Health and Wellness Show 08-09-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:31):
And we turn our attention now to your health and
your wellness. It is the Health and Wellness Show on
one of three point five FM and five sixty AMWVS.
Just joining us. My name is Gary David and coming
up we're talking about your health insurance needs and coverages,
Medicare and more with Jeff Howell. He is at Health
Markets over in Lexington. He'll be by. We'll talk to
John Farley, Matthew Terry at preservation Specialist as well. Preserving

(00:55):
what you've sacrificed and built up over the years. Now
you deserve to enjoy it, right, How can you do that?
We'll talk about it. But we got things underway this
morning with Jim Snell from the law office of James Snell.
Good morning, my friend. Now, let me turn your microphone
on and we'll be okay, try that again, all right,
I hear well, Good morning there you are. Good morning
to you man. Sorry to being a dish like that.

(01:15):
Oh we got all our ducks in a row. Now
we're not saying kind of well, I guess that makes sense.
Ducks in a row. Damages we want to talk about. So, yes,
damage it, Yes, you do, personal injury, you do lots
of different types of law. But damages. We're talking personal
injury law.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, we're talking personal jury law and damages you don't
want them, but if if you're gonna have a case,
you got to have them. Yeah, otherwise no, I bother
otherwise right. So so so one of the and I'm
gonna get a little you know, kind of uh law

(01:51):
school uh this morning. So that the the body of
law for areas of injury law, right, certainly things like
car accidents and slipping falls, and you know, even medical
negligence like medical malpractice. Right, it is called negligence, Okay.

(02:15):
And in order to have a case, you have to
have four things. You have to have a duty of care,
a breach of the duty. That breach has to cause, right,
or have a connection to damages. And start talking this
morning about about number four, which is damages. Right.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
And then and number one you said that duty of cause,
and cause could be you don't run into something, doesn't
run into your car.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Duty of care. Yeah, yeah, duty care like if you're
if you're if you're driving, you know, a driver on
the road owes a duty to other motorists to operate
that vehicle with due care. Right, And and I just
just take to take taking a step back. You know,
if if you don't owe someone a duty, you have

(03:07):
no obligation. Two, you know, you can't breach a duty
that you don't owe. So for example, like in just hypothetically,
if you are, you know, driving on the road and
you see a bridge and somebody is falling off and

(03:29):
it's looks like they might be drowning, right, you don't
know who they are, they're not you have no connection
or affiliation with them, right, I mean, you're not legally
required to jump off a bridge and try to save somebody.
I mean right, you know you don't.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Well you drive by an accent on the side of
the road, You're not obligated, right, if you have no
involvem in the situation, you know there's no And so
I guess what I'm getting at is there's now.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Now, if you were a camp counselor and you're you're
working at a camp and it's a camper is having
trouble right swimming, you absolutely have a due you to
go out there and save the kid, right and help out. Okay,
But but so you have to studio care a breach
causing and we'll talk number four damages. You gotta have
damages to have a case. There are certainly situations, you know,

(04:18):
you know, I hate to see it every day, but
everybody's had the experience with a close call. Like like
earlier this week, I was driving and had somebody tried
to merge and just come right over in my lane
on me what South Carolina, And uh, you know, of
course I hit the brake so hard, I smelled brake pad,
laid on the horn, and I think they came. I mean,

(04:40):
I wouldn't surprise me if they got six inches from
me before they kind of jerked it over. Close call,
if they'd hit me, uh definitely would have had you know,
some body shop bill to fix the vehicle. And and
you know, I know from watching you know, just accidents
and and watching car wrecks on YouTube, you know, you

(05:03):
get you get, you get bumped. Going about fifty miles
an hour, it can it can throw a car off
balance where they start shimming and shaking and they can't
even just roll over right. I mean, so you know,
who knows what could happen, right, but nothing did. And
so obviously this other driver had a duty to watch
out where they're going. They breached the duty by merging

(05:27):
without checking and make sure real safe, but that those
two acts did not cause any damage just because nothing happened.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Right right now, you would have some people who might
try to make it act well, yeah, this person didn't
hit me, but they shook me up so bad that
you know, I've got emotional distress here. That's a damage.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
It no, it no, it is. And and in situations
like car accidents, there are not are you know, car mishaps,
they're they're there really aren't circumstances that present where people
could get a monetary settlement because they almost got hit
by a car. Now, there are situations where, you know,
a close call could result in a case in that regard,

(06:15):
and the emotional damages would be the damages. Right. Say,
for example, somebody, you know, you've got a very rich,
wealthy neighbor who has a who likes to drink and
uh target shoot and uh you know, you go out
there and you know, why are you shooting at five
in the morning, and they take a shot at you, right,

(06:37):
and you hear that bullet you know, just you know,
whistle past your head. Right. That's a close call, right,
you didn't get hit, see you'd say, we are the damages, Well,
you could you could have emotional distress after that, right, yeah,
And so you know they could have they could have
attempt to murder charge. Uh, they could definitely have an attempt
to murder charge you. You'd have all kinds of stuff.

