Health and Wellness Show 05-17-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Good morning. Now time for the Health and Wellness Show
on one oh three point five FM and five sixty
AM WVOC. All right, lots to do this hour. We're
talking to Matthew Terry and John Farley from Preservation Specialists.
They'll be joining us later on. In this half hour
health insurance questions, topics, issues concerns. Jeff Howell here to

(00:47):
address those from health markets. But first up this morning,
it's Jim Snell from the law office of James Snell.
Good morning to you, sir, Good morning as thanks.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I'll tell you I Joey enjoyed this time of year,
the weather so much better than January.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
My wife, are you a seasonal effect of this older person?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
Are you? I'm going to claim it now, Yes, I'm
going to claim every bit of that. I'm going to claim.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
I cant say. It's a real thing, man. My wife had.
Matter of fact, she has been enjoying this so much,
spending time in the backyard doing stuff, and which I
enjoy her doing that too. By the way, that's a
great thing, right, you know, hanging out by the pool.
I told you that. I said, you know what in
January and February roll background, we got to find you

(01:31):
something to do, right, yes, uh, you to get her
into seasonal seasonal decorating, seasonal decorating. Yeah, that work that
works today at your office. And you do a lot
of law, yes you do. You do the criminal defense,
you know, d u I, I mean all sorts of things.
You do, personal injury, you do, workmen's comp We want

(01:55):
to focus today though, on how workmen's pomp cases and
personal injury cases that I don't know if there are
any they're the same at all. If somebody got injured, right,
but we start there, somebody got hurt, somebody got hurt,
and then I'm gonna guess they're kind of these are
kind of two very different things. How they play out?

(02:17):
Is that? Right? They are? And it's you know, a
big part.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
About what we do in you know, conversation with clients is,
you know, especially in workers comcases, is talk about the differences, right, because.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, they're there.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
They all start with an injury, but the differences, you know,
can be pretty significant. And of course, you know, most
cases are either a workers compensation case or a personal
injury case. But then there are are some situations where
people get both right, Okay, all right, so just just

(02:59):
brief overview on workers comp So, workers compensation is considered
the exclusive remedy for UH an employee who gets injured
on the job, right, I mean the employer has to

(03:19):
have enough employees to qualify, but for almost everybody, they're
required to be covered, and workers compensation benefits are provided
through an insurance company hired and paid by the employer.
So if you you know you got to you know
you have company, you got employees, you know you have
a compolicy.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Right, let me let me start by the just a
second interrupt you. You just said that for companies with
a certain number of employees, yes, what's what's the cut off?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
There?

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Typically five full time? Five full time.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, Now that doesn't mean that they're that they that
the employer can't have can't purchase coverage other wise, and
a lot of employers do, because.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
What happens if you work in one of these companies
they've got five or fewer, they haven't purchased it, but
you get hurt on yes job.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, So if somebody works for a non qualifying employer
like that there's too small to have the policy to
be required to carry it, or somebody's like you know,
some kind of ten ninety nine or something, right, right, yeah,
Oh well that that's it. Basically, if it's a situation
where workers comp would not apply, then then if they

(04:36):
have a claim, it's it's going to have to come
out of the personal injury side, okay, right, So, but
in workers' compensation it's a no fault system, meaning it
doesn't have to be anyone else's fault someone gets hurt. Okay,
to like a silly example, right, somebody works at a

(04:58):
gun store, right and on their own by themselves for
no reason. They're just as careless as it could be,
and they shoot themselves in the foot, right right? That
could that would that could be a workers comp case, Okay, Okay,
so you don't have to you don't so through your
own negligence, though you still have a you have a

(05:18):
workers and you have the exact same case, uh as
as it would be any other any other cause. So
how you got hurt really doesn't matter as long as
it was the injury was arising from the employment, Okay
all workers come.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
By the way, that doesn't apply for a personal injury case. No,
I'll get to that.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
But that doesn't worry, right, it does not work workers
comp the benefits are medical treatments with doctors and providers
selected by the employer really the insurance company. If people
are out of work while they're treating, they're entitled to

(05:58):
some weekly checks at a discount off what they off
their average you know, paycheck. It's two thirds up to
a cap. And then finally, at the end of the
case or at the end of the treatment, if there's
any permanent impairment or permanent effect assigned by the doctors,

(06:21):
they're entitled to compensation for that. You know, for example,
somebody breaks their arm, you know, where's the cask gets
the treatment, and then at the end of it, the
doctor says, well, we're going to give you a you know,
a five percent rating to the arm. I'm just making
something up, right. There's a formula to kind of figure
out kind of approximately what the that payment would be.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
So workers compensation cases do not go to court. There
is no judge, you don't get a jury. It's in
front of a worker's compensation commissioner. So it's an administrative
agency and the procedures they have are much much more streamlined,

