
insurance look like when you're sixty two? Or if, say,
if you're a spouse and you are the main employee
on a group health plan and you take Medicare at
sixty five, and your spouse is still sixty two, what

(02:22):
does her health insurance costs look like? So there are
manufacturers to consider, right.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
And you just mentioned this. But let's say you're planning
to retire at sixty two, sixty three, sixty four, whatever
the age is before sixty five. Well, you feel free
to retire. You can take that early social Security if
you like, but you can't get medicare. I you're sixty five.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Right, that's true. So we would look at a solution
on the marketplace, such as an individual Blue Cross Blue
Shield plan, and I would sit down and look what
those costs look like. And then of course when a
person turns sixty five, they would transition over to Medicare,
and then we would plan on what those costs look like.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Okay, so let's say we want to get a to
all the different options you have here in a second, Jeff,
But again, let's talk about somebody who's approaching that age
of sixty five. What's the timeline of when they need
to be doing what?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yes, good question. So three months before the first day
or birthday month. So for example, if you turn sixty
five in June, then around March first, which would be
three d three months before June first, around March first,
you would on contact Medicare Social Security. You can do
that really one of three ways. You can do it

(03:29):
online SSA dot gov where it used to be Search
Security dot gov, and you can hit the apply for
Medicare button there and make sure you apply for parts.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
A and B.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
You can call Medicare Social Security one eight hundred Medicare
and they'll set you up a phone appointment with a
Medicare dot Gov specialist and they'll sign you up for
Medicare A and B. Or you can call and make
an appointment at a local office such as a Strong
Thurman building downtown Columbia, and you can do it in.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Person, which I again highly advise against based on past history.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Okay, yeah, online is always best and I do help
people at my office with the online process. So instead
of going down to Strong Thurman building waiting three hours
down there, you can come to my Health Markets office
and we can sit down on my computer and get
you all signed up for A and B. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Okay, okay, good, But if you choose to do it
on your own online, I mean, are there any questions
you're going to encounter during the process that you go, oh, gosh,
I have no idea there could be.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
So for example, you want to keep the money part
and the health part separate. Right, So if you're turning
sixty five, but you're not going to take Social Security,
you're going to wait for your full retirement age, say
sixty seven or you know, sixty six and ten months whenever.
That is you know, different different people have, you know,
people have different max retirement ages. But if you don't

(04:56):
want to take the money and you want to just
you know, let that's you know, defer that for a while.
You just want to make sure not to click on
that button that says yes, I want to take Social Security.
So there are some tricky parts in there. And then
of course if a person is staying on their group
health plan and they want to defer Part B and
not take Medicare right now, they would enroll in Part

(05:17):
A and defer Part B and we can do that
online also.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, So just just to be able to safe side
so you don't like, you know, hit a wrong button somewhere,
probably a good idea to come sit down with you
and make sure you're hitting all the right buttons.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
I guess glad to help I've done a million times,
so glad to help. I'm glad to be a resource
for that.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Absolutely great. Now again, you know, a lot a lot
of folks listening this morning, you've been on Medicare maybe
for a long time. You know all these things. But again,
for those who aren't there yet, maybe it would be
good to again define a couple of things here. Because
you just threw out Part A in part B. We've
all heard about that over the years. Those of us
aren't for that age yet. But exactly what what does

(05:56):
that mean Part A and part B.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yes, so everyone's probably seen the classic red, white and
blue card, which is a Medicare card. So Part A
is the hospital, essentially room and board at the hospital.
Part B is everything else health related, such as doctors, MRIs, surgeries,
everything else. If you've worked ten years in your life

(06:20):
since you turn you know, fifteen years old, you know,
up until you turn sixty five, your barn was called
forty quarters of credits. Your Part A is free, so
you don't pay anything part A. What people are very
surprised about when they meet with me the first time
is that part B is not free. Part B in
twenty twenty four is one hundred and seventy four dollars

(06:40):
and seventy cents is what most people pay. However, if
your income is higher, you could pay more than that
standard amount. And so there's a chart that I show
people and we walk them through. But most people pay
the standard one hundred and seventy four dollars and seventy cents.
If a person is getting so security, they take that
one seventy four seventy write out there, soch security check.

(07:02):
If they're not getting such security yet, if they're waiting
on that, then they'll be bill quarterly for that one
seventy four seventy.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, this is maybe a stupid question, but I mean,
do we know why they decided to set it up
this way? Did split it into parts A in part B?
You know with.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
They did that in nineteen sixty eight Lyndon B. Johnson.
That's how they did it, the original original, the original
Medicare Act. Yeah. So, and then in two thousand and
six came to fruition the Part D Act to the
Prescription Drug Act. And so that's the that's the third
that's the third letter you need to know A B

(07:40):
and D and so D means prescription drugs, and so essentially,
if you don't get a prescription drug plan you're first eligible,
you will be penalized if you ever do down the
road purchase a prescription drug plan. So really I always
find that interesting. You know, the Prescription Drug Act was
a Republican law, and they penalized you for not getting it,

(08:02):
and of course, down down some years later came the
Affordable Care Act, where people are penalized for not getting that.
There's a Democrat law. So republican, the Democrats have the
same ideas, just in different points in time.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
They're all out together, all out together. Okay, so let's
back up again a second. Yeah, so what happened to
Part C? What they they left Part C out? What
is that?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Part C is your Medicare advantage plan?

