By Life Quotes, Inc. Staff

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company has signed a multi-million dollar settlement with 22 states that resolves allegations of improper practices by MetLife in benefits under life insurance policies that had gone unpaid for years.

The agreement is expected to deliver millions of dollars in death benefits to state controllers’ offices, which will then seek to find the beneficiaries and pay them their benefits.

As part of the agreement, MetLife agreed to:

• Adopt business reforms strengthening efforts to locate policyholders and beneficiaries within 120 days of an insured’s death.
• Conduct quarterly matches for a year, and then monthly matches against the Death Master File to check for evidence that a person insured by Metlife may have died. If a match is found, the company will conduct a “thorough search” for the insured or beneficiaries using databases, mail, telephone calls and email (if available).
• If, within one year, an insured or beneficiary cannot be found, MetLife will report and pay the death benefit or annuity payment to the appropriate unclaimed property department.
• MetLife also agreed to search for insureds or beneficiaries of low-value or industrial life insurance policies that were sold in the early 1900’s up to 1964.  Many of these policies were sold in Florida.  MetLife is making extra efforts to gather information needed to identify these insureds.  The industrial policies alone are estimated to include almost 15,000 Florida policyholders with over $9 million in face value. The face value for national industrial life policies is expected to exceed $400 million.

It is anticipated that upwards to $500 million in benefits will be paid out pursuant to the settlement. The company will also pay $40 million to state insurance departments. MetLife has agreed to strict business reforms to ensure it quickly pays out life insurance benefits.

“I am gratified that so many other state regulators have joined in signing this important agreement so we can move forward in helping consumers,” says California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. “This will give piece of mind to MetLife policyholders and beneficiaries across the country, knowing that they can expect their life insurance benefits to be there when the time comes.”

If MetLife learns that a policyholder died, it must conduct a thorough search for beneficiaries, using contact information in its records and online search locator tools. If MetLife does not find a beneficiary within a year of learning of a death, it must transfer the benefit to the appropriate state controller as unclaimed property.

“This agreement represents another milestone in the ongoing coordinated multi-state multi-agency investigation to change industry practices.  Consumers need to know that when purchasing insurance products critical to their financial security – a promise made is a promise kept.  We will remain vigilant in our review of other large insurance groups and anticipate concluding similar settlements with other companies to ensure that life insurance and annuity beneficiaries receive the benefits to which they are entitled,” says California Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty.

The practice addressed in this agreement involves life insurance companies determining if an insured has died by comparing policyholder records to the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File. Many companies have used this method to stop annuity payments, but have not used the same method to issue life insurance payments.

MetLife has agreed that it will do frequent comparisons of its policyholder information to the Death Master File and if it finds that an insured has died, it will either pay the beneficiary or send the policy benefit to the appropriate unclaimed property department within one year. The Florida agreements and orders apply to life insurance annuity contracts, and retained asset accounts held by MetLife. The agreements are expected to result in payments totaling more than $200 million.

When an insured or beneficiary cannot be located, the insurance company is responsible for reporting and remitting the monetary value of the policy to the insured’s state department of unclaimed property. During Jeff Atwater’s tenure as CFO, the Bureau of Unclaimed Property has seen record returns, reuniting owners, heirs and businesses with more than one-third of all money returned since the beginning of the program, due largely to aggressive efforts to contact owners. There is no statute of limitations on unclaimed property, and citizens have the right to claim their property, or the earnings derived from their abandoned property, any time at no cost.

In early 2011, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) formed the Investigation of Life/Annuities Claim Settlement Practices Task Force chaired by McCarty to guide and coordinate the multi-state examination process. Both Prudential Insurance Company of America and its affiliates along with the John Hancock Life Insurance Company have already reached similar agreements.

The states of Florida, California, Illinois, North Dakota, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania are serving as lead states for examinations of the largest insurance companies. During this stage of the Task Force’s work, the focus has been on the largest 40 insurance groups, which comprise more than 92.4% of the market for life and annuity products nationwide.

For more, read “Missing records: When life insurance benefits go unpaid.”

This article was originally published by Life Quotes, Inc.

When a woman becomes a mother everything in her life changes. Everything in her world becomes about her child. While mothers are nursing cuts and scrapes, whipping up an amazing home-cooked meal for their family or providing counsel to their daughter’s broken heart after a breakup, they too often neglect the basic necessity of taking care of their own health and wellbeing.

“Women are so concerned taking care of their husbands and children they put their well-being last and they are too busy or too embarrassed or don’t want to inconvenience anyone to call 911 if they are feeling symptoms,” says Lisa Townsend, director of Sister-to-Sister, The Women’s Heart Health Foundation, a non-profit organization located in Chevy Chase, Md. that is dedicated to raising awareness about heart disease in women.

“Women have to be healthy to take care of their own family. Women keep the family going and keep the family glued together, so they should not to hesitate to seek screening and medical care if they think they are at risk for heart attack,” Townsend says.

This Sunday is Mother’s Day and while children everywhere will be celebrating the most important woman in their life, there are a number of health risks concerning women that are often overlooked or poorly reported in the media. In order to prevent the most common threats that may increase mortality and impact their life insurance rates, they first must recognize the most serious health risks affecting them.