(06:58):
So so there would be situations maybe we're a close call,
but it would really have to be some kind of
extreme situation. And and and damages, you know, it's and
they've got to have a connection. It's it's got to
be reasonable that the damages would connect to whatever the

(07:20):
person did or didn't do. That they should have that
cause the incident. You know, there has to be the
damages have to be reasonably foreseeable, right, And and in
things like car recks, it's pretty straightforward. You know, you hits,
you know, some make somebody runs or redlite hits a car,

(07:41):
causes property damage. You know, somebody has medical bills and
lost wages. It's all, you know, pretty straightforward. And but
there there, you know, there can be you know, you
just kind of make up hypotheticals where somebody does something
and just something so unexpected, so you know, a typical

(08:06):
you know, it could be difficult to hold somebody responsible.
I think there was a there was a law school
case where it was a a train who was unloading
luggage and the and the and the the conductor whoever
it is, is taking the bags and throwing them right right,
and one of the bags was full of explosives, okay,

(08:28):
and it it blew and then way on the other
side of the station there was a scaffold was somebody
working and the vibrations expulsion caused the scaffold to fall
and somebody got hurt. And it's kind of like, is
the train responsible for the scaffold falling? Because you know that, Yeah,
they were mishandling luggage, but is do you expect it

(08:49):
to explode and then cause a one hundred feet away
or two hundred whatever some distance way? Do you expect
that to cause a fall? Anyway?

Speaker 1 (08:57):
All right?

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Was the right answer to that question, by the way, Uh, well,
that that's that was the case they used to. Yeah,
the kind of the foreseeability that you kind of connected.
So in things like car rex right, damages that could
reasonably like be foreseen are things like obviously the the

(09:18):
car repair bills, body shot bills, rental car expenses, uh,
lost wages where people are unable to go to work
for you know.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Well and lost wages even if well no, because you
have a rental car, So lost wages will only apply
if they're injured, right or yes. I mean I was
gonna say, okay, you have a car, you couldn't get
to work, but now.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
I mean you could. I mean, write circumstances. I'm not
afraid to you know, would be afraid to ask a
you know, I'm half a client. You know, if somebody
missed a half day right after wreck to get you know,
get things sorted out. But then you have all the
medical bills. You then have pain and suffering, which is

(10:02):
you know, not a economic loss so to speak, but
it's it's an absolute measured damages. And then if somebody
has any kind of permanent impairment right like they they
broke their their shoulder and the shoulders never quite as
good as it was. And then obviously any kind of
scarring or disfigurement.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
You know, So you have two types of damages that
we hear about lawsuits, and I don't know if they's
apply to what we're talking about here or not, but
you get damages like it's real damages and you get
what punitive damages?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yes, okay, penis yep. So punitives are damages which a
court could award going above and beyond the actual loss
suffered by, say, the injured party. And the purpose of
punitives is to punish the wrongdoer and to deter others

(10:53):
from similar misconduct.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
So, and you hear others a lot in case involving
big corporations and such deep pockets. I guess right.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
But let's say you know, you and I are out
on the road. You know I'm okay, I'm not paying
attention whatever. You know, I'm that I'm that person that
came within six inch of you, but I hit you.
Your car's damaged, you know you're injured. You Am I
liable for punitive damages? Or does it have to be

(11:25):
something really egregious where somebody really almost went out of
their way to cause something, as opposed to just yeah,
it was a momentary thing that someone's in my eyes,
I've you know, merged over and hit you.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Uh So it's got to be egregious. And the actual
legal term you'll hear for egregious is reckless.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Okay, So you.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Have situation you know you know, look, just somebody's just
not paying attention, and it's just I'm gonna call it
just a regular accident.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
But we've we've all done before. You just you're looking
at red of your mirror one time, then you merge
over next thing. You know, somebody's talking to hornet and
and that's that that would be just obohol. Just negligent, right,
that's just negligence, you know, just careless, you know, little
momentary lapse.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
It happens, and you're but but if I'm on my
phone texting, yes, right, if you're on your phone texting,
or if you are oh uh maybe uh driving impaired, right,
or you are let's just say you're not just speeding.
You know, you're not just doing sixty and a fifty five,

(12:26):
but you're doing ninety and a fifty five. Right, that's
reckless and and I'm going off memory, but that's a wilful, wanton,
total disregard for the rights of everyone else. Right, And
you get pedit in that, and then or you could
ask for them, right, And then you also can get

(12:47):
punatives if the claim is based on intentional conduct, like
like like the shooting example, right, like if somebody doesn't
do it accidentally, but they intentionally, you know, maybe they
trespass on your land or they you know, intentionally hit you. Right,

(13:08):
then punitives apply in that situation. And what one little,
one little interesting thing I'll say about penitives in that
context is in situations where there's say, an intentional trespass
to land and somebody, can you follow awsuit against somebody
for trespassing, Well, just because somebody, you know, maybe you know,

(13:31):
trespass on your land, or maybe some company was driving
their trucks back there and you told them not to
and they did it. Anyway, you may not have any damages,
right because somebody you know. And what the courts have
done is they say, well, in those situations, we're gonna
presume nominal damages and and because we're gonna give, we're