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Oh okay, okay, your.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
Medicare advantage plans are part SEE and that's where you
can you still pay the one seventy four seventy everyone
pays that, but many Part C plans have no premium
on top of that, and they cover your health, your dental, vision, hearing.
They have prescription drug plans built in, So that's one
option for the insurance to go along with your Medicare.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Okay, and we want to talk more about that here
in a second, but let's go back to Part D
for a moment. Make sure I got this straight here. Okay,
So originally you you're not you got A. You're coming
off your employee health plan. Okay, let's use this example.
You're going to have to sign up for parts A
and part B. Okay, if you're staying on your employee

(09:10):
health plan, you still have to sign up for Part A,
but you don't have to sign up for Part B.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Correct right, or see or D or see potentially do
you do nothing but you sign up for part and
you defer the rest?

Speaker 1 (09:23):
Okay, what if you hit sixty five and you're still
working and you're covered by your employee health plan, but
you just don't even think about it, I don't even
know about you don't sign up for Part A. Are
any penalties for that?

Speaker 2 (09:35):
There are? So you have to do something, if you
have to do something, So within those three months before
you turn sixty five, you have to let medicare and
know what you're doing. Either you're going to take Parts
A and B and enroll, or you're going to enroll
in A and defer the rest until you do one
day retire and your group health plan.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Is I'm not sure why that makes any sense, but
that's just the way it is. I guess right, that's
right now.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Don't apply logic to the government.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know, well, that's a good point. We are talking
to the government after all. All right, So but again
my question back to Part D for a second, then
we'll get to Part C. So you decide that you're
signing up for AMB but you're like, you know what,
I'm not. I got no medications I'm taking here. I

(10:20):
don't have to worry about that right now. I'll do
it later on. You just told us you can do that,
but you're going to be penalized when you do. What
is that penalty, Jeff?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
So, essentially, the penalty is one percent of the average
drug card costs in your area, and right now it's
about thirty six cents, because the average drug card costs
about about thirty six dollars. So you take that, you
take that thirty six cents. You said, oh, that's not
too bad, right, Let's say let's let's say five years

(10:52):
go on. So it's thirty six to six thirty six
cents per month for every month you didn't have a
drug card per month eligible. Oh, so it's that thirty
six month, thirty six cents times twelve times five. So
let's say five years later you do get a drug card.
You say, okay, well that's you know, not the end
of the world. However, that penalty stays with you the

(11:12):
rest of your life.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Of course it does.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
So let's say that you get a drug card, you know,
five years later, and the drug card is forty dollars
a month. Well, now with the penalty, you're now paying
fifty four dollars a month, you know, for the fourteen
dollars penalty, And that fourteen dollar penalty stays with you
the rest of your life, and no matter what drug
card you buy, you'll always pay plus fourteen dollars, even

(11:37):
when you're one hundred years old.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Oh okay, all right, So.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
You need to get the part D when you're first eligience. Okay,
that's what that's the moral of that story.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
So let's let's let's let's cook up another scenario here. Jeff,
you take the part of either Part B. You say,
I'm not going to worry about Part D or C
right now, it's not a big deal. For me for
whatever reason. But oh a year, two years down the road,
you say, you find out, Okay, I'm gonna get this
penalty if I sign up a party now, so never mind,

(12:05):
I'll just go with Part C. Are you penalized? Is
there a penalty there?

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yes? Well, most parts most Part C plans do include
prescription drug coverage.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
Right, so you don't need Part D if you have
Part C.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
That's right. The Part C covers everything. So the prescription
drug plan and many Part C Medicare advantage plans is
built in. So when you get a Medicare advantage plan,
you first turn sixty five, you check that box. We're
having credible Part D coverage. So you're good. You are good.
But down the road five years, ten years later, you've

(12:40):
done nothing on the drug card part If you purchase
a drug card by itself, a Part D or a
Medicare Part C with prescription drug coverage, you will be penalized.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Now that there are party Medicare advantage plans that do
not include prescription drug coverage, A lot of times I
sell those to people who or veterans or get their
prescriptions through the VA, so they have credible drug coverage
with the VA, and a lot of times these Medicare
advantge plans without drug plan coverage have nice extra benefits.

(13:13):
Since they don't have to provide the drug card benefits,
money goes into other benefits like I'm putting one hundred
dollars cash back into your SO security check or five
thousand dollars worth of dental all these extra benefits the
veterans get on Medicare advantage plans without drug coverage.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Okay, okay, gotcha. And as we've talked about the past,
the parts see the Medicare advantage plans have grown tremendously
in popularity over the last couple of years.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yes, so in twenty twenty two was the first year
that more Medicare Advantage plans were purchased and Medicare supplements,
So the tide has turned. It used to be throughout
my whole insurance career, I sold more Medicare supplements and
everyone else did too, the Medicare advantage, but it's kind
of flipped now now Medicare advantage plans are more popular,

(14:05):
But just because they're more popular does not mean they're
the right solution for everyone. You know, everyone I meet
with is different. And so if I sit down with
someone Medicare supplement and drug card, very well, maybe the
perfect solution for them, and the next person who walks
through my door Medicare advantage may be the right solution.
So it's very tabored to everyone's particular needs.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
So let's talk about the cost of the two. So
you got your A, got your B. Now you go
with the part D. What's the cost of adding that on?