The number one killer of women in the United States is Heart Disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2011, The American Heart Association reported that heart disease and stroke caused 2,200 deaths of both men and women in the United States. Women Heart, The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease reported that one third of women have died from heart disease in the U.S., according to a 2010 report from The American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee.

A common misconception is that breast cancer is the most life-threatening illness that women and their doctors must keep a watchful eye on. However, more than 200,000 women die of heart attack every year.

“A lot of women don’t know heart disease is the number one killer of women and not men,” says Townsend.

Sister to Sister offers a guide for women “Smart for the Heart” that provides a heart risk health assessment.

WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease based in Washington D.C. offers advice on heart disease prevention and early detection.

Townsend adds that women really think that breast cancer is their greatest risk, but to put this in perspective, recent statistics show that one in 30 women will die of breast cancer, while one and three women will die of heart disease.

It’s a sobering fact that more than 200,000 women lose their lives due to a heart attack and 432,000 women die of cardiovascular disease each year. In fact, heart attacks cause five times as many deaths as breast cancer in women each year. Women who are smokers are also three times more likely to die from a heart attack.

There are seven risk factors for cardiovascular disease and weight is related to all of them.  A lack of physical activity, poor diet, cholesterol, blood pressure, high glucose levels and high sodium intake already contribute to the risk of having a major cardiac event. When smoking is added to the mix, the result can be fatal. Unfortunately, the AHA concludes that women are less likely to receive the proper treatment for a heart attack than men.

Brian Ashe, CLU, and Treasurer of the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) and owner of Brian Ashe & Associates, Ltd. in Lisle, Ill. says that when it comes to rating life insurance policies for women, two things should be considered: getting a policy while still relatively young (in their 30s and 40s) and if there’s a serious health problem doing whatever it takes to maintain the condition and get your health back on track.

“If a woman has a heart attack and she will likely recover and she’s doing well, carriers might not any interest in writing insurance for the first couple of years, but this is only if the attack was mild and her blood pressure and cholesterol are under control,” Ashe says.

After the one to two-year waiting period, Ashe says that the policy would still have a Table rating of 2 to 4. This is an extra amount of premium they might pay for a serious pre-existing health condition when they apply for life insurance coverage.

“Through the passage of time and with continued good health the policy could be re-reviewed and go back to standard,” Ashe adds.

The key to preventing higher health and life insurance rates is not to develop a heart condition to start with. While women and men are both at risk for having a heart condition, heart disease is still highly preventable.

“Heart disease is the only serious illness that is reversible and preventable. In fact, 82 percent of women can lower their risk factors for heart disease by just leading a healthy lifestyle,” Townsend says.

For women between 40 and 60 years of age that have risk factors for heart disease, a lot of those factors can be controlled by reducing salt intake, enhancing physical activity, taking their medications to lower cholesterol and blood pressure and reducing stress.

An Ounce of Prevention: A chat with Jackie Warner on how diet and fitness can help women stay healthy

The top causes of heart disease are all avoidable: smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke, eating saturated fats high in cholesterol, eating processed foods, high blood pressure, poor stress management and a sedentary lifestyle, so the best approach is to eat right and exercise.

Jackie Warner is best known as the no-nonsense celebrity personal fitness trainer. Considered the foremost fitness expert in her field, Warner has helped to shape and reshape and strengthen and tone some of Hollywood’s most famous names.  Warner is also the star of Bravo’s “Workout” and “Thintervention” has a line of health and wellness products (including an Omega balance supplement, metabolism enhancing water boosters, a balanced vitamin, vanilla bean whey protein powder, a craving control bar, and a jump rope called Jump! The Ultimate Rope).  She is the author of several books and DVD’s about exercise and fitness. In other words, Warner walks the walk and talks the talk.

Her latest book “10 Pounds in 10 Days” recently made April’s New York Time’s bestseller list and in this book she proves that you don’t have to be a celebrity to get fit and healthy and you can do it in half the time it would normally take, with just a touch of discipline and making a few life changes.

“Heart health and a healthy diet and exercise go hand in hand,” Warner says. “The body was not made not meant to be sedentary on any given day, you have to get up and start moving and you have to feed it the fuel it needs to keep moving. It doesn’t matter what your age is, a healthy weight can be maintained if you follow the proper regimen and don’t cheat.”

According to Warner, 70 to 85 percent of her book tackles the proper diet and nutrition for losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight.

“The book is actually a 30-day program broken into 10-day phases and you eat what I tell you to eat and when I tell you to eat it,” Warner says. “The foods in my book have been handpicked, researched and chosen by me and that is why I call them ‘superstar’ foods. They provide the best vitamins and the best nutritional benefit.”

Some of the superstar foods include apples, which Warner says are fantastic for reducing cholesterol. She says there is a lot of misinformation in the media about what people should be eating, which includes differing opinions about fish. Out of all of the types of fish that will provide the most nutritional benefit, she says salmon is the best choice. If you are training and in search of good protein, she says a better option is eating eggs.  She says avoid white flours, white breads, white rice, cookies, pretzels, crackers and croutons.

“Eggs are the purest protein you can have and it has been proven that there was a significant cholesterol drop when two eggs a day were added to your diet. Also, the lecithin found in eggs is a major fat burner and inhibits cholesterol absorption in the blood,” Warner says.