(13:52):
gonna assume there is at least some amount of damages.
Then we're gonna be allowed to consider penatives, because that's
the normal rule. You got to have some damages to
have a case in order to get the court and
then to look into whether or not they'll a warder
considered punitives.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
And you hear oftentimes with these especially big corporations, the
punitive damages are way way in excess of what just
the damages for the incidents.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
OLF topic for another conversation. We can talk about the
due process requirements that the punitives have some connection to
the amount of the damages where it can't be you
can't have a thousand dollars worth of damages and a
billion in punitives typically would be allowed. I want to
before we go and talk about how people can find me. Yes, please,
anybody wants to have something we can help them with

(14:36):
criminal or personal injury, give us a call at eight
zero three three five nine three three zero one. Our
visits online at snow Law dot com three yls snow
law dot com.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
All right, you're always good to see you, my friend.
Thank you have yourself a great weekend. Buddy. Hi, this
is John Farling.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Now let me ask you.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
Is your retirement inflation proved?

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Here's what I mean.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
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 (15:07):
You inflation proof it.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
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

(15:29):
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 off through
Okado's Capital member fin or a spec advisory services off
through Okados Well Perservation Specialists and Arcadios are not affiliated
through any ownership.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
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 in Health Markets do
all the grunt work for you. They make the calls,

(16:09):
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

(16:32):
Howell in Health Markets at eight O three six seven
eight eight one two one, or visit Jeffhowell dot com
that's eight oh three six seven eight eight one two
one or Jeff howl dot com and let them find
the right insurance for you.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
We're back on Health and Wellness Show, and thanks for
joining us this morning on one of three point five
FM and five sixty AM w VOC. I'm Gary David.
If you're just joining us, thanks so much. If you
missed the other partner show up until this point, you
can always catch out on the iHeartRadio app just look
for the Health and well and Show w VOC. All
right in now, it's the guys from preservation specialist Matthew Terry,

(17:22):
John Farley, Gary Gentleman. We have talked this year on
the program on numerous occasions about volatility, about uncertainty in
the economic picture. We all know the word inflation. We
dealt with that for a number of years. Now it
seems it seems at least the report the most recent

(17:46):
I guess reports have shown inflation to slow. It seems
like the grocery store prices maybe maybe thanks to eggs
that have come down so much. So inflation we know
all about. But there's this other word that creeps in
the conversation from time to time, and it's creeping in
right now, and that is stagflation. So let's talk about, guys, stagflation,

(18:10):
what it is and what it means only to the economy,
but to to well what you guys specialize in retirement savings.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
Yeah, so so stackflation that, certainly I would say something
that is is concerning for the overall US economy if
that is to happen. And simply what stackflation is a
period where we see little growth in the US economy,
but yet we continue to see inflation stay up. So

(18:38):
that just means simply things around us will continue to
cost more and more. But really, you know, I would say,
the growth of the economy or the growth of potentially investments,
it's not going to be quite as much as it
had been in the past historically speaking. So it's certainly
something that is concerning. And whenever it comes to people

(18:59):
in retirement. If you think about it mostly, you know,
I'm gonna say retirees is who it affects the most.
You know, you're more so on a what I'm gonna
call a fixed income stream in the sense that you
have Social Security coming in just because we're in a
period of inflation or stackflation, doesn't matter whatever your Social
Security says, they're gonna pay you. Well, that's going to

(19:20):
be consistent whenever it comes to your pension. If you're
blessed to have one of those, again, that is going
to kind of be a fixed income stream that is
coming to you every single month. So if things are
continuing to go up around you, and maybe some of
the money that you have invested are not growing quite
as much as you you would like that are in

(19:41):
the stock market or the public bond market, what are
other things that you should be thinking about? What are
other areas that you should be planning for. And that's
where we like to sit down with our clients and
truly just educate them to say, well, what are your options.
So the first thing I'll mention is in a period
of potential stagflation, you want to be thoughtful about your

(20:05):
investment approach and your investment allocation. So, for example, if
things are continuing to cost more around us, well, you
also want to be in types of investments that have
historically performed very well in kind of inflationary periods. So
one of the prime examples would be real estate. Real

(20:25):
estate has proven and has the track record to state
as things go continue to cost more and more around us,
typically your physical asset is going to also appreciate to
to to kind of keep pace with that. So that
is certainly one way that we are helping our clients
plan for a potential you know, what is to come.