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Right, So let's let's first talk about what A and
B gets you. So if you have that red, white
and blue card and you've gotten am B, what do
you have in your hand? Essentially, you have a card
at a doctor and hospital will cover eighty percent of
medical costs you have. You have some deductibles there also,
but let's just talk in generality. Eighty percent of your
medical costs are covered. Now you're on the hook for

(15:01):
twenty percent of the medical cost plus some deductibles. So
that's what a Medicare supplement would cover. It's also called
a medic gap plan, meaning it covers the gaps that
Medicare has, So you get what's called a plan G.
It covers the gaps of Medicare. So now when you
go into a doc or hospital, you give them your red, white,
blue Medicare card, you give them your Medicare supplement cards,

(15:24):
and other than a one time part be deductible, which
is this year two hundred and forty dollars. Once you
meet that two hundred and forty dollars deductible, you're covered
one hundred percent. I mean, it's the best insurance in
the world. You could be in a coma all summer,
wake up, and you'll do nothing when you wake up, Prismo,
Lex and Medical Center wherever you are. The great thing

(15:44):
about doing it that way is that Medicare is your network.
So when Medicare is primary, so every hospital in the
country takes Medicare and every hospital system, so you really
have no worries about traveling out of state. You have
no worries about Oh I'm worried about you know, well,

(16:06):
Prisma take you know, no, Yes, you're good. Prisma will
take that. Lex and Medical Center would take thatoc Providence
will take that all day. You have Medicare.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
You want to help somebody, have somebody to help you
sift through the maze here of all this, here's your guy.
How do folks reach you?

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Jeff Yes, My office is right beside the Flight Deck
restaurant in Lexington. My phone number where you can text
re call is eight zero three six seven eight eight
one two one. It's eight oh three six seven eight
eight one two one. Website by name Jeff Howle dot com.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
All right, thank you, Jeff, Thank you.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Gay.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Hi, this is John Farling.

Speaker 4 (16:43):
Now let me ask you.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Is your retirement inflation proof?

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Here's what I mean?

Speaker 3 (16:48):
In retirement chances are you run a fixed income with
variable expenses. So how do you not run out of
money when the cost of just about everything continues to
go up?

Speaker 1 (16:58):
You inflation proof it.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
Our team at Preservation Specialists can show you strategies to
help combat inflation so it doesn't outpace your retirement income.
Call us today at ATO three nine Retire to learn more.
Inflation could take a huge chunk out of your retirement savings,
but it doesn't have to. With some simple planning, Inflation
can go from being a major disruption to just a

(17:20):
minor annoyance. Call the team at ATO three nine Retire
now to start inflation proofing your retirement today at three
nine Retire. That's eight three nine Retire Securities offer through
Okado's Capital member Finner and SFPC Advisory Services off through Okados,
Will Preservation Specialists and Arkados are not affiliated through any ownership.

Speaker 5 (17:40):
The hunt for quality insurance is more important than ever,
and with Jeff Howell and the team at Health Markets
and Lexington, finding that perfect plan is easier than ever,
whether health or medicare insurance, let the experts guide you
toward ease of mind at a healthier future. And who
couldn't use that nowadays? Jeff Howell and Health Markets do
all the grunt work for you. They make the calls,

(18:00):
compare the plans and prices, and find you the insurance
plan that fits your needs. Best of all, their help
is at no cost to you. They work with nationally
recognized insurance companies to give you the affordable insurance you're
looking for. So whether you're self employed or in a
small business, an individual or seeking a family plan, they
have you covered literally from head to toe. Called Jeff

(18:23):
Howell in Health Markets at eight o three six seven
eight eight one two one, or visit Jeffhowel dot com
that's eight oh three sixty seven eight eight one two
one or Jeff Howle dot com and let them find
the right insurance for you.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Hey, We're back on the Health and Wellness Show on
one O three point five FM at five sixty AMWVOC
back to the studio this week. It's John Farley, Matthew Terry,
the guy's from Preservation Specialists. Good morning, gentlemen, We gary
a good morning morning. Wow we are One of the
things we want to talk about today is eggs and baskets. Yes,

(19:15):
how many times as a financial advisor do you have
to have that conversation? Quick note? Sometimes you get lucky.
You know, my late father in law he came upon
a stock years ago. Askedly. My wife, who was a
registered nurse at the time, got a tip from a
doctor about a particular you know, pharmaceutical product, and she

(19:37):
passed it along to him, thinking he might, you know,
buy a little bit of it. Well, he bought a
bunch and it turned out to be very profitable for him.
But that's the exception to the rule. Uh. We saw
recently a scare with well the tech stalks of the
nastag that took a big head and one in particular