(07:06):
significantly so compared to court.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
So this moves a long, faster I'm guessing you're saying
it can move long faster.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
It frequently does because again, you know, you get hurt,
I mean often hopefully you know, somebody gets hurt at work.
I mean within minutes, they're being directed to medical care,
you know, and start getting those that assistance to the employer.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Now, did you say a few minutes ago that the
doctors were assigned by the insurance company.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yes, they get to pick them. Oh, okay, so you
don't get your correct you can't pick your own, but
they can pick. I mean there's you know, certain very
limited circumstances. You can you know, a claim, it can
appeal to the commissioner for a change or for something.
But general rule almost always followed is it's exclusively that
employer gets to pick.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Okay, so I'm with about tenfold hat on here for
a second. All right, can you is there a scenario
where because the insurance companies are picking the doctor and
I'm gonna assume these are maybe doctors that work a
lot with these insurance companies. Yes, and as you were
just talking about, maybe at the end of the treatment
they say, well, this injury might be permanent to a

(08:15):
certain extent that that's going to be kind of biased
towards the insurance company a little bit, yes, okay, yes,
so I'm not wearing a ten hand.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
No, no, no, And and and and look, there are
a lot of situations where you know, doctors uh may
provide excellent treatment and and and really do a jam
up job on the on the on the medical side,
but when it comes time to that assigning that rating,
it's just unfathomably low, right, and.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
You have no recourse as the injured employee. Well, you
can't give a second opinion. Yeah you can, you absolutely can.
And uh.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
In fact, the that's a big part about what we
do in my office is we uh as we help
arrange for you know, different opinions on that rating. You know,
uh will set up opportunities to talk directly to that doctor,
uh to have them try to justify the rating, you
knowlight a little bit, yeah, yeah, and and and just

(09:14):
just really just goals just really make sure that that
number is fairly assigned.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Because there's a book called.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
The A m A Guidelines to Permanent Impairment that they
use to calculate those numbers, and so.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Uh and and.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
A lot of it there charts providing a limited range
of rating based on objective criteria. So it really can
be an amount to determining what the actual range would
be based on the objective criteria and then kind of
arguing for you know, this might be a little more subjective,

(09:52):
but what would the actual rating be based on that
kind of starting point?

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Okay, that's comp right. See now why it's not as
cut and dry necessarily as you think it would be.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
And no, it's not cutting dry. I mean small, small, small,
you know, I don't call it smaller smaller claims, you know,
simple injuries, simple treatments, you know, oftentimes can be handled
without a lawyer, but cases that are more significant, have
more impairment, or situations where the insurance company is either

(10:25):
unfairly or wrongly rejecting are are failing to cover a
claim you know absolutely can benefit from legal intervention.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Is it best to contact a lawyer earlier rather than later?

Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yes, okay, yes, I mean typically it's never too late,
but you know, the sooner the better, gotcha, all right?
Personal injury, yes, so this is the world typically for
automobile accidents, slipping falls. These are claims that in order

(11:02):
to be able to make them, you have to be
able to demonstrate that the injury was the fault of
someone else.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
You know you hear about negligence, right, and again, people
who are hurt at work cannot file a personal injury
claim against an employer in almost every circumstance, right because
they because they are comp is the exclusive remedy. You
can't opt out of comp.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Right. But if you're one of these five or fewer employees.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Potentially, but then you've got to be established negligence on
behalf of the employer, okay, Right.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
You can't have shut yourself in the foot and make
that claim without without significant difficulty.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Right, So you're on the personal entry side though, people
treat with their own doctors, but you're responsible generally for
paying for it, right, Uh, I mean, I mean your.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Organs composed doctors. You're not having a payout you don't
look out for.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
But on the injury side, I mean, you get you
get no car wreck, you leave at the hospital. Hospital,
don't care that the other driver you know, had an
insurance policy on the car. They're looking at you and
you so there may not be you know, they're not
going to be the upfront benefits. Now that being said,

(12:25):
the total benefits you can receive can include you know,
the you know, compensation for your medical bills for any
permanent effect, right for pain and suffering, which you don't
get in work as comp.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Right. In fact, if if the if the.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
Circumstances of the injury or such that maybe the other
person was reckless or even intentional, right, you can get punitives. Right,
so you can you can potentially get more money and
oftentimes a lot more money in a real significant case

(13:07):
on a personal injury side, does claims go to court,
that can take time, a lot of time. You know,
it's in a significant case. It's unusual for a case
take two to three years to get a trial day.
And whereas in workers comp, I mean it's you know,
if there's a contested issue or a contested case, I

(13:32):
mean you don't get your hearings tomorrow. You can get
them within a few months typically, but that's significantly faster
than in personal injury.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
And again in workmen's comp, those medical bills are being
taken care of in the interim. Yes, now you go
two three years or more in a personal injury case,
you've racked up those bills, and like you said, hospitals,
show me the money.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yes, I mean now oftentimes, I mean typically, you know
what usually happens, people file on under their own health
insurance and there's a process to reimburse the health insurance.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Later for what they've got out, or.

Speaker 2 (14:08):
You know, the hospitals you know, will kind of delay,
you know, collection techniques while the case is pending. I mean,
you know oftentimes that that kind of thing can be helpful.
But again, personal injury, the you know, it's it's really
it's got to be somebody else's fault, and really it's
got to be somebody that's got to have insurance, are

(14:29):
the means to be financially responsible for their for the accident.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
So can you double dip?