Advice for new mothers

Warner says pregnant women need to be working out and conditioning their body five days a week.

“For two reasons: Pregnancy goes smoother and they lose body weight more effectively when it comes to losing fat in the abdominal area,” Warner says.

However, she warns, no weight-bearing or crunch exercises.

Some of Jackie Warner's "Superfoods"

(Preferably organic)
Apples
Asparagus
Beans
Blueberries
Broccoli
Baby Carrots (Baby Size)
Chicken breast
Lowe-fat cottage cheese, 1 percent
Eggs (Free-range)
Greek Yogurt (low-fat)
Oatmeal (Plain)
Oranges
Potatoes
Peaches
Peanut butter (all-natural, sugar free)
Brown rice
Salmon
Spinach
Sweet Potatoes
Tomatoes
Turkey breast
Watercress
Green tea

For more, go to Jackie Warner’s official website.

Source: www.jackiewarner.com

Advice for working mothers

Recent studies found that exercising three times a week is not effective to maintaining and changing your body. A big problem with exercise program is not sticking with it if you don’t see changes within a couple of weeks.

“In all my year’s of training, if clients didn’t drop two sizes in two weeks they started sabotaging themselves,” Warner says. “Often they set unrealistic goals for themselves. If they don’t see a difference in their body in short amount of time and regardless of whether they feel healthier, it didn’t matter because they quit the program. This is why you have to switch up exercise routines frequently. A good way to stay engaged is to change cardio and resistance training drastically every month. This is one of the reasons why P90X has been so effective because you are not repeating exercises and you are seeing results.”

Working mothers who have limited time to workout have several options for staying in shape.

“If they get one of my DVDs they can workout right in their living room for a half-hour and they don’t have to drive to the gym,” Warner recommends.  “If you make the time to workout you will feel much more energized throughout your day. You can simply grab a DVD or grab a couple weights and exercise before your day starts or at the end. It’s best to figure out what time of the day you feel the strongest so you can get the maximum benefit from your workout routine.”

Advice for women in their 50s and 60s

Women in their 50s and 60s should continue to exercise because it benefits them in many ways, Warner says, which includes increasing bone density.

“I am in my 40s and what I do is very basic and not high impact,” Warner says. “I do a lot of body building movements and it’s about combining the right function with perfect form to complete fatigue. Which includes training hard to muscle failure, this just means high repetition chest presses, squats, lunges and five to 10 pushups. That is how you should be training.”

Warner adds that she does a combination of circuit training and stresses that older women should be lifting weights to increase bone density.

“If your mother is in her 50s or 60s this is the time she should be working with weights,” Warner says.

Although Warner has never trained someone who is a heart attack survivor, she has trained people who have heart conditions. In fact, she was diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse, a common heart valve abnormality, and still maintains a rigorous exercise program.

“People who have heart conditions or are recovering from them need to exercise to maintain optimal health. However, it is imperative to contact a physician before starting any training program,” she says.

This article was originally published by Life Quotes, Inc.

Although nearly one-third of consumers believe they need more life insurance, their top reason for not pursuing coverage is a misperception of how much it costs, according to a report by the nonprofit Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education and LIMRA, a worldwide research, consulting and professional development organization.

The 2012 Insurance Barometer Study indicates including 20 percent of current policyholders and about half of those without coverage believe they need a new or additional coverage. The top reason, cited by 85 percent of respondents, was a commitment to “other financial priorities.” This was followed by 83 percent who said they believed it was “too expensive.”

Asked to estimate the annual cost of a 20-year, $250,000, level-term life policy for a healthy 30-year old consumer, the average estimate from respondents was $400, compared to the actual cost of about $150.

“If people think that something is too pricey, they often won’t give it a second thought.The fact is, the cost for basic term life insurance has fallen by about 50 percent over the past 10 years and has never been more affordable. Owning life insurance is fundamental to a family’s financial security, and our industry needs to do more to help educate people about the true cost of protecting their loved ones,” says Marvin H. Feldman, CLU, ChFC, RFC, president and CEO of the LIFE Foundation.

The new study found that consumers within the most underserved markets are also the most aware of their need for more life insurance. More than one in three women believe they do not have enough life insurance coverage, compared to 29 percent of men. Among survey respondents 25 and younger, 41 percent say they need more coverage, of consumers 25 to 44 — the prime insurance-buying years — 36 percent believe they need more life insurance. Key minority groups are also more likely to feel underinsured, with 42 percent of African Americans and 37 percent of Hispanics saying they need more life insurance (compared to 32 percent of the total population).

“Our message to the public is simple: If you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans who lacks adequate life insurance coverage, act now before it’s too late,” says Robert Kerzner, CLU, ChFC, president and CEO of LIMRA, LOMA, and LL Global. “We created the Barometer Study with the LIFE Foundation to provide an annual snapshot of evolving consumer attitudes about a wide range of insurance-related topics, and our hope is that the broader industry will use these insights to help address the crisis of underinsurance this country faces.”

This year’s Insurance Barometer Study also found that while consumers generally agree that life insurance is a necessity, it falls behind other financial priorities. Consumers are more concerned with paying their mortgage or rent (31 percent say they are extremely or very concerned) or losing money on investments (26 percent) than they are with issues that speak to the need for life insurance. Having enough money for a comfortable retirement continues to be consumers’ top financial concern (50 percent say they are extremely or very concerned).