(19:59):
U that really tanked as a result of that new
Chinese AIH what deep sex It's called right six no
deep sea see the six Yeah, yeah, it was the Nvidia.
It'sok a, what did I what did I see? The
the CEO, the guy that really owns the whole. Well,
it's like eighteen billion dollars on paper in one day.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Yeah, yeah, a couple hours.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah yeah, it's just nuts.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Ye.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
So uh well, yeah, we've all heard it, you know, diversification,
but now what you guys do. There's diversification, then there's diversification. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
So so to your point, Gary, I mean, I it's interesting.
I had a woman come in uh uh. This wasn't
too long ago, and she had done very well on
her own selection for her own retirement account. She was
self employed, so she had her own It wasn't a
company for them, Okay, it was her own, so she
could select things. And I looked at her returns, and
her returns were staggering over the last was this Nancy Pelosi? Yeah,

(21:06):
it was, yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, over the last ten years,
she had a compound return of more than twenty percent.
And I when just looking at the raw numbers, I
said to her, girl, you don't need me. I mean,
you know, you're doing great, but when you look under
the hood, this is what happened. She bought Nvidia, and

(21:29):
so her Invidia stock was carrying the whole load, which
was great now, that was but but a few days ago, right,
And the other thing about it was this her entire
other or her entire other stuff had performed actually below
the market. So it's a very interesting thing to look at.
And I guess that the point in all of that is,

(21:49):
so if you're looking, if you're at the time in
your life when you're looking, Okay, I want growth, growth, growth, Okay,
that is a good place to be. Stock are an
excellent place to be for growth.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Growth, growth.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
But you're really when you when you start to transition
into retirement or thinking about retirement. You know, think of
it this way. If you're you know, if you're hiker
or if you're climbing, your strategy for climbing up the
hill is vastly different from you than your strategy coming down.
So when you're when you're climbing, you want to have
all your supplies, you want to do this sort of thing.
But coming down, you're like, Okay, I need to make

(22:24):
sure I can make it. I need to make sure
I'm allocated in a certain way. I need to you know,
and and it's that is that is also the same
when you're talking about your your financial life, is that
in the first many years, you're climbing, you're saving, you're accumulating,
you're doing that sort of stuff. So having your stuff
in kind of aggressive stocks is a is a good

(22:46):
way to go in a lot of cases because you
you know, you can you can weather these storms. But
once you get there, it's a different story. And and
there's a lot of people you know, who continue with
this strategy into retirement, which you know that that can
really cost you.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah, you know, you guys have talked before, Matthew, because
if you're waiting until you you know, are retiring and
getting well, nobody gets a gold watch anymore. But whatever,
before you start to make these moves that that you've
waited too long, I think I think you all mentioned
before the first ten years or the last ten years

(23:25):
before retirement, in the first ten years after a time
really key periods.

Speaker 6 (23:30):
Yeah, you're you're spot on. I mean, as you get
closer and closer to that mountain peak, as John said,
and the analogy of the mountain, that peak represents your
retirement date. But really what's so important as you are
approaching that peak or approaching that retirement date of crossing
that finish line you certainly you can't really afford or

(23:51):
you can't really stomach. I would say a large pullback,
you know, within your four to one K if you
kind of continue to maintain and keep the pedal down
and say, hey, I'm gonna I'm committed to being aggressive,
but we all love the returns while the market's going up. Yeah, sure,
But on the flip side, if you're invested very aggressively,
the market goes down. Well, now what you've seen is

(24:13):
your entire life savings and your four to one K, Well,
maybe it's cut in half. And if it's cut in half,
the old rule was, well I have plenty of time
ahead of me. That doesn't really apply anymore.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Right, you're running out a runway.

Speaker 6 (24:26):
Now you're absolutely running out of runway. So that's part
of the reason why we say, hey, the last really
several years, we've continued to make all time highs within
the market. Now is an excellent time to actually look
at your four one K or really ask yourself, am
I diversified properly? Am I getting closer and closer to that?
You know, finish line or that Mountain peak, and have

(24:47):
I actually reallocated my four one K in the proper way.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
I'm glad you brought the market up because wow, I mean,
it has been an amazing run the last few years.
But all this happening on Wall Street when Main Street
and little people have suffered with the economy and the
thought that maybe we'll go into recession and YadA, YadA, YadA,
and well we all know the economic story. I'm not
sure guys that I really quite grasp. How you know

(25:12):
Wall Street is hitting record highs when the economy is
hit record lows? Yeah, is there anything? Can we make
any sense out of that?

Speaker 2 (25:21):
Well?

Speaker 3 (25:22):
I think it depends on your definition of I mean
that's a very deep question.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
I mean, you think about it.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
I mean, we could get into this discussion, Gary, But
I mean, you know, fifty years ago, the difference in
pay between a CEO and a worker was about a
factor of five, maybe six. Now it's a factor of
two or three hundred right now now that it's there's
so the economy it is definitely working for certain people,
know you know, So, yeah, you make a very good

(25:47):
point there. It life has changed in the past forty
fifty years.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, would you you know, if you put you looks
at your crystal ball, and nobody knows for sure. If
you did, you you'd be a billionaire. But I think
a lot of folks are waiting for the other, you know,
shoe to drop here when it comes to the markets.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah, so you do a correction here, Well, here's the point,
I mean, Warren Buffett says it, right, He says, you know,
trying to predict the market as a fool's Errand it's true, right,
We really don't know. But what we can say is
the last two years have been significant ups and the
last time, the last four times that's happened in the market,
three of the three of those times the successive year