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yes, So in a situation where somebody is heard at
work but the injury was caused by someone other than
the employer or like a uh, you know, a coworker
working for the employer. In those circumstances, you have the
workers comp claim and get those benefits, but then you

(15:00):
can also pursue the personal injury claim against the at
fault party.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Okay, So you're driving delivery truck, yes, and get t
boned by a negligent driver, yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
And and and so that kind of kind of give
you the best of both work, best of both worlds.
You can get the maybe the more immediate benefits available
through comp but then have the ability later uh to
pursue pain and suffering and everything else that you'd otherwise
be entitled to. And in that situation, the workers compensation

(15:32):
insurance companies actually have a lean on the proceeds that
was my question, right, Yeah, to reimburse them for what
they spent or able to later collect against you know,
maybe the third party. Okay, and there's a whole there's
a whole process or whole way those claims are are

(15:55):
initiated resolved. Like for example, if you have a if
you file a lawsuit regarding a worker's compensation case, you
actually have to get something from the clerk of court
documented stuff my office does, but you get paperwork from
the courthouse, you file it with the Worker's comp Commission,
you put everybody on notice you're doing that third party claim,

(16:18):
and then and then later on there's some opportunity to
resolve that lian. Oftentimes those are able to get settled,
you know, you know, even with reductions and different things.
But ultimately the Workers' comp Commission would actually have the
jurisdiction if there was a disagreement over how much that
lian was to kind of open up, you know, have
a hearing and actually resolve it. So the difference is yeah,

(16:43):
not everything's just cutting dry, all right. So you know
we've been doing this stuff over twenty years, helping people
in Lexington and Columbia, uh with you know, my office
offers free consultations. Anybody thinks they may have a case. Uh,
it's no problem for us to talk to them. You
know here what happened, answer any questions. If we can
help somebody, we'll tell them. If we can't, right, you

(17:05):
don't need a lawyer or you know we're not the
right office for them. You know, we're absolutely happy to
just give people the best help we can. The number
is eight zero three three five nine three three zero one,
and it's eight zero three three five nine three three
zero one. Other thing is, you know, there's no money
required to be paid up front. These cases are accepted
on contingency, which simply means, you know, if we take

(17:27):
a case, we're only paid if we're actually successful in recovery.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
So there's no risks for people to reach out to
us whatsoever. And Snell Law dot Com with a three
L three L Snell Law dot Com. All right, thank
you Jam, good to see you, aboudy. It's the Health
and Wellness Show on one O three point five FM
and five sixty AMWVOC. Hi, this is John Farley. Now
let me ask you.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
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Speaker 1 (18:02):
You inflation proof it.

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(18:25):
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Speaker 2 (18:37):
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Speaker 4 (18:44):
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Speaker 5 (18:58):
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Speaker 5 (19:35):
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Speaker 1 (20:07):
Welcome back to the Health and Wellness Show on one
O three point five F M and five sixty A
M W V O C and welcome in John Farley
and Matthew Terry from preservation specialists. Gentlemen, Good morning, Horny, Gary, Hey,
good morning. Good to see you both as always. Well, uh,
I mean, what's what's what's your take on the year here.
We've got a new administration in DC, we got doge cuts,

(20:27):
we got you know, uh, all sorts of things means
so much good. It's hard to keep keep your mind
wrapped around all of them, you know, and that leads to, uh,
you know one thing usually, and that is what we're
going to talk about today, right, Uncertainty you get, you
get you get in that sense from the from the
folks shall talk to, is there uncertainty? Is there uneasiness

(20:48):
or the qualms or their fears and their hopes and aspirations?

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, I think I think that you know, they're they're
uncertainty would be a good way to cover it, Gary,
So that the ishoe is in times of uncertainty, what
is the best strategy? And really, when you're talking about that,
the best strategy for uncertainty is that the reality is

(21:13):
when you go forward, there's uncertainty all the time. There
are very variant amounts of that, right, So the best
way to handle that is to diversify and diversify into
a lot of different things in terms of when you
you know your investment strategy and and so that's really
a good approach. Now, you know a lot of people

(21:33):
when they talk about diversification, they say, well, I'm going
to do a certain amount of diversification into public stocks and.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Bonds and so.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
And there have been several analyzes that have been done,
for example, on bonds, and you know the in the
last twenty years, twenty five years, the annualized return, so
that you know yearly return on bonds when you factor
in fees, you know it's coming out a little less
than two percent.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Okay, I can get it better down on a CD,
can I yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
Now it's hard to access a CD in your four
oh one k right, right, but absolutely right. I mean,
if you're gonna so remember a CD is an FDIC
insured vehicle that that's guaranteed, right, And a bond is
a non collateralized loan mostly. I mean, some of them
have some collateral, but most of the time, when you're
talking about a bond. Say you know some big company

(22:29):
call it you know whatever, Ford or Home Depot or
x on or whatever. Uh, those guys say they need
they need money, so they go to Wall Street and
they say, here, this is what we're gonna do. We're
gonna take some of your money, and we're gonna pay
you an interest rate along the way, and then we'll
give you all your money back after twenty years something
like that. But there's no collateral backing that up.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
And you could buy a preferred bond, but that still
doesn't mean, Yeah, you're hiring line than somebody else to
get the money back of his any money.