Conducted by LIFE and LIMRA, the Insurance Barometer Study is an annual survey designed to increase understanding about consumer attitudes and behaviors regarding a host of insurance and financial planning matters. The study examined consumers’ attitudes about life insurance, disability insurance and long-term care insurance, as well as their buying preferences and perceptions about the insurance industry. New for 2012, the study also looked at perceptions about workplace benefits. To request a full copy of the report, please contact LIFE or LIMRA.

The nationwide Insurance Barometer Study is an annual study conducted by LIFE and LIMRA to better understand the public’s opinions, attitudes and behaviors regarding life and health insurance, as well as more general financial planning matters.

This article was originally published by Life Quotes, Inc.

A series of multistate investigations into the insurance industry have revealed that life insurance companies are holding large amounts in unclaimed policies on their books that beneficiaries are likely unaware of.

Kevin McCarthy, Florida’s insurance commissioner, put the figure at somewhere “north of $1 billion.” There are several reasons for this, starting with the fact that many people might not be aware that a family member even had a policy.  Records become lost, memories fade and when a policyholder passes away, their descendents might have no idea of where their financial records are even located.

“It’s ironic even though a lot of people have life insurance to protect their loved ones they feel like their financial affairs are none of their loved one’s business while they’re alive,” says Carolyn Atkinson, West Virginia’s deputy director for unclaimed property and president of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.  “I’ve noticed a discrepancy between getting life insurance and telling people you have it.”

Under current laws and industry standards, it falls to beneficiaries to inform the  life insurance company that the policyholder has passed away and to file a claim. That’s not going to happen if the beneficiaries doesn’t know a policy exists and it can be hard for them to track down this information without the actual policy in hand.

Brendan Bridgeland, staff attorney and policy director at the Center for Insurance Research, a consumer advocacy organization, says the reason for this is the insurance industry hasn’t kept up with changes in technology.

“The prior system which is being dealt with and probably going to be changed, is old-fashioned and archaic like many things in the insurance industry, which is the system has always relied on beneficiaries filing claims,” Bridgeland says. “Long ago there weren’t tools for insurers to determine when one of their insureds may have died.”

Even if someone does keep good records and their descendents know that a policy exists,  so many life insurance companies have merged or changed their names that it may appear as if the company that sold the policy no longer exists.

So where to begin?

Just like dormant savings accounts and other funds, life insurance proceeds are supposed to be turned over to the unclaimed property office within each state, if the account has been inactive and no contact with the owner has been made for a set period of time.  Laws vary by state on when this is supposed to happen, although three years is average.

The NAUPA operates a free searchable website (see sidebar), with information from unclaimed property administrators in 40 states. The site’s database includes unclaimed life insurance funds as well as savings, checking accounts and the like. NAUPA’s website also includes links to the unclaimed property offices in all50 states. If someone had moved during their lifetime, which state receives their unclaimed property would likely depend on the last known address that the insurance company had for the policyholder.

Down to zero

Unfortunately for beneficiaries, there’s a significant amount in unclaimed life insurance benefits that never make it to state offices because the account has been drawn down to zero. Under federal law,  if a life insurance policyholder misses a payment the insurance company will cover that payment by drawing against the cash value of the policy. This protects the insured from losing their entire policy if they happen to miss one or two payments. Yet if a policyholder dies, and the insurance company is unaware of this, the company may continue paying itself the premiums from the cash value of the policy.

When the policy runs out of money, it’s canceled by the company and never turned over to the state because there’s nothing left—making it hard for beneficiaries to discover if the policy ever existed. Jacob Roper, spokesman for the California comptroller’s office, says this is what prompted the state’s comptroller and insurance commissioner to launch an investigation into 21 insurance companies.

Roper says the comptroller’s unclaimed property staff noticed that large insurance companies were turning over very small amounts of unclaimed property compared to the size of each company.

“You’d have companies that pay out millions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits a year reporting a few thousand dollars in unclaimed property, which is awfully low for the size of the industry,” Roper says.

Several other states have joined in California’s efforts.  In an April 2011 settlement with John Hancock, the company agreed to,  among other things,  restore the full value of more than 6,400 life insurance accounts and create a means of identifying deceased policyholders and notifying their beneficiaries.

Prudential settled a similar case with these states in January 2012 involving more than 1,000 accounts whose policyholders had been dead for more than 15 years.  Prudential agreed to restore the full value of these accounts, pay interest to the beneficiaries and work with the state to connect beneficiaries with millions of dollars in death benefits. The company has also launched a policy locator service (see sidebar).

“The purpose of the federal law that allows them to draw down the value is so that if a person is still living and misses a payment here or there they don’t lose their entire life insurance policy because of a single missed payment,” Roper says. “The purpose of the law is not to draw down the value of the account to the point where it’s nothing by the time the beneficiaries get around to it.”

Even if a policy hasn’t been drawn down, if a claim isn’t filed it could take years for the proceeds to be turned over to a state unclaimed property office. In West Virginia, for example, Atkinson says life insurance benefits would be turned over to the state three years after the insurance company learned that the owner died, if no one filed a claim.

If the insurance company is unaware of a policyholder’s death, then the proceeds would be turned over to the state three years after the limiting age of the policy—which varies by state but is generally around what would’ve been the policyholder’s 100^th birthday.