(26:29):
there was a significant correction. The fourth time it happened
just before it was nineteen ninety eight. That it happened
just before the big correction of two thousand, which was
a three year correction. Right, So historically speaking, yes, but
I mean there's really no you know, there's no way

(26:49):
to know, yeah, I mean, and so much of that
will depend on all kinds of things that are way
way out of our control. So really what we try
to do is we try to reel it back and
bring it into people and say, look it, we want
to create some peace of mind for you in retirement.
So you have these you have these assets, you have
this money. Great, let's convert this money into usable income
for you. So you're now you know, again the analogy

(27:12):
of the mountain, right, you're climbing.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
You're climbing. You're climbing, you go up, you make.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
The peak, but in your way down, you're not going
back down the same way you came up. You have
new your new territory. You know, you're going into things like, Okay,
do I have my long term care take care of?
Do I do I have the money that I want
to do for my trips? Do we want to go
see the grand kids? Do I have you know, all
of these sort of things. That's different than climbing, right, So,
so the idea is is to take your your assets
and allocate them accordingly so that you can not have

(27:39):
to deal with these real significant and they can be
very significant market fluctuations, you know, ups and downs, and
that's that's the way to go.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
So, Matthew, when John mentions, you know, having that income
coming into your retirement years, people hear that, and you're
thinking one thing, annuity, right, yeah, but that's not all
there is.

Speaker 6 (27:58):
To this, right there, Certainly, that's not all there is.
You know, it's it's funny annuities from years ago, whenever
it was our grandparents' generation, annuities really got a bad rap,
and that was solely because the structure of annuities back
then it was called an immediate annuity, meaning you give
the insurance company your funds, they would pay you an

(28:22):
income stream, but upon your passing, the insurance company got
to keep everything. And as you can imagine, that upset
family members right and rightfully so. So obviously, anytime that
there's been a major event such as that in the
finance industry, we've had a revamping and a change of
structure and the style of investment. So that is no

(28:42):
longer how annuities work. But the good news for us
in our office is we're independent, and being independent, what
that allows us to do is to really source and
access all different types of investments. We're able to find
what is specifically best for the specific client to reach
their goals, and then we're able to offer it to them.
You know, we're unlike certainly not talking bad about anyone,

(29:03):
but we're unlike a lot of other financi shops to
where they're limited as into what they can offer their investments.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
I mean independent insurance agency kind of absolutely.

Speaker 6 (29:12):
You know, we're we're independent on the insurance side. We're
also independent on the security side. And what that means
is again we literally have access to any and all
investments out there, which is a huge, huge value add
to our clients.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
Well, when you talk John about income and retirement, you're
again you're not talking specifically or necessarily only about something
like it or doity. You are correct.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
I mean as as a person who's who's you know,
who's been doing this for a while now, you know,
I still am I am curious as to why certain
annuities are legal.

Speaker 1 (29:42):
To be honest with you, I.

Speaker 3 (29:43):
Mean, whoa you know that the person who comes in
and like, uh oh, that person's working with someone who
had a quota.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
It's it's really you know, you see that and you go, WHOA. Now,
there are certain annuities that would make sense for people
in retirement. They definitely would, but it's all depends on
your circumstances, and it all depends on your thing. The
biggest thing though, is having all your eggs in any
given basket is generally not a good way to go
because when you talk about the future, we don't know

(30:11):
what's coming.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
We really don't.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
We don't know if there's another you know whatever, There
will be at some point, there will be some large
downturn in the market. It happens, it's how it goes.
The question is can you allocate around that. Can you
have your stuff enough different baskets so that that storm
comes and you weather it and you're not freaking out.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
So people say, Matthew all the time, well, yeah, the
markets take a hit, but they always rebound. Well, I
guess that's fine. If you're thirty five, forty years old,
that's right.

Speaker 6 (30:38):
If you're not actually having to make withdraws from that account, right,
you're perfectly fine because again you're able to ride through
that storm. But as you can imagine, once you retire,
it's an essence on you to really pay yourself. You're
paying yourself out of your four one K, you're taking
withdraws out and you know, being forced to make with
draws while that money is down where you're just locking

(30:59):
in those loss, right, there's no way to recapture that.
And that's the biggest piece, and really that's what we're
trying to hit the hammer on the nail flour, is
to simply prove and just say it's super duper important
to make sure that you have the proper allocation. So
that way, whenever that storm does come and there is
a downturn in the market, because there will be, you

(31:19):
have a place to pull from that is not quite
as either affected by what has occurred or even your
losses are protected to a certain regard. So that's why
we believe in diversification and it is so so important.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Yeah, And the example of that is we don't have
to go too far back. You know, people often say, well,
two thousand and eight was the big crash. That is true,
but two thousand to two thousand and two crashed the
same amount that two thousand and eight did. So if
you let's say you're retired in two thousand and your
money was all stocks and for that matter of say,
all stocks bonds, right, the market didn't recover to where
it was until about twenty twelve or thirteen. So that's

(31:53):
a twelve or thirteen year dead zone where if you
had to take your money out. It was never up
during that time. You're depleting your You're depleting your nest
egg that entire time. And that's not ancient history. That's
you know, more than twenty years ago. So yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Again we talk about diversification. When I'm talking about diversifying,
you know, through a mutual fund spreading out the you know,
the purchases or you know, I got bonds, my purple stocks, whatever.
You Yeah, your idea of diversification is much broader than that.