Speaker 3 (22:54):
To get back, right, yes, yes, yeah, So so you know,
like the the common you know, the common one common
story that people look at is what happened when General
Motors will declare bankruptcy in two thousand and nine. Right
at that time the people now, you know, there's there
are some ways to do the math, but generally speaking,
this is kind of an accepted range that the people

(23:17):
who owned the stocks got about three percent of their
original investment on average. The people who owned the bonds
got about twenty percent of their original investment. But the
people who had given them the collateralized loans, which is
which is at the top of the stack. They got
one hundred percent of their money back, So yeah, now
they were not Now, if you're a collateralized loan person,

(23:37):
you're not going to get the returns that you can
get in stocks, right, you know, you're not going to
get the growth, but you're not.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Taking the risk. And that's that's the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
So so the idea of diversification, it's it's diversify in
as many places as you can. And one of the
things that you can do is if if you are
a person who there are a couple of ways that
you can move your money out of a four oh
one K into your own individual retirement account and access

(24:05):
these other investments. For example, if you what's called if
you terminate employment with somebody, so if you if you
move from job to job, now you're free to take
that money and put it into your own individual retirement account.
If you're north of fifty nine and a half, then
you can take in most cases all are a very
large portion of it and put it into an individual
retirement account. This gives you now all many more options

(24:29):
as opposed to just straight up what's available in most
four on one cases, which is some form of stocks
and bonds, and they have some what are called real
estate investment trusts once in a while that they're you know, yeah,
in those things. But by getting the money into your
own individual retirement account, then you have much more control
to get into a lot of vehicles, including a CD right,

(24:51):
you know, CD. If you're guaranteeing yourself, you know, four
percent right now for the time that things are uncertain,
that's not bad, not.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
Bad at all. And that's again, Matthew, that's one of
the things we talk about a lot, is that our
most investors view and unless I mean your serious hardcore
you know, study this stuff, you know, and live it
every day, our definition of diversification is nowhere near broad enough.

Speaker 6 (25:20):
No, no, it's not. You know, many people, as John mentioned,
they believe that they're diversified whenever they divvy up their
money and a couple of different funds within their four
to one K. But the reality is is that you
are fishing in the public market pond. Right. If the
public market goes down, it doesn't matter how much diversification

(25:41):
that you have. Those investments too, because they're part of
the public market are going to go down to What
John is speaking to is that we're just looking to
give you access to a completely different pond. That way
that if the public market goes down, we see a
pool back potentially that this private market pond, hopefully it's

(26:03):
going to react differently. And that's what history has told us,
that's what the statistics have told us, and that's just
the added value of diversification within a time period where
there's a lot of uncertainty out there. You know, we
all watch the news. We know that there's a new
headline it appears every single day about some new proposal
or some new change, and it has a lot of

(26:24):
people on edge. And the reality is, we have new
crystal ball. We don't know what's going to happen next week,
three months from now, nine months from now, or tomorrow
for that matter.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Amen.

Speaker 6 (26:36):
But the reality is what it all boils down to
is that as you're continuing to get closer and closer
to retirement or either you're already in retirement, you need
to have a game plan and you need to make
sure that you feel confident on the path that you're
heading down. And if there is some type of downturn,
if there's some type of negative event that you're prepared

(26:56):
for that. Okay, we don't want you to say I
was just a out to put in my notice at
work that I was going to retire, but all of
a sudden the market pulled back, and now I think
I need to work another two years. Right, Come work
with us. We're going to develop you a plan to
make sure that that doesn't happen. Right, That's our job.
Our job is to plan for all these different scenarios
to give you and bring you peace of mind as

(27:18):
you're continuing to walk towards that future retirement day and time.

Speaker 1 (27:21):
So, John, we talk about public markets and private markets
and the risk and the risk of the private markets too.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Right definitely is yeah. I mean, I mean there's there's
there are upsides and downside you and the rules are
a little bit different, right, you know, in terms of
for example, I mean, one of the things about the
private markets is is liquidity. Right in the public markets,
you can sell anything that you own and get the
money that day or the next day, you know, maybe

(27:47):
two days whatever. In the private markets, depending on what
you're in. Sometimes you're in for you know, you put
in your order to sell and you don't get your
money for funds. Oh ok, yeah, yeah, it's a whole
different it's a whole different animal. But you know, there
are trade offs, so you wouldn't want to put all
of your money in any one thing, right, But typically

(28:08):
speaking like in fact, we just had a little thing
at our office last night where we had a you know,
a lot of our clients came and we were talking about.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
A lot of these things.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
And you know, there are around a million private companies
that are investable or we can invest in in the
United States. There are around six or seven thousand public
companies you can invest in the United States invest in.
There's a ginormous difference. And we're not talking about just