“What that means is if someone passes away at age 88, it will be 23 years before it shows up on the state abandoned property fund and at that point family members may have almost certainly stopped looking,” Bridgeland says.

The grim reaper takes few vacations, but sometimes he can provide a quick buck from an insurance company. From people faking their own deaths to those taking out a bogus policy or trying to escape the law, the lure of an easy payout keeps life insurance companies on the lookout for fraudulent death claims.

While they don’t go peering into every coffin, there are techniques investigators use to figure out which cases might not hold water.

A Darwin by any other name just isn't the same...

In August 2009, John Darwin, a man from North East England, faked his own death in a contrived canoe drowning accident on the Cleveland coast, so he and his wife could collect £250,000 in insurance payouts.  Days before Darwin’s “disappearance” the couple was about to file bankruptcy.

Known as the “Canoe Man” Darwin and his wife fled to Panama to start a new life together after convincing authorities, the coroner and even their two sons’ that John had died in a canoe accident.

Trouble began for the couple when Panama changed their requirements for a visa and the authorities in the United Kingdom would have to verify their identity.  Darwin decided to return to the UK,  fake amnesia, and join Anne in Panama with a fresh passport.

Unfortunately, there were a number of  suspicious activities his “grieving widow” had been involved in that caught the attention of investigators, which included going on several foreign vacations,  transferring large sums of money to Panama and selling her home in England so she could move there.

The plot fell apart when a simple search of Google Images provided a picture of the happy couple on a Panama relocation services website years before Darwin’s reappearance, completely blowing their cover.

Darwin and his wife  were sentenced to six years each in prison for insurance fraud.  John and Anne Darwin served half of their six-year sentence and were released from prison in 2011. The Darwins’ are expected to repay nearly all of the stolen insurance money and defrauded pension funds.

Sources obtained from news reports provided by the Daily Mail, BBC News, The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Daily Mirror

Steven N. Weisbart, senior vice president and chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute, a public information source about insurance for consumers, knows all about the red flags insurance companies look for when it comes time to pay death benefits.  The overwhelming majority of the time there aren’t any red flags to worry about, but when there are, insurers look closely to make sure nothing is out of place.

In nearly all cases, the only thing an insurance company needs is a signed death certificate. Once that’s issued listing the time, place and cause of death,  the benefits are paid. Only when there are questions over the cause of death do insurance companies begin their own investigation.

In some instances, individuals who endeavor to commit fraud get away with it for several decades. A recent example is the case of 73-year-old Robert Arcieri.  Arcieri was a well-known, well-liked and now infamous businessman from Phoenix, who managed to get away with faking his own demise for 25 years, while he and his family profited off the life insurance money.

In 1987, Arcieri convinced local authorities and his life insurance company that he fell into the Colorado River and died during a fishing trip, leaving behind a string of pending felony charges and a $700,000 life insurance policy for his family.

The charges included armed robbery, three counts of conspiracy to commit burglary and two counts of solicitation to commit murder.

When he pleaded guilty to these charges earlier this year, prosecutors tacked on an additional charge of fraud for faking his own death. He received a 10-year sentence in March.

Larry Flick was a Phoenix, Ariz. police detective and lead investigator of Arcieri’s case at the time. He says there was no doubt in the law enforcement community that Arcieri’s nighttime drowning was staged.

“Nobody that was associated with this case believed that he wasn’t alive and I’m sure the insurance investigator also believed he was alive,” Flick says. “The feigning of the death was successful in that it paid off but we didn’t quash the original charges, they stayed in effect all those years.”

Flick says Arcieri first came to the attention of police after he took out an insurance policy on a business associate, then tried to take out a hit on the individual so he could collect. Unfortunately for Arcieri, the man he tried to hire for the job was a police informant.

Arcieri was indicted and arrested in June 1986. Flick says one of Arcieri’s accomplice’s agreed to cop a plea and testify against him on the pending charges, as well as provide information on other alleged activities.

The prosecutor decided to drop the charges, let Arcieri go and later re-indict him after investigating the accomplice’s claims.

Flick says Arcieri planned his disappearance in advance by creating false identities, bank accounts under assumed names and filing for bankruptcy.

“Arcieri was just a capitalist, a crooked capitalist nonetheless, but it was all about money. Anything that could turn a buck, whether it was legitimate or illegitimate he was into it,” Flick says.

The case was featured on the TV show “Unsolved Mysteries” and, because of the suspicious nature of Arcieri’s death his life insurance company fought payment on the claim. Flick says that is because Arcieri wasn’t under indictment at the time he disappeared, the criminal investigation against him wasn’t admitted in court.

In March 1990, a jury ordered the life insurance company to payout on the policy, which by then had grown to more than $1 million with interest. Flick says most of the money went to cover Arcieri’s bankruptcy debts, with his three daughters collecting around $120,000 each.

“The jury that sat in on the case was not allowed to hear the very obvious reason why Arcieri would’ve feigned his death,” Flick says. “We thought this was a ruse.”

Art Widowski, a Phoenix police detective, says Arcieri fled to Canada and upstate New York before settling in Spokane, Wash. under an alias, where he married another woman and sold mobile homes.