Speaker 6 (32:22):
It certainly is. You know, we'll have people come into
our office all the time and they believe that they
have true diversification. And that may be true. They may
have diversification within the public market because maybe they do
own five, six, ten, fifteen, however many mutual funds. But
the reality is is if you think about the public
stock market as a pond, that's one pod, right, There's

(32:45):
there's thousands of different investments that you can choose from,
you can allocate your account into, but that's just one
pond that you're fishing in. Whenever you get access to
other areas that we can give you access to within
the private markets and in the private market. You know,
have access to many different pawns that are new things
that you cannot access in the public markets. Things in

(33:07):
the private world. I'll give you an example for is
such as a private bond, something that is backed by
actual collateral, unlike just a promise that I'm going to
make you a five percent payment every single month. On
the other hand, whenever you go in the private world,
you have more things backing that particular loan or that
particular investment, and also it typically pays you a higher

(33:28):
rate of return as a result. So to us, that's
a much safe, safe way of investing than otherwise within
the public world.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
So we're talking about it about asset back bonds.

Speaker 3 (33:39):
We are, Yeah, that would be the kind of thing.
So you know, what happened with the bank failures in
two thousand and eight is that the FEDS made it
pretty hard for or made it more restrictive on banks
to lend to certain certain groups. So as a result,
there are a bunch of organizations that have sprung up
that have effectively replaced banks. And so what they do
is they issue collateralized loans, and so there's a collateral

(34:03):
backing every loan that goes out so you know, I
had a guy who was in the other day and
he said, well, I should go more to my I know,
I should go more to bonds. And I showed them
a chart, and the annualized return not including fees, on
bonds over the last twenty four years is less than
three percent. Really, uh huh, you could do better with

(34:24):
a CD right well now, now, right now? Yeah, yeah, right,
And so this whole notion that bonds is a good
place to be, I mean, Warren Buffett comes right out
and says, I would never invest in a bond because
it's a non collateralized loan. You're giving money to people. Now,
there are certain bond funds that have done better, but
as a whole, like if you look at the whole market,
it's two point eight nine percent, And if your factor

(34:46):
in the fee that you're probably paying somebody, you know,
say a percent, it's less than two percent on bonds
over that time. Right, So there are other places to go.
An example, you know, like what Matthews tugraph. What we're
talking about is these either collateralized loans or these commercial
real estate that's professionally managed. And we're not talking about
office buildings we're talking about, you know, the whole cadre

(35:07):
of those things, you know, storage units, apartment complexes, sell towers,
all of that.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
You know. An Unfortunately, gentlemen, we are out of ton. Okay,
here we go talk on it all right. Preservation specialists,
how do they get a hold of you? Gentlemen?

Speaker 3 (35:20):
Ato three nine retire at oh three nine retire all right,
They'll have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
You t Gary, Thank you.

Speaker 5 (35:27):
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Speaker 7 (36:27):
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Speaker 1 (37:54):
And we're back on the Health and Walla Show on
one oh three point five FM and five sixty a
m WVC and Why Time Flies. We are already into
our final segmality on this Saturday morning. Thanks as always
for joining us. Appreciate that again. I'm Gary David, now
joined by Jim Snell, the proprietor over the Law Office
of James Snell. Good morning, my friend, Good morning sir.
We you know, I would think Jim that well, and

(38:18):
actually I know better, but you'd like to think that
when it comes to matters pertaining to the law, that
things would be black and white, cut and dried, precedent said.
But nothing really could be further from the truth. I'm
guessing right. It's all over the place. It's all over
the road. Uh, A lot of gray areas, yes, when

(38:40):
it comes to such things. And so this morning we
wanted to talk about when it comes to personal injury law, Yes,
and settlements just things maybe even we might consider those
lay folks to be just random things that can actually
affect the value of a settlement in a in a

(39:01):
personal injury case.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
Absolutely, and they're and and they're out there therese there
are these things that can be It just seems so
at first they can seem so subjective that they really
do kind of strike people's being unfair. UH, are are
kind of baseless, But I can tell you absolutely do effect.
You know how insurance companies are potentially even courts, how

(39:25):
they may evaluate or what they may do with a
given situation.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Let me ask you this before you get started. Yes,
And and I don't know if this applies or not.
And I meant to ask you this a few weeks. Well,
I guess it was. I don't think we've I guess
we have maybe And chattis this has happened? Uh. Back
during the Republican primary, there were non binding ballot questions
on that ballot. One of them had to do with

(39:51):
UH settlements and lawsuits. The question was, well, should you
know a settlement be based on let's say a party's
participation in whatever took place that that led to something
happening a non binding referendum? That was most everybody who

(40:20):
answered that question answered yes, they should be now again
non binding. But just because they put it on the ballot,
we make you think this is someone where they're heading.
Do you have any thoughts on that?