(28:37):
small companies in you know, remember, a private company has
the same needs as a public company. They need cash,
they need you know, they need stuff to grow, they
need you know. But think about let me give you
you know, eighty seven percent of the companies in the
United States that have at least one hundred million in

(28:57):
revenue are private.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Really yeah, think.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
About Public's new Balanced, Staples, Dunkin Donuts, uh, SpaceX. You
can get down the list, right, Uh yeah, you know,
there's a there are a lot of target Uh, there
are a lot of no targets public. Sorry, uh, I'm
I had a list.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Of them, and I'm mixing up the list. But I
mean those are names that we would most of those
think are publicly trading companies.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Look a look at something like Dell. Dell was you know,
every time you turn around, Dell is going public. No,
now we're private. We're public now you know so so.
But there are a lot of private companies and and
the advantage of a private company, now there are disadvantages,
But the advantage of a private company is now you
can't you can't get to it on a stock market,
so you have to go through certain channels. But the

(29:44):
advantage of a private company is the managers, generally speaking,
are not marching to the mantra of quarterly returns that
Wall Street demands, so they can step back and say, hey,
you know what, we want to do a longer strategy.
That is better off for a lo longer term growth strategy.
And most of the time that that is an advantage

(30:04):
to being a private company. But there are disadvantages, right,
But I will say this over the five, ten, twenty
five and so on at every interval, the returns from
the private companies have outpaced the public markets.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Interesting. So Matthew, you know it's just an individual investor.
How do you find these companies? How do you go
about investing in them? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (30:30):
Absolutely great question. So, as John mentioned, you can't access
these sorts of investments through your traditional four one K
or retirement plan that is offered through your employer. The
only way to access those is through US at our office.
In most cases, you have to move that money out
of your retirement plan or four one K, and once
it's in that IRA account, we can give you access

(30:53):
to these private investments. Within the private world, you can
access a number offerent sectors. I know we've talked about
that what those different sectors are, you know, in previous talks.
But you know that can be things that are in
the private real estate world. It could be things that
are private stocks. It can be private loans kind of
like private bonds for example. So we open up this

(31:17):
access to a lot of new places that you otherwise
couldn't tap into. The tremendous benefit of going into the
private world is just as John mentioned, is historically speaking,
it gives you higher returns and part of the reason
for that is that if there's a downturn in the market,

(31:38):
you really win by not losing these based off the statistics,
these specific companies, these specific funds, these specific investments within
the private world, they typically just do not go down
as much as a public market. They are just not
quite as volatile. And that's why we have so much
conviction for this. And when I say volatility, I mean

(32:00):
up and down movement. You are in retirement, the last
thing that you can stomach is a huge drop, right
if you think about whenever you are working, and during
your working years, we were all told to put your
blinders on, put as much money as you can afford
into your retirement plan, and just keep going. Don't worry

(32:21):
about what really the market does. Don't really worry about
the performance. If the market goes down, that's okay, just
think about it. You're buying on sale at this moment
in time. But as you get closer to that retirement date,
it becomes more and more important to really evaluate how
is your money invested, and you need to really be
focused on the biggest piece is not always about how

(32:43):
much money you're making. But if a downturn was to come.
How much would your money actually decrease? And you can't
stomach a fifty percent drop if you're looking to retire
next year or three years from now or five years
from now, because that's certainly going to change the outlook
and the projections on your overall retirement what that means.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
So John, I can't just like to pick up the
phone and called Elon Musk until I want to interest
in space X.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
In other words, now you can't. That's the issue like that.
It's it's really interesting these these the private it's the
they often forer to these things is some sort of
private equity. It's you know, it's private stocks.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Right.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
There's there's a whole secondary world of people who trade
in that, who are fund managers on things like you know,
endowment funds or there are these other fund managers who
work for there's a term called family offices, uh that
that that refers to people who have very deep pockets.
You know, it's it's their family office.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
Right.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
So there are you know, but there are people there
are these secondary uh, there are these these secondary markets
that that would call them that that we as as
there's no central clearing house for us to go and trade,
like like the stock exchange. So you have to go
through these people and there are there are you know,
that's a huge, a huge market of that. That just

(33:59):
when you're only and in your four to one k
and we don't know anything about it. It was like so
a couple of years ago, longer story. But I was
a paperboy growing up, so I was not a dog fan.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
So when we moved, when we moved to South Carolina
many years ago, my daughter in particular, my kids, but
my daughter in particular, she negotiated a dog into the move.
They negotiated the dog in a pool, which okay, fair.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:21):
So so I you know, it took me probably about
two or three months and then I was all in,
I love the dog.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
I am now the dog guy. I love dogs.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Okay, but but I mean, you know, having been bitten,
we don't have papers anything.