(20:47):
That's certainly that crystal ball is a little bit foggy
at the moment, but we're certainly doing our best to
plan for that. Another thing, and another strategy that we
certainly want to be having with our clients is that
you want to be mindful about your withdrawal approach that
you're taking from retirement. So as you're making withdraws to
live that dream retirement scenario, you just want to make

(21:10):
sure that you're not taking out too much that it's
going to be a detriment to your overall situation. Let's
rewind the clock and and and put yourself in a
retiree shoe. Maybe in nineteen ninety nine, everything is going
along just fine, right, I mean, the stock market is booming,
everything is going really really well. Within two thousand hit right,

(21:31):
And if you're a tiree in two thousand and there's
a big downturn and you you see a drastic decrease
in your nest egg, well you should have adapted and
changed your withdrawal strategy, right, You certainly don't want to.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
It's like you lost a job, absolutely bet your hours,
cut back, your wages, cut back, whatever.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
Yeah, you're you're you're absolutely right, and you want to
be mindful about that. So yeah, So these are just
some of the few examples I'll give you this morning
to say, that's kind of how we're planning for and
talking about stack inflation with their clients.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
And stagflan for those who are still in the working world.
Stagflation has not only the higher prices, but also we
see job opportunities decline, right and that And let me
ask you this too, because it's the other one of
the other words. It floats about recession, and we've been
hearing that now for a couple of years. You know,
there's that rule of thumb about what is it three

(22:22):
consecutive quarters of down GDP growth or whatever. But last
time that happened, they didn't call a recession. But it's
a weird thing, and that John that there's not like
some weird committee of a couple of economists out there
somewhere floating around who who who make the call as
to whether or it was a recession.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, kind of appens like instant replay.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Uh you know, let's go to the booth. And sometimes
it's years later and say, oh, yeah, you remember back when, yeah,
we were in a recession. Then oh yeah, So I
mean you keep hearing that recession thing, but does it
really mean anything to us in real life?

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Uh, that's an excellent question. And I think that the
I think that the big point is yes, because I remember, uh,
you know, we we have a chance to listen to
diferent economists and they they do different spins on that.
And yes, sometimes things are really obvious, like two thousand
and eight, right that you know you didn't all yeah,
But other times it's a lot more subtle, as you say,

(23:11):
and then and and you have these people who look
at the data, and they look at the data as
things are going along and then they look after the
fact and they say, oh, yeah, this happened, right. So
so I think in all of this, I think going
back to Matthew's point is is it's important that you
have peace of mind for yourself and you know, for
where you are in terms of you know, when you're

(23:32):
talking about retirement stuff. Ray dallyio may no, Okay, he
does this thing with this all Weather fund, you know,
and and his approach, and we very much agree with this,
which is he's in a million different things. Maybe not
a million, but you know what I mean, he's in
all these different categories because what he's trying to do
is he's trying to set up a strategy so that

(23:53):
no matter what what's out there, you're good. You're okay,
you're in And in the case of our you know
who we work with, retirees, you're good to go because
you have dividends coming from rent in certain real estate
or you have you know, and again it's not necessarily
that you own that real estate exclusively and you're managing it,
you know, not like you have a rental house. I'm

(24:15):
talking about like investment property sort of stuff. So you know,
that's one example, you have things that are involved in
funds where you're collecting loan payments from people who are
for whom you have collateralized loans. Again, you're not issuing
those loans. You're just participating in these things.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
You know.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
So you have yes, you do have some stuff in
the stock market, but you also have things in dividend
producing stocks. And you know, so you're you're you're diversified
as opposed to just you know, just stocks or just bonds,
and and and you're diversified across the board such that
really this the impact of a recession, should it come,

(24:55):
should it not, whatever, you may not notice it, or
if you do, you don't notice it as much.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
And you mentioned bonds. Both of you mentioned bonds. And
for a lot of people that are just in the markets,
they feel, and especially if they're in retirement, they feel, Okay,
that's a safe bet. You know, I'll get I'll get
a dividend. You know, I'm not worried about it. Yeah,
but there's been a lot of a lot of angst
here recently about the bond markets. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:18):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, first of all, just just
a couple of things. If you look at the if
you look at the aggregate, you know, the total bond
market in the United States in the last twenty five
twenty four years, the annualized return, you know, the average
return is three percent or less. And then if you
factor in somebody managing that for you, that's two percent
or less. That's not keeping up with inflation. You can

(25:39):
get a better return on the CD right now, that's
no question. Yeah, yeah, so that and that's not a
bad option. I mean, like there are a lot of
people we work with and we say, hey, here's the thing.
You're in retirement. If you're getting four percent and that's
outpacing inflation and there is zero risk, that's not a
bad place to be for a certain allocation of what
you need. Not a problem with that at all. Now,

(26:00):
there are other investments that can give you higher dividends.
But yeah, but back to your bond thing. Yeah, and
this goes to this whole you know, Historically, what people
have done is that the when in times when things
were a little bumpy, uh, the world came to the
US to buy US bonds, US government bonds. And and

(26:23):
usually in the case like that, things are very stable.
But that you know, with the recent downgrade of of
the US credit worthiness. Yeah, that's changed some things. So yeah, yeah,
that that's that's got some people rattled. So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
And we also have i mean, other countries that are
they're trying their best to to to get us off
the you know, the US currency is the the gold
standard kind of thing, right, That's right. This is a
this is an ongoing thing here. I don't know, I
don't know what does that mean to our retirement savings
if if they're successful in replacing US as the gold standard.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
You know, that is a that's a loaded questionary. We
have enough time to cover all of that.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
Do we have a philosopher in the house.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (27:08):
Yeah, But but you know what, what what I would say, Gary,
is the beautiful thing about our office and what we
do and the benefit that we're able to offer retirees
is that we're we're an independent firm and and what
that means is we are able to adapt, and we
are able to shift, and we are able to go
wherever is the most advantageous place to be. Uh in

(27:29):
whatever you know, future market, we may enter again the
the the uncertainty, as the meter ilogist may say that
it's a little bit cloudy at the moment.