Speaker 4 (40:34):
Have you?

Speaker 1 (40:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (40:36):
Well, I was gonna say for you know, of course, yeah,
the the sales Republican primary, right, right, Okay, so how
did you know I would be familiar?

Speaker 1 (40:48):
By the way, Jim may be the only Republican a
lawyer out there.

Speaker 4 (40:55):
In the world of personal injury, uh, litigation and claims
Like I go to these national legal conferences and they
are uh, they are all on I mean kind of
left leaning Democrats. Law school was like that, right, I
mean all the everybody's like kind of I didn't, you know,
left leaning and all that. Yes, I was very happy

(41:18):
to go to h to my precinct in Lexington and
uh and cast my ballot for for Trump. All right,
I'll just say it now. I'm happy to do it. Okay,
So I'll tell you this. Okay, you hit me with
that by surprise, right, Typically I would, I would, I would,
which is fine. I will typically, But I want the
question I think you're asking.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
It's something that was put together I think by uh.
And this is just my if I remember the question correctly,
or a question similar to that. It was something to
do with the proportionality damages after yeah, and if and
I'm happy to do a little research and follow back up.
But typically stuff like that is, and without commenting on

(42:01):
that specific ballot initiative directly, but just generally in that world,
it's typically insurance companies and our lobbying groups or specific
industries that are advocating for legal changes to minimize what
they would be responsible for in the event of typically

(42:23):
a catastrophic or major incident, right, and so because sometimes
in especially in a we talked about this before, in
a catastrophic case right where someone is going to have,
you know, maybe massively injured, maybe they're going to be
permanently injured, have a brain injury, or be paralyzed, or

(42:43):
there's a death right. One of the things we've covered,
I think extensively is the typical motorist in South Carolina
has a twenty five thousand dollliability. So that means that
driver hits and kills your loved one are hits and
kills are sorry hit hit hits, hits you and puts

(43:04):
you in a wheelchair for life. The most their insurance
pays is twenty five thousand, okay, which is completely inadequate.
And we've talked before about how people can protect themselves
against that possibility by acquiring underinsured coverage. But frequently what
happens as a as a lawyer when when these cases
come in you you begin looking for other possible recovery sources. Okay, right,

(43:31):
and like a real common is something called dram shop
or was it an alcohol impair driver that that caused.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
This case down in a Volley Beach from from last
year with a bride of the groom?

Speaker 4 (43:45):
Because what what what you can if if you can,
if you have the correct facts, you can make an
allegation that the that the bar restaurant oversold somebody basically
got them so, you know, to so drunk they couldn't drive.
And you know all these bars have parking lots, I
mean they know how these people get there? They drive,
and if you're gonna keep pouring them till they're unsafe

(44:08):
to drive, and that's how you you know, that's that's
how you make your money, is you know, you profit
off getting people to drive to you, getting them so
drunk they can't drive, and then watching them drive off. Right,
you can make a claim saying hey, you're you're you're
on the hook for this injury. Right, that's called dram shop.
That's just one example. So you look for those situations

(44:31):
and then you say, hey, you're you're on the hook.
So we've got, you know, three million dollars in medical bills,
a twenty five thousand dollar liability. We're coming after you
for the for the balance. And so I think some
of these lobbying groups, special interest groups, insurance companies look
in those situations for ways they can say, hold on

(44:51):
our guy, just poor drinks. They don't have a breath machine,
they're not what do they know. And besides the guy
who actually swallowed the liquor and then drove and then
ran the red light. You know, that's who's they are
so much more at fault. That's that's that's who should
should pay. Like basically, our our insured or our companies

(45:14):
are you know, the businesses we advocate for. You got
to let them slide. I think that kind of question
seemed to me in that vein, and it's one of
one of.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Those poses going after those with the deepest pockets. Craig,
an unfair proportionality of a settlement. It seems like, as I.

Speaker 4 (45:31):
Recall it the way it was written, and and one
thing in particular, and I've I've heard this before when
tort reform kind of has come up as a topic
for discussion.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
In the world of.

Speaker 4 (45:47):
Compensation for people who are injured or killed and and
and you know, in accidents are are through negligence, right,
the general public, right, no one imagines it will be
it'll have and to them or their family. No one ever,
just no one ever assumes. Nobody actually ever assumes or

(46:09):
thinks about that possibility. Right, So the general public really
has no interest in that world as far as the
process unless they're involuntarily thrust into it. So the repeat
players are going to be the insurance companies, the companies

(46:30):
themselves that are regularly sued, maybe their lobbying groups. Right,
those are the folks who are all the time participating
in the world of compensation for accent of victims, right,
and the people who are in that world and who
can sort of advocate our lobby for the rights of

(46:53):
the injured people. That really falls down on personal injury
or you know, personal injury attorneys, because we're in that
world constantly. But from the side of the injured person,
there's there's not another advocacy group other than the lawyers.
So when you see people malign trial lawyers are taught

(47:14):
bad about the planes bar. That's a lot of it,
these insurance or these special interest groups trying to basically
be dismissive of you know what side actually can raise
the other point because again, you're not going to have
a grassroots group of public advocating for the rights of
the injured because they just they're not in that world.