Speaker 7 (34:34):
Yea.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
They liked me.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
But anyway, but the issue was is so then you know,
I go to the store and I'm like, wow, there's
a dog aisle, there's a pet isle, there's a you know,
I didn't know that it existed, right, It was out
of my out of my normal world. But it's a billion, billion,
billion dollar industry in the US alone. Right, So there
are there are things that maybe we're not familiar with,

(34:57):
but when you open when when they when you get
most of them are like, oh wow, there's a lot here.
So that that's that's like the private markets.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
Yeah. So point of today's lesson is this in times
of uncertainty, And I said, we always have times of
uncertain Yes, sometimes it's a little more incerted than others. Yes, Uh, diversify,
but expand your your knowledge, expand your universe when it
comes to diversifying, because yeah, a lot of different things
out you may.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Not know about, right, and that and that is that
is the thing that that can give you peace of
mind because if you look historically at at really these
big diversified I mean, you know some people follow like
this guy Ray Dalio who did this all Weather fund. Right,
you look at that fund. There are things in all
these places, right, and and it does a nice relative
to the stock market. It's a much smoother ride. So

(35:43):
these are the kinds of things that we're talking about. Yeah,
and so if you can look at that and say, okay,
I'm I'm diversified truly, and what we're going for is
is peace of mind? We're going for Hey, this is
this is good for.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
You Preservation special list Matthew hew to Post get a
hold of you and John and the folks over there
and get on the road to peace of mind.

Speaker 6 (36:05):
Amen, yet, please give us a call at ato three
non retire. That's at three non retire.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
All right, You'll have a great weekend. Thanks Garry, thank you.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
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and with Jeff Howell and the team at Health Markets
in 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.

Speaker 5 (36:29):
And who couldn't use that nowadays? Jeff Howell in Health
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Speaker 4 (36:35):
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Speaker 5 (36:50):
So whether you're self.

Speaker 4 (36:51):
Employed or in a small business, an individual or seeking
a family plan, they have you covered literally from head
to toe. Called Jeff Howell in Health Markets at eight
O three six seven eight eight one two one, or
visit Jeffhowold dot com. That's eight O three six seven
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(37:12):
and let them find the right insurance for you.

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Speaker 1 (38:17):
Jeff Howell from Health Markets is our resident expert on
all things when it comes to health insurance.

Speaker 8 (38:23):
Jeff, good morning, sir, Good morning Gary.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
We uh want to talk about and being somebody who
just byfay, I got my red and blue car in
the mail the other day, Jeff. For petic care is
mine goes an effect come June. But for me, I'm
still working in on my employee plan, so I'm just
taking the Part A uh for now. But you know,
when you get to the rest of the parts, when

(38:49):
you don't have that group coverage through your employer and
you've hit the age of sixty five, then you know
the part A you get. Then oh my goodness, if
you go to the regular route, you got what part
sees d's and g's and all sorts of parts, and
then you have, well the other option, which is to
go with Medicare advantage plans. And you know, even for
some folks who are on Medicare right now, I guess

(39:10):
there's still a bit of confusion about what the differences
are and maybe what's right and what's not right for them.

Speaker 8 (39:16):
That's true. I mean, if someone's been on Medicare for ten, fifteen,
twenty years, every year they know that an open rollment's
coming up. Around the corner between October fifteenth and December seventh,
when they can make changes. You know, we're thinking they're thinking, well,
I can't make a change. Now there's a plan I'm
currently on right for me, and looking to the future,

(39:37):
you know, what does the future hold. For example, if
they're on a Medicare supplement plan, they know that every
year they get older that Medicare supplement is going to
go up in price. We've been blessed, you know really
since the inception of the prescription drug Card program in
two thousand and six is that the premiums of the
drug cards have been fairly low, depend upon which drug

(39:58):
card you select. But in twenty twenty five, with some
of the COVID laws going into effect, and the good
news for seniors is that they won't pay any more
in two thousand dollars in co pays at the pharmacies
are example, when they get to know my pharmacy, an
optical or Riley's Drugs or CBS wherever they go, when
they're paying their copays of the counter, they'll pay no

(40:20):
more than two thousand dollars. Which that's a law that's
going to help at the counter.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
That's great that's an annual cap, right.

Speaker 8 (40:26):
Yeah, an annual cap, yes, sir, absolutely, and that's the
first time that we've had something like that. But what
we worry about as an insurance agents is that what
is that going to do to drug card premiums? Because
if the insurance companies are taking on a lot of
that overage over the two thousand dollars in costs, then
that will probably be passed down the consumer as far

(40:50):
as monthly premium.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
So this is not a case where the government bio
taxpayers is picking up the rest of the tab. This
is a cost that the pharmaceutical company is going to
have to eat, right.

Speaker 8 (41:02):
More specifically, the insurance companies. Okay, so interesting enough, the
pharmaceutical companies, we're not giving a very large percentage of
the liability over that two thousand dollars and costs. The
insurance companies were given the bulk of that percentage. So
of course it's the insurance companies that bill you every
month for the monthly premium to have the drug card.

(41:26):
And then of course some only say well why do
I need a drug card? Well, part of that initial
law in two thousand and six for the prescription drugs
is that you do not have a prescription drug card
or credible coverage through your employer like you would have.
But if you do not have a prescription drug card,
you will be penalized. So everyone has a prescription drug
card now, and it's really not that big a deal.