Speaker 6 (27:38):
We don't we don't.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
Exactly know what what the future holds. But the good
news is is that being that we are an independent
firm and we can offer any and all investments that
are out there, we're gonna bring whatever is best to
our clients as a true fiduciary. And that's just uh again,
one of the privileges of working with us.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Just curious guys. I mean, you've been at this for
a long time now, and you've been with preservation specialists
for a long time. I mean, have you have you
witnessed like major shifts and Okay, our strategy is going
from here to way over here doesn't really happen. I
guess that extremely But I guess maybe on a you know,
over time, how often does that that that outlook have

(28:16):
to at least shift some to where you know, things
are warranting that okay, what we were doing, then we
need to do this now.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
I think it on a regular basis where we're we're
always looking at the situation to say what would be
the best And I would say there are but to
your point, you know, we're we're generally if if we're
generally not blowing up a strategy and then saying, you know,
going on to a different But but I would say,
we are definitely you know, changing course on a regular basis,

(28:48):
you know a bit, you know, to say, Okay, we
want to wait a little more heavily in this area,
we want to get a little bit lighter in this area.
We definitely do that on a regular basis.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
And that's im I saying some many of us making
our four to one case, we set it in forget it.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Now now you're if you're twenty five, yeah, you set
it and forget it aggressive growth stocks and let it ride,
you know. But but yeah, but once you get to
you know this this transition time sometime you know, five
to ten years before you retire, it certainly would be
a time to start transitioning into different types of investments.

(29:23):
That that, and then you also take the pulse of
the person you say, okay, listen, here's the thing.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
And I do this.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
You know, we do this all the time. We said
to somebody, Okay, here's you're going to retire, and.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Let's call it three years or five years.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
How is it twenty percent pullback going to make you
feel how is it twenty percent, you know. So it's
it's kind of like one of these things, you know,
pilots off and say I'd rather be on the ground
and looking up at the sky and wishing I were
flying than in a plane wishing I were on the ground, right,
you know what I mean? So so, and it's the
kind of thing and you have to ask people, you say, Okay,

(29:56):
look at markets are going to be up and down
no matter what. They will be up and down less
and more in certain times, and on and on. But
the question is there are other types of investments that
we can get you too that will be less up
and down. Now, you may forego some growth, okay, and
growth is a wonderful thing. But if you're shooting for
growth all of the time and you can that has

(30:18):
that has risks with it too. So so yeah, so
it and it also it depends on the person. But
generally speaking, yes, you want to shift as you get.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
Closer and my home run hitters often strike out.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
That's it, right, that's right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Soking for a defence. Yeah, up the gentry and to
actually whip it three instead of taking the safe play.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Right, look at Schwarver this year.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
I mean Kyle Schwarver is just I mean he's like
the guy is the guy's a home run machine, but
he's also a striker.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Even that's way it always goes, right, Yeah, same thing
applies here. Yeah, and we got just about a minute
or so left, But I did want to go back
to something you mentioned collateralized loans, which brought by attention Matthew.
You guys offer and have a have a have access
to investments that if you're in the in the public markets,
you don't get you and you talk about some of

(31:03):
these investments where yeah, you're investigating companies and these are
collateralized loans. I mean, if they go, you're getting your money. Absolutely.

Speaker 7 (31:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
This is not something you can just get in the
public market.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
Right, as opposed to a bond where you know, almost
all bonds are non collateralized loans. You know, some company says,
you know, whatever the name of the company, they'll say,
we will pay you back, but there's no collateral to
back that. So we like, we like the collateralized loans stuff. Yeah, yeah,
because they're exactly what you said.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, preservation specialists and in particular, yeah, if you're it
doesn't matter what your age is but boy, if you're
within about ten years of retirement either way, I think
John you've said that that's that's the key area, right, Yeah,
you want to sit down in a conversation. How can
folks get a hold of you guys.

Speaker 5 (31:45):
Yeah, just give us a call. We'll be happy to
sit down and chat at aight oh three non retire
that's eight oh three non retire guys.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Always good to see you here, Gary.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
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(32:39):
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Speaker 1 (32:57):
The lawyers and staff at the Law Office of James
Snell or they're 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 AFA with a ten and an

(33:18):
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

(33:40):
dot com. That's three.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Lssnell Law dot com the Law office of James Snell
since two thousand and four, with offices in Lexington and Columbia.

Speaker 8 (33:49):
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This is Larry Harris with Classic Systems. Eight three six
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Speaker 7 (34:43):
Eight Welcome back and hits the Health and Wellness Show
on one of three point five FM, five sixty AM

(35:05):
WVOC and around the world on the iHeart Radio app.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
And we appreciate you joining us this morning as always.
Jeff Howell now joins us from health MARKUS out in Lexington. Jeff,
good morning, my friend, Good morning Gary. How are you man?