(47:36):
I hope, I'm answering you.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
Yeah, I'm sorry, I've gotten off track here, but they
just popped into my head. Things weirdly do that sometimes
they just pop it into my head, right, yes, you know,
there you go. All right, So things that can affect
the value of a settlement.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
Just yeah, just just to kind of go through a few,
and this is I'm just trying to you know. And
of course, you know, I worry. You know, I do
this program every whatever a couple of weeks, and I
you know, I always worry. I can't. I'm gonna bore
the audience to death if we believe, if we keep
going on about you know, no fee nless we win
free compultations. All right, Okay, so here's what I'm gonna say.

(48:12):
But you got that in very definitely, there, I got
it in very definitely. All right. Okay, So one thing isn't.
In a state like South Carolina, you have every county
has a county courthouse, and every county potentially you know,
are you know, has civil lawsuits that are brought in it.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (48:36):
And one of the phenomenons about a state like South
Carolina is the counties themselves are very different.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
For example, Lexington County, our good gosh, Pickens County up
in the upstate, right is going to be very different
than say Charleston County as far as the people who
live there and the people who would get called to
jury duty to decide a loss.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
It okay.

Speaker 4 (49:03):
And there are databases that track the outcomes of different
kind of cases in different you know, and can compare
to different counties. And you know, so there there's a
lot of at least anecdotal and some documented, you know,
data to show that similar cases can have different court

(49:26):
outcomes in different counties, Okay. And and that and that's
by and large due to the type of people that
would show up for Jerry Diddy, okay. And and so
when you get in a collision or say you get
in a car wreck, and and it's a it's a

(49:48):
case that could be brought I'm just gonna make this
this this up. But you know it's hypothetically. But you
get an erect from somebody from say like Allendale County, right,
which I think has a reputation as being a very
sort of pro plaintiff sort of area, insurance companies may

(50:09):
think that that case has more value than if the
case was safe from Anderson County or Greenville County, right, So.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
More conservative counties. Yes, we have anecdotal elements at least
that they're it's there's data. There's a documented data, okay.

Speaker 4 (50:27):
And and the insurance companies all track the stuff and
they know, I mean, the insurance companies know every single
every time the courthouse door is open and they decide
see a cart case.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Insurance baseball statisticians they keep up with. Yeah, they know
all the numbers.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
And so if if a if a if a wreck occurred,
say in in say Pickens County or uh, the the
at fault driver was from Pickens County or whatever the
situation would be, they would know. They would take that

(51:00):
into account and say, well that that case may have
less value. We think it's going to have less value
than if it was somebody say from Allendale County or
you know, Orangeburg County or something like that.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
So then what do they do with that knowledge? Are
they do they try to offer a lower settlement to
begin with, Yes, to try to keep it out of
court totally.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
I guess, yeah, they try to offer a lower settlement.
And you know, I'll be on the you know, I've
certainly had I don't even know how many I can't
even count the number of times I've been on the
phone with an adjuster, speaking to an adjuster or a
lawyer for an insurance company and they've said, you know, hey, Jim,
this this is you know, this case is going to

(51:42):
be in you know, Newbury County, or this is going
to be in Sparkman County or whatever. They'll say, whatever
it is thinking, you know, just pointing out to me that, hey,
we know this is a conservative venue, and you've got
a factor that you've got to be realistic in what
you think this case is worth because it's in a
place where you know, our data or our belief is
that just the the average court verdicts are lower. Right,

(52:06):
So that's something that's a little unfair. And I'll tell you, you know,
just a couple of things. Number One, there there's nothing
you can do about it as the injured person.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
I mean, you don't peck goog.

Speaker 4 (52:17):
It's you and I guess you could just decide not
to drive around Pickens or Anderson County, or let them
drive here or let them you know. But but what
what you can do, as far as mean as a
lawyer can do is you know, we also have you know,
can have access to databases. I've got you know, access
to to this and you should just know that. Historically,

(52:42):
I think people are less mobile and and there were
less outliers and a little more uniformity in the in
the people who would show up for Jerry duty. It's gotten,
it's no longer. It's no as consistent as it used
to be. People people into an accident, give us a call.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (53:02):
They can reach us at eight zero three three five
nine three three zero one or online at Snell Law
dot com. That's three l's spell law dot com.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
The lawyers and staff at the law office of James
Snell are there to help those with injuries and workers'
compensation claims, car accidents on the job, and other accidents
resulting in injuries. They want to help everyone resolve their
claim as quickly as possible, but they'll never recommend you
accept a settlement that's unfairly low. The Law Office of
James Snell recognized by AVA with a ten and an

(53:31):
eight plus rating with a Better Business Bureau. There's no
cost to speak to them. Insurance companies make their money
by denying and minimizing otherwise valid claims. The Law Office
of James Snell can help. They're not looking to try
to take every small mishap, but focus on real injuries
that deserve to be taken seriously. The Law Office of
James Snell. I'm Jim Snell. Contact me at Snell Law

(53:53):
dot com. That's three l's spell law dot com. The
Law Office of James Snell since two thousand and four
with the office is in Lexington and Columbia.