(41:48):
I mean, we have prescription drug cards out there. They
are fifty cents a month, So having a drug card
is really you know, it is not that burdensome premium
wise right now for most people. There are some people
who take more expensive drugs who need a higher price
a prescription drug card, and their drug card might be
over one hundred dollars a month. Now, say, however, in

(42:10):
twenty twenty five, that one hundred dollars a month plus
premium could be the norm, not the exception. So you're saying, okay,
So now if you're say seventy years old, and you've
been on a Medicare supplement since you were sixty five,
and you've been on a drug card, and maybe you're
paying one hundred and ninety dollars for your supplement, now

(42:30):
you're paying fifty cents for your drug card. Now, if
your drug card goes up to to throughout an easy
number for math one hundred dollars a month. Now you've
got from one to ninety and fifty cents to two
hundred and ninety dollars a month. That may make a
lot of people look a little more closely. Medicare advantage
come this open enrollment season in October, so it's good

(42:53):
to start preparing and start realizing. You know, what is
Medicare advantage and is that an option for someone who's
currently on a Medicare supplement and drug.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Cart right, right, and again you're talking about seventy seventy two,
seventy five years old. You're more than likely on a
fixed income. And you know he come to one hundred
bucks a month that you weren't expecting.

Speaker 8 (43:14):
That's correct, that's correct, and so and that's pushed a
lot of people to Medicare advantage. And you know, there's
a lot of fear about Medicare advantage because when it
first came out in two thousand and six, most of
the Medicare advantage plans were HMOs, and no one likes
an HMO because an HMO means you have to go
to this particular doctor. And if you have to go

(43:36):
to a specialist, you need to referral from that doctor
to go to this particular specialist, to go to this
particular hospital. It's very restrictive. However, Medicare advantage plans that
I sell are all PPOs, meaning you can go anywhere
that takes Medicare. It does have a network, and so
you definitely get lower costs when you go in network.
For example, if you've got a Blue Cross Medicare Advantage PPO,

(44:00):
every hospital in the state the networks. You can go
to Lexington, you can go to Prismo, you can go
to musc and Charleston. You know, you can go where
you want to, and you can even go out of state.
So if they're in network, you'll get the same low
costs in Colorado that you get atlea medical center. If
they're out of network, you still go to that doctor
in Colorado who you just might pay a higher copay. So,

(44:24):
you know, a lot of the fears about HMOs and
Medicare advantage, you know, I can lay or put those
fears to rest when I meet with people and talk
to them about Medicare advantage and see if it's the
right thing for them.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
And I guess I think you've told us before, Jeff,
that in the last couple of years, the number of
people on these advantage plans is now more than those
who are on supplements, or right at the about the
same number. Is that right as a percentage?

Speaker 8 (44:54):
That's correct, that's correct. You know, in twenty twenty two
to the last year, we have data from more seniors
purchased Medicare advantage plans than Medicare supplement plants. So Medicare
seppelins had always been on top, you know, until twenty two,
and I'm and I can say with competence that twenty
three will be even more so when that data comes

(45:17):
out that Medicare advantage more Medicare advantage plans were sold
to Medicare supplements. And a lot of reasons for that
is that Medicare advantage plans have zero premium, right, And
the second reason is they provide extra benefits like three
thousand dollars in dental benefits, some vision benefits, pre pair
of glasses, hearing, a discount, some gym memberships, flex cards

(45:40):
that's the carding take to a grocery store CVS and
get food and over the counter like vitamins or toothpaste,
things like that. So they provide a lot of value. Now,
of course, with anything in life, there's a given a
take right, zero premium, you get all this extra stuff.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
Well, part of the sencon me. But you know when
I first and I guess maybe one of the big
reasons for the boom in these is that, I mean,
let's face it, insurance companies have been advertising the heck
out of these for a while. Now. Uh you know,
I mean you can't spit without hitting one of those ads.
But yeah, I mean the centic in me says, hmm,

(46:23):
I don't pay you anything and I get all this stuff.
What's the catch?

Speaker 8 (46:27):
Yes, And so the catches is that there's higher risk. So,
for example, if you're on a standard or let'd say
the most popular Medicare supplement plan, now the plan G
where your only risk health wise is the part be
deductible just two hundred and forty dollars. So if someone
turned sixty five in June and I write them a
Plan G for June first, the first time they go

(46:49):
to a doctor or urgent care or emergency room, or
the first time they receive medical treatment after June one,
they'll be billed that two hundred and forty dollars. Then
they're done for the year. They're one hundred percent covered.
That person has been a coma all summer, wake up
on Labor Day, and they'd owe nothing right because they
already pay that two or four dollars deductible, so their
risk is very low, Whereas on the Medicare advantage plans,

(47:12):
you know, the max amount of pockets could be anywhere
from five thousand to eleven thousand dollars, depend upon what
plan you choose. Now I will say that that's not
a deductible. You just pay small copays along the way,
and if those cops ever added up to that five thousand,
then you would be died at the five thousand if