Speaker 6 (35:20):
I am well, sir, hope you are well.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
You know I'm a year older now. I hit sixty
five earlier this week.

Speaker 6 (35:26):
Yes, that's exciting.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
My brother in law texted me and he said, happy
Medicare day.

Speaker 6 (35:33):
That's right, every day in my world Medicare days. They're
welcome to my world exactly right now.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
You that's you know, you handle all sorts of health
insurance needs for folks that may need to sign up
on the open marketplace, which by the way, is something Yes,
you can go to the government website and do that,
but you know I wouldn't suggest it, you know, I
mean because well, for no other reason, you get the
get the right information you need. And by the way,

(36:03):
how expensive is it to talk to you? Jeff?

Speaker 6 (36:06):
My services are free to the consumer. So if they
go to healthcare I go and mess up, it's free.
They come to me and get it right, it's free.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
So yes, ain't like you're going to sell them something
they don't need, right, You ain't gonna make no money.
You're not judging anybody for this.

Speaker 6 (36:23):
No healthcare I got is so complicated. It's and there's
there are many different companies on there, and many companies
on there have a terrible network. And so you pick
a company you've really never heard of, that's an out
of state company. And you want to go to a dermatologist,
and you can go to one, but you've got to
go to North Charleston, you know, you go to the dermatology,

(36:43):
you know, but if you go with if you sit
down with me, I'll show you the best options or
for that particular clients clients, you know, doctors that particular clients, prescriptions,
you know, every every plan that I sit down and
talk to consumer about is paying to their specific needs.
And Blue Cross Bushields South Carolina is a fantastic company

(37:07):
based here in Colombia, and you can never go wrong
with them. And it's just just which Blue Cross plan
there there's there's hundreds, you know, and.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
All right, you still the words right of my mouth.
There is no one size fids all. I think it's
a misconception. People think, well, health insurance is health.

Speaker 6 (37:25):
The churance, right, I'm just going to get Obamacare and
Obamacare is not even a health insurance policy. It's just
an investibal law. The health insurance policies with blue cross
blue shield, and whether or not the federal government pays
money towards your health insurance policy is through you know,
the Affordable Care Act. And there's many different, many different

(37:47):
things to look at zip code, age, you know, income,
et cetera that we look at to see if a
person gets financial uh subsidy paid towards their health insurance
to ease the burden.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
But now once you hear my age, you know, the
right pold age of sixty five, then it becomes a
different question.

Speaker 6 (38:05):
Yes, yeah, so three months before a person turned sixty five,
they need to contact Social Security either through Social Security
got sod security dot gov, the website, or by calling
one eight hundred Medicare, or by going to a local
SO Security office such as a strong urm and Building
in Columbia, or there's many actually smaller offices in you know,

(38:29):
near the inland Midlands which I.

Speaker 1 (38:33):
Ut listen carefully to this advice right here.

Speaker 6 (38:35):
Okay, yes, so you can go Strong term and Building
in Columbia. You can also go to SO Security often
AIGEN and get in and out a whole lot quicker,
or so just Clinton is another one. So you know,
a little a little drive may actually save you time.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Yeah, even factoring in the travel time, you're probably in
and out quicker than you are to go to a
strong thurm and building. Been there, done that. Don't care
iful I ever do again. Matter of fact, I will
never do again.

Speaker 6 (39:01):
Actually go first thing in the morning if you're going downtown.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
I tried that one time too. I didn't work to
go anyway. So when you get there, then you uh
and again. Hopefully you've heard Jeff speak before or you've
spoken to Jeff in person. But there's some there's some
some some research you need to do before you hit
the age of sixty five because it's not just the

(39:26):
simple ast thing. Okay, yeah, I'm signing up for Medicare.
There's a lot of options and a lot of decisions
that have to be made correct.

Speaker 6 (39:32):
So the first the first thing to know is do
you even need to get on full Medicare right now? So,
for example, if you are working, or you're on your
spouse's group health plan, and you your spouse will continue
working past your age of sixty five, you may be
able to defer Part B and stay on the group

(39:53):
health plan you're on because it has credible coverage, credible
health and drug coverage. So essentially Medicare is part A
and B. A is three if you've worked in this
country ten years or more forty quarters. Part B for
most people one hundred and seventy four dollars and seventy
cents a month, or it could be more dependent upon
your tat your income, so you may be able to

(40:17):
defer the part that costs money, the one seventy four seventy.
But you've got to tell so security that it doesn't
just happen automatically. They just don't know that you're on
a group health plan. They're not that good, so you know,
So for example, let's say that you are a self
employed carpenter. You're turning sixty five, but your wife is

(40:38):
a school teacher in the Lexi one school district and
she's going to continue working and you can just stay
on her plan or or she's working at you know,
you name it at a micheline or dominion, so you know,
if you or your wife are will continue working and
you're on a good group health plan, you can just
let Medicare know that you're going to for A Part B.