“Once he settled at a legitimate job, he kept that identity. Everybody that I spoke to thought he was just a guy who had a penchant for being a salesman, no one suspected anything since he had a legitimate job,” Widowksi says.

Arcieri later moved to Palm Springs, Calif. where he was known to have visited two of his daughters. While the daughters benefited from their father’s life insurance policy, Widowski says there’s no evidence that they helped him financially.

Widowski says Arcieri’s family ties ultimately led to his capture, as one of his daughters turned him into police after they had a falling out.

Purchasing life insurance is an important piece of a person’s financial pie and needs to be carefully thought out, considering your family’s financial future could be hanging in the balance should you die.

Here are some common mistakes people make when buying life insurance coverage and how to avoid them.

1. Failure to buy enough insurance for your needs or to consider different life insurance products. “Some people say, ‘I make $50,000 a year so if I buy $250,000 in life insurance that should be enough for the family’. But what do they do after five years if there is no way to replace your income,” says Marvin Feldman, president and CEO of The LIFE Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping consumers make smart insurance decisions.

Feldman says he recommends individuals purchase 15 times their income in insurance if their children are young. When policyholders reach their 50s and their kids are grown, they may need 10 times their income, with the percentage decreasing as they age.

Brian Ashe, treasurer of the LIFE Foundation’s board of directors, says people shouldn’t decrease the amount too much as people are living longer, and that policy may need to stretch for quite a few years. He recommends keeping your life insurance policy as long as you live, saying some companies offer universal life to age 100.

“Research shows one of two 62-year-olds will live to age 92. That’s 30 years of no more earnings or pay, yet you’ll need to pay for food, healthcare and other expenses,” Ashe says.

Experts say people will generally need 70 percent of their working income once they retire, provided that is, if their mortgage is paid off and they don’t incur any major expenses.

2. Failure to purchase a personal policy. Feldman says some people believe if they receive life insurance through work, they don’t need to purchase any on their own. But he points out policies purchased through an employer are usually only for one to two times your income and are terminated if you leave the company for any reason.

“This policy is just one piece of the formula,” Feldman says. “Most people still need to purchase either term or whole life policies on their own, depending on their finances and long-term goals.”

Term insurance is less costly, but only pays if you die within the term of the policy. Whole life policies average a 4 percent to 5 percent rate of return and have a cash value component that can be used to save up for tuition costs or retirement.

3. Failure to understand what you’re buying. Some policies provide an investment as well as life/death benefits, says Jim Miles, a life actuary in Indianapolis and consultant with the Society of Actuaries.

“This can get complicated. If you don’t understand investments or how these policies work, don’t buy this type of policy,” advises Miles.

He says term insurance is the easiest to understand, but adds even the provisions of some term life insurance can be complicated.  Miles recommends choosing an agent who can explain the policy thoroughly, so you fully understand its terms and conditions and what you receive in return.

4. Failure to include all beneficiaries on policy. Feldman says you need to be specific about who will be beneficiaries on your policy. “Did you include adopted children, too?” He asks.  Also, if you had another child after taking out the policy, be sure to add that child as a beneficiary.

Ashe says one mistake he sees frequently is people get divorced and remarry and forget to change the beneficiary to the new spouse. The result? The last person you may want to see get your money, will.

If you buy a policy when you become engaged and name your fiancée or fiancé as an intended spouse, be sure to take their name off if the marriage never takes place and you no longer want that person as beneficiary.

5. Failure to consider the total financial picture. Miles says some people get caught up with the investment aspect and other types of insurance—such as accidental death and dismemberment—and don’t buy enough death benefit.

“You need to think of buying life insurance as a total package, not individual pieces,” he says.

6. Failure to have a will or trust. This spells out without a shadow of a doubt who, when and how the beneficiaries receive the proceeds, and is especially important if your minor children are included as beneficiaries.

Ashe says minor children can’t access the proceeds of an insurance policy unless a guardian has been appointed. And typically, the guardian will be named in the person’s will. The guardian has a fiduciary duty to the child and must prove to the court that he or she is acting properly for the child when dispensing money.

“If you didn’t name the guardian in your will, the state will… The person chosen may not necessarily be the person you would want,” Ashe says.

7. Failure to insure your kids through a child rider or a children’s policy. Ashe advises parents to buy life insurance for their children, provided they already have life insurance on themselves in place. He says children are generally healthier and can get coverage at a significantly lower cost.  Also, many companies have a guaranteed insurability option where the child, when older, can buy additional insurance regardless of their health.

“This could be more important than you may think.  A doctor said 20 percent to 30 percent of pre-teens today are candidates to be diabetic or heart patients in their early 20s because of obesity. These children may never qualify for standard life insurance rates again,” Ashe says.

8. Failure to understand that an accidental death policy does have value. Accidental death is a traditional life insurance policy that pays additional benefits, sometimes double, if the death of the policyholder was an accident.  Accidental death and dismemberment policies provide income to your family for disabling injuries that are not fatal, including loss of limbs or eyesight.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 10.8 million motor vehicle accidents in 2009, the last year for which figures are available, and 35.9 million people died within one year of being involved in a vehicle accident that year.