(47:32):
that's your max out of pocket on that particular plan.
So sometimes people get confused. They're like, I don't want
to pay the first five thousand. You wouldn't, So like
on most of the Medicare advange plans, you go to
your primary doctor who pay a zero or ten dollars cope.
You got a specialist, you'll pay a fifteen or thirty
five dollars cope, so you have small cope. MRI is
one hundred and fifty night in the hospital, three hundred

(47:54):
peat of dollars a night, the first five nights, things
like that. They're very delineated on the cope that you pay.
But if you had a very bad year, but certainly
that risk is out there. But the Medicare advantage studies
showed that less than one percent of people on Medicare
advantage plans hit their MAXI amount of pocket. So you
have to have a really bad year to hit your
max out of pocket on this plan.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
Well, the ironic thing about this, Jeff, seems to me
that all right, so folks who could most afford to
take the risk under an advantage plan of having to
come out of pocket, you know, five ten thousand dollars
or what have you in a calendar year, are the
same folks who probably are in a financial situation to
best afford to stay on a supplement planned and pay
the money each month and not take the risk.

Speaker 8 (48:39):
That's true. And for a lot of those people, that's
the decision, you know, is would you rather just put
money away into a savings account and have that ten
thousand dollars, say, in a savings account every year? So
if you had a bad year, or if you have
twenty thousand in an account, if you have a bad year,
then that money's in your account and it's growing interest.

(49:00):
That's your money, right. Or do you want to mail
off a check to an insurance company for a supplement
and a drug card and once you mail those checks
the insurance company every month they're not coming That money's
not coming back, whether you go to a doctor that
month or not, whether you have a prescription field that
month or not. That next month the premiums are due again.
So it's just two completely different ways of doing your

(49:22):
Medicare insurance coverage. No wrong or no right, by the way,
and I do not push one or the other. I
just explain the differences and lay out the packs and
talk to a person about their doctors, their medical treatment,
their prescriptions, and they give them an educated You educate
them and they make an educated decision on which ones

(49:42):
which path is right for them.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Now you mentioned again with the changes in the the
prescription card planing under the supplements, that you could see
your price really go up here over the course of
the next year or so. Now does that not applicable
if you're on an advantage plans that doesn't hit you there, it.

Speaker 8 (50:01):
Should not hit as much because Medicare advantage plans have
so much else going on as far as money that
received from the government for people who are on those
Medicare advantage plans, for the healthcare and for the prescription drugs.
Could you could see in the Medicare advantage plans maybe
the benefits not growing as much, just as a dental

(50:23):
or the vision of the hearing, you know, some of
those benefits being pulled back or maybe capped. You know
a lot of times, you know, over the years, we've
seen dental go from five hundred benefits to one thousand,
to two thousand, to three thousand. So maybe next year
they don't go to four thousand, right, maybe they're capped
or they're lowered, you know, So maybe we see effects
in the Medicare advantage plan that way. Internally, I do

(50:46):
not think we're going to see much effect on the premium,
So I think that's going to stay you know, zero
to you know thirty, you know, somewhere under thirty dollars,
certainly on the Medicare advantage side.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
So do you foresee in your crystal ball, mister Howell,
or do you think that that maybe the government's long
term plan is to try to push everybody off the
supplements to the advantage plans. Is that is that an
advantage to the government.

Speaker 8 (51:15):
Well, when the law was passed in two thousand and four,
it was a George Bush was in office, w right,
with a Republican Congress, and it was a vote. It
was a law, believe it or not, that Democrats agreed
to back in those days when.

Speaker 1 (51:30):
Congress was when.

Speaker 8 (51:35):
They would talk to each other and they would make
compromises and the law would you passed. That's the way
Congress was in two thousand and four. So this is
a law that the government sees as an advantage for
the government's keeping Medicare viable. Right, Because every time a
person cons up for a Medicare advantage plan, the private
company they signed up with, Blue Cross, at Na Humana,

(51:57):
whoever it is, that person comes at private company's responsibility
and they are now off the Medicare books. Medicare still
regulates those companies, right, But Medicare now if that person
heav't for big gets cancer, had expensive treatment, Medicare is
no longer putting the bill for them. The private insurance
company is They've taken them that risk. So I think

(52:20):
long term is that is what the government would like
to see absolutely interesting.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
Yeah, it certainly seems that way, or if it seems
like more and more people are moving that way regardless,
so the point may be moved here a decade or so,
possibly well. Lots of questions to ask, and the guy
the answert has been with us for the last seventeen minutes,
Jeff Hallow Health Markets. If you'd like to sit down
with Jeff and discuss the options you can do that.

(52:45):
How to folks get a hold of you, my friend.

Speaker 8 (52:47):
Yes, my office is right beside the flight Deck restaurant
and Lexington at the flight Deck shops Health Markets Insurance
and you can give me a call or chext my
number at eight zero three six seven eight eight one
two one. My website is my name Jeff Powell dot com,
Jeff Hwle dot com.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
All right, thank you, Jeff, appreciate you, buddy, Thank you Gary.
The lawyers and staff at the law office of James
Snell are there to help those with injuries and workers'
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(53:49):
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