(41:01):
Then one day, if your spouse or you stop working,
you're going to lose that group health insurance. Then about
sixty days before that retirement day, you would call Medicare
back or go see them in person and say, okay,
my group healthcare is ending. Let's say June first, twenty
twenty seven. That's why I'm going to need my Part B.

(41:22):
And then once you have that A and B put
in place, then you would come see someone like me
and we get the insurance that goes along with it.
But now there are many people who do not get
group health insurance on their own or through their spouse,
and they need to go ahead and get on Medicare
for A and B when they turn sixty five and
it's the first it's the first day of your birthday month.

(41:45):
So if your birthday is July twenty seventh, and your
Medicare is going to start, AaB's going to start July first,
the first day your birthday month. He turns to key Cup.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
And as you mentioned, you need to start work on
the Actually, guess there's a there's a three month window
either way though, right, isn't there, I mean if you
if you right.

Speaker 6 (42:05):
So, if your birthday month is is July, I will
starting to start working on April one. If your birthday
month is December, I started working on September one, So
I usually, you know, three months before the first day
of your birthday month is the time to start getting
in contact with Medicare. Because eleven thousand people a day
turn sixty five in this company, really people a day,

(42:28):
So Medicare has a lot of people.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
They're all they're all lined up of the Strong Thurman.

Speaker 6 (42:33):
Building right now, exactly eleven thousand times thirty. You do
the math. That's how many people per month, you know,
or during sixty five on the month of your turn
sixty five, So three hundred and thirty thousand a month, right,
So there's a lot of people that for Medicare to handle.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
So all right, so you got your okay, I'm going
to have to have it. I got my party, I
got my part B. And then you find wait, that's
not the end of the story here.

Speaker 6 (43:03):
That's correct. And a lot of people I meet with
the surprize one that they've got to pay one hundred
and seventy four dollars and seventy cents for Medicare. So
they say, what are all those taxes have been taken
out my whole life from Medicare at my paycheck because
I was sixteen years old, right, right, So that's a shot. Remember,
the second shot comes they find out that Medicare A
and B only covers essentially eighty percent of their healthcare costs,

(43:27):
does not cover prescription drugs, does not cover dental vision hearing,
and you're left to twenty percent risk on what you
would have to pay should something happen to you. So
you go in the hospital, you get one hundred thousand
dollars bill. You're going to have at least twenty thousand
of it's want to probably be on you, if not more.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
So, let's back up a second, because Part A covers
that hospital stay, but only up to eighty percent. Right.

Speaker 6 (43:54):
Essentially, essentially there's a deductible, a hospital deductible, and then
you would pay so much money per day, and that's
just for room and board, that's just for overnight's day.
Then the part B is everything else that happened to
the hospital, the surgeries, the MRIs, the doctors coming in
and out, et cetera, et cetera. So essentially A and

(44:16):
B worked together, the two but they work together to
essentially cover eighty percent of the medical with some extra
deductibles thrown on top of that. So people need insurance
to cover all those gaps, and a popular way to
cover that gap is through what's called a medic gap

(44:38):
policy or a Medicare supplement's another name for it, that
covers that twenty percent the Medicare does not cover. And
so there are many good options to go with with
medicap Medicare supplement coverage. And then that person have to
buy a separate drug plan, a separate drug card because
the Medicap insurance is not covered percent description, So since

(45:01):
you'd have three cards, your Medicare card, your meta gap card,
and your prescription god.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
So this is this is getting complicated now, all right,
So what we know so far, Part A is free.
Part B you're gonna if you're the typical South killing,
you're going to pay a hundred and say four dollars
a month for correct Then the metagap thing, I mean,
what's that going to set you back?

Speaker 6 (45:24):
So a Medicare supplement typically is going to run around
one hundred and twenty dollars a month these days there
are many different companies and we shop it for a
person and what's just for easy math w is call
it one hundred and twenty dollars.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Okay, so now it's about three hundred a month, and
that's before you get to Part D, which is.

Speaker 6 (45:42):
Party prescription drug card exactly. You know, right now there's
a card on the market probably fifty cents a month
for a prescription drug, which is great for a person
they don't have a lot of brand prescriptions some as
it maybe in just generic or not any prescriptions. However,
someone who's taken brand prescriptions, that Pitty sent drug card

(46:04):
may not be a great fit. You may have to
look into a more expensive drug card that may costs
around the seventy five. You may have to one hundred
dollars a month for a drug card. So this very
depends on the person. We do expect in twenty twenty
five or drug card premiums to go up. I don't
think it's going to be fifty tenth anymore next year.

(46:25):
I think they're all going to go up. It's just
every year is different, and so we wan to know
in October what the twenty twenty five drug cards look like.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Okay, so now I'm just doing the math of my
head here as we're talking. So now we're up to
somewhere are four hundred bucks a month probably for the
average person. You could be yes, fourth, but they're alternatives
to that too, right.

Speaker 6 (46:47):
That's true. So that's one way to do your insurance.
And of course, on this first way, let's call that
option number one. We having touched on dental vision and
hearing coverage. So if you want to coverage for those things,
be another insurance premium to call another sixty dollars a
month on top of that. Okay, so that's option one.