9. Failure to know that in most cases an Accelerated Death Benefit is a FREE rider added on to your life insurance policy. This rider helps terminally ill people pay their expenses before they die.  However, you have to add the rider when you first purchase the policy, and if you invoke the privilege then it accrues interest that is immediately taken out of the final death benefit.  According to the Illinois Department of Insurance, this option usually pays 50 to 80 percent of the policy’s face value and can be paid in a lump sum or monthly payments.

10.  Failure to realize as a young adult that you are not infallible and should have a life insurance policy. Accidents can happen at any time, and according to Ashe, are probably more likely to happen to young people than the older generation. You can die from an accident while driving a car, riding a bicycle, skiing or just walking across a busy street.  Young adults in their 20s and 30s aren’t immune to several forms of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses that could lead to death. Drug and alcohol overdoses also are more likely to happen to young adults.

“You want to buy life insurance when you’re young and healthy. Life insurance rates are lower. In fact, they’ve gone down 60 percent from 30 years ago. Also, if you want until you’re dying, no one will sell it to you,” Ashe says.

11.   Failure to inform beneficiaries that you have a policy and where it is. Perhaps it’s paranoia, or maybe the policyholder wants to present a beloved family member with a post-mortem surprise gift. Whatever the reason, there are tens of  thousands of life insurance policies worth millions, perhaps even billions, sitting in states’ unclaimed properties divisions.  West Virginia alone is holding 35,000 life insurance policies with a total value of about $8.8 million, according to Carolyn Atkinson, the state’s deputy director for Unclaimed Property and president of the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.

“People may not know grandfather or father or mother took out a policy and named them as beneficiary,” Atkinson says.

Luckily, Atkinson says about 77 percent of all unclaimed property and money is eventually paid out in West Virginia, whether by people going to their website or their investigators tracking down the intended recipients. To make sure this doesn’t happen to your heirs, insurers recommend placing insurance papers with other important documents and including the policy in your will.

This article was originally published by Life Quotes, Inc.

Risky behaviors associated with HEP C

o Drug use and sharing needles with an infected person

o Having unprotected sex with an infected person through breaks in the skin or the lining of the mouth

o People who are on kidney dialysis

o The infection can be passed on from mother to unborn child

o Having a blood transfusion before 1992

o Getting a tattoo or piercing with unsanitary instruments

o Being a healthcare worker who is accidentally stuck with a dirty syringe

o Using the razor, toothbrush or nail clippers of an infected person

o Having hemophilia

Source: Mayo Clinic

Hepatitis C (HEP C, HCV) has surpassed HIV when it comes to fatality rates of adults, according to a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One reason is because a smaller amount of blood is needed to infect a person with HCV than HIV.

“The virus can spread whenever there is blood-to-blood contact between an infected person and non-infected person,” says Dr. Leopoldo Arosemena, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami and liver disease specialist. “A minimal amount of blood is necessary for transmission of the virus.”

Arosemena adds that even people who were given medication through injections from boiled needles had a chance of becoming infected with the virus.

“Those needles and other sharp objects in similar situations did not have any visible blood,” says Arosemena.

POPULATION AT-RISK

HEP C is a deadly virus that infects and damages the liver, resulting in a number of diseases including cirrhosis, liver cancer and acute liver failure that can lead, in its most critical stages, to a liver transplant. According to a recent study by the CDC, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, members of the baby boomer generation (people between the ages of 47 to 67) are at a higher risk of getting HEP C.

“Baby boomers are disproportionately affected by HCV in the U.S. and many of them were infected decades ago,” says Jennifer Ruth Horvath, spokesperson for the National  Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention at the CDC. “The reason why this group has high rates of infection is not completely understood. Many baby boomers have become infected from contaminated blood and blood products before universal precautions were adopted and widespread screening of blood supplies began in 1992.”

Horvath adds that some baby boomers became infected due to experimentation with drug use, but it isn’t the only common mode of transmission.

“Reaching the baby boomer population with screening is critical to slowing and stopping the serious health consequences already taking place,” says Horvath.

While the dangers of hepatitis have been in the news for years, it should not prevent someone who has been diagnosed with the virus from buying life insurance. Unlike HIV, most life insurers will cover policyholders with hepatitis including those with HCV but it is dependent on several criteria, says Craig Davidson, Medical Director for The Hartford.

“We would check the person’s medical history and look for elevated liver function,” says Davidson. “Once it is determined that they have Hepatitis C, we would determine how long they’ve had it and how they got it.”

What might be revealed in the person’s medical history is that they may have indulged in risky sexual behavior when they were younger, or that they were involved in a major car accident that required a blood transfusion. Other telltale signs include a history of IV drug use or the person is a healthcare worker or someone who handles blood in their profession.

Davidson says like most blood-borne viruses, HEP C commonly shows up in a standard blood test. In a case where the person doesn’t know they have it, they might go to the doctor feeling ill with the flu and it may be found in the lab work or the person decides to give blood and since blood is screened so closely, they might learn they have it that way. Also, a routine blood test is given to people applying for life insurance and the antibodies might be revealed then.  Medical experts say it takes up to 10 years of more for an HCV-infection to show up in a liver function test.

STIGMA

It is estimated that of the 4.1 million adults in the United States who have tested positive for HCV antibodies, 3.2 million of them have a chronic HCV or Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) genotype 1. What’s worse, the CDC found that 50 to 75 percent of people infected with HCV have no idea they are living with the disease.