(47:09):
Option two is what you see all these commercials about
called Medicare advantage or what's called Part C, and the
Medicare advantage plans cover health insurance, prescription drug, dental vision, hearing,
all these services, all these services all in one card.
And most Medicare Advantage plans have a zero premium, so

(47:30):
you never get out of paying your Medicare. You ought
to pay that one hundred and seventy four dollars and
seventy cents for Part B, that's non negotiable, right, But
the Medicare advantage plans do lessen the premium burden. With
the zero premiums, you're not paying the money for the
MEDA gap, the prescription drug card, the dental division, all
those extra premiums.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Does the advantage plans step in similar to what the
meta gap card does to cover another twenty percent?

Speaker 6 (47:59):
No, okay, so there's always a given a take, right,
So there's no free lunch. The Medicare advantage plan, whereas
it either as your premium burden, it has more risk.
So whereas your medigap plan mainly have a risk of

(48:21):
a child of forty dollars deductible called a part be deductible.
On the health side, a Medicare advantage plan could have
an out of pocket ranging from five thousand dollars to
twelve thousand dollars a year, depend upon what plan and
whether you're in or out of network. There are many
different factors and what your risk would be with that
Medicare advantage plan.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
Bodes sound like your risk is capped.

Speaker 6 (48:41):
Though right it is. It is so every Medicare advantage
plan does have a Masxi amount of pocket, which most
people are familiar with. On the you know, if you
have a group health plan or an individual health plan.
So there is a ceiling to your risk with the
Medicare advantage plans. But for some people even that ceiling,
that risk that with the ceiling is is a little

(49:03):
bit too more, too much risk, and they're talksible with.
So every person is different. I will say that the
trend of the last five years has been more people
turning sixty five or getting on Medicare advantage plans Choice
two in our scenario than the traditional choice one metagap plans.

(49:26):
But you never know. Trends can go back, you know,
they can go back and forth.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
But that is the trend of late and so to
go back for a second. Now again, if I'm on
the traditional plans and I do have the meta gap card,
then let's say you're hospitalized and you know, everything else
is You're talking aout let's say five hundred thousand dollars,
which is not unusual, you know, and make it happen

(49:51):
right that that meta gap plan kicks in and covers
that gap. You know that twenty percent right from on advantage.
I don't have that luxury. However, still, rather than you
know whatever, twenty percent of one hundred thousand dollars, right,

(50:12):
I'm not going to get if I'm on the advantage plan.

Speaker 6 (50:15):
Max max amount of pocket that's right.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Twelve thousand. I'm not doing one hundred thousand. I'm doing
twelve thousand.

Speaker 6 (50:22):
That's correct. And that would be usually an out of
network scenario. So let's say that you, I don't know,
you had to travel to mby Anderson Cancer Center in Houston,
and the particular Medicare advantage plan you were on they
were out of network. Let's just say for example, then yes,
then you would hit your max amount of pocket of

(50:44):
twelve thousand, and then that would be it. So that's
why I'm always very very certain to always sell what's
called a PPO in the Medicare advantage field rather than HMO.
So that's a very important distinction. A PPO mean that
you can go in or out of network and the

(51:06):
insurance company will cover it, or if you go in network,
you will get lower cost sharing lower out of pocket.
An HMO means that you have to go in network
and if you go out of network you essentially do
not have any coverage. That's a big distinction.

Speaker 9 (51:21):
Yeah, because if let's say, if you're an HMO and
MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston's not a network, then
you would have to pay that whole twenty percent.

Speaker 6 (51:33):
If you're in a PPO, well, let's say that Lexa
Medical Centers in network and your max amount of pocket
six thousand in network, but your max amount of pocket
out of networks twelve. Well, then you would have a choice. Right,
So Okay, I can stay here locally and I can
cap it at six, but maybe there's a specialty treatment,
and so I'll go ahead and choose to go out

(51:54):
of network and just know I have higher risk, but
at least is covered up to in twelve one thousand
be your worst case scenario.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Well, you do a terrific job explaining this, Jeff. It's
still confusing to a lot of folks. So my suggestion
is sit down face to face with this guy right here,
Jeff Hall, and talk about it. How can folks reach you,
health Marcus.

Speaker 6 (52:11):
Jeff glad to help. So my office is right beside
the flight deck restaurant Lexington Health Markets Insurance. My phone
number text or call is eight zero three six seven
eight eight one two one. That's eight zero three six
seven eight eighty one twenty one websites by name Jeff
howl dot com.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
And remember, Jeff will not send you a bill. He's
free all right. Jeff, thanks buddy, having yourself a good weekend.

Speaker 6 (52:36):
Matt, thank you you too, Gary. Okay.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
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 as settlement that's unfairly low. The Law Office of
James Snell recognized by AVA with a ten and an

(53:02):
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

(53:23):
dot com. That's three l's spell law dot com. The
Law Office of James Snell since two thousand and four
with offices in Lexington and Columbia.