“I think the prevalence is as high as it is because Chronic Hepatitis C  is a “silent disease”  in that symptoms often do not appear for years,” says Arosemena.  “Approximately 70 to 80 percent of people newly infected with the chronic HCV do not have any symptoms.  Many are surprised by the diagnosis. Often, I have to take a very detailed history to retrospectively find any potential risk factors and estimate the length of the infection.”

SPREADING AWARENESS

HCV has become so prevalent that it spawned a national public health campaign “Tune Into Hep C” and its slogan “Doing nothing is not an option; talk to your doctor” is sponsored by the American Liver Foundation and pharmaceutical company Merck whose mission is to spread awareness about chronic HEP C and promote treatment and prevention of the viral infection.

The campaign highlights the personal stories of those who have struggled with the illness or have loved ones who have been impacted by Hepatitis C,  including  three Grammy winners: singer songwriter Natalie Cole, music legend Greg Allman and recording artist and songwriter Jon Secada.

Allman had taken a routine physical after complaining to his doctor that he had no energy and once he received the blood results he learned that he tested positive for HEP C.   After failed treatment he had a liver transplant. Cole, found out she had HEP C in much the same way, during a routine blood test in 2008.

Cole wrote about her illness in her memoir “Love Brought Me Back” which was published in 2010. Like Allman, Cole also had to have a liver transplant. Secada lost his father, Jose, to chronic HEP C because he did not seek treatment and kept his ordeal with the disease a secret from his family. The disease was so advanced that his father died of complications associated with HEP C.

“The perceived stigma associated with chronic Hepatitis C continues to be a barrier that seems to prevent patients from speaking with their doctors about the disease,” says Arosemena.  “I believe in general that stigma stems from a misunderstanding or lack of awareness.  Some people acquired the virus by using intravenous drugs, inhaling cocaine and so on. I think that this leads to improper generalization since a great percentage of the infected patients never used recreational drugs.”

By Life Quotes, Inc. Staff

If you are in the market for life insurance your agent might suggest purchasing a guaranteed rate term life insurance policy. This simply means the premiums would remain level for a certain length of time or eventually increase depending on the type of policy offered. Most agents suggest a rate guarantee that matches the length of time the policyholder thinks they’ll need coverage.

For example, if you need life insurance for 20 years then an insurance agent might suggest a 20-year initial rate guarantee because the policy will yield the net lowest cost over the 20-year period on a guaranteed basis.  If you have a 10-year need, then choose the 10-year rate guarantee.

“If there is any chance a need will last longer than 10 years and the insured wants or needs to use term life, I would always suggest using a 15 or 20 year level premium guarantee plan,” says Brian Ashe, president of Brian Ashe and Associates, Ltd. an insurance agency in Lisle, Ill.

But be warned, if a policyholder wants to extend coverage beyond the rate guarantee period they would pay far more to keep it.

“If they go just one year beyond the initial 10-year guarantee period, in year 11 they can pay anywhere, on average, from about 75 percent to 125 percent or more of all the premiums they paid in the prior ten years, in just year 11, and every year thereafter, the premium will go up,” says Ashe.

Insurance experts say policyholders often choose a term life insurance policy with a 20-year level premium.

“Better pay a little more now and know that rates will not change for 15-20 years. And, if they really don’t need it anymore, they can simply drop it. There is no requirement that they have to keep paying for the 15-20 year guarantee plan if they don’t need it, Ashe says.

In addition to this, check with your agent and find out if the company offers a policy that has guaranteed level premiums for life. This means that your premiums will never rise during the lifetime of the policy.

Also, you might want to consider purchasing a Term-UL policy. Life insurers introduced the “Term-UL” policy to the public several years ago. The Term-UL is a fairly new hybrid insurance product that acts like a term life policy but is considered a universal life product. Rates on a Term-UL policy remain fixed until the end of the guaranteed period and once the period ends, the rates start to increase. Like traditional term life insurance, you can choose a term of 10, 15, 20 or 30 years.

Rather than purchasing a term policy and using it to convert to a whole life insurance product later, the Term-UL is a combination of a term and whole life insurance product where the convertibility is already built in. This means you can extend coverage later without having to show proof of insurability. These policies are also priced lower than traditional term and whole life insurance policies, but carry substantially lower cash values. The Term-UL offers the flexibility of converting the policy into another type of whole life insurance product just by paying more money into it.

For more about guaranteed rate life insurance see, “Top 10 tips for getting the best deal on life insurance.”

This article was originally published by Life Quotes, Inc.

Taxes always seem to be on the rise, so it is reassuring to know that life insurance is a rare financial tool where the beneficiaries receive the payout income tax-free.

A major advantage of life insurance is that beneficiary proceeds are exempt from income taxes and estate taxes, so proceeds can be used to offset any tax liability attached to your assets when you try to transfer those assets to loved ones.

“The death benefits of life insurance are almost always free of state and federal income taxes when they are paid to the beneficiary. Most times the proceeds can also be free of gift and estate tax,” says Brian Ashe, treasurer for the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE), a nonprofit organization concerned with educating the public about insurance.

Ashe explains. “For example, if I have a ‘permanent’ life insurance plan like universal life or whole life, under current law the cash values accumulate on a tax-deferred basis, so I can access those values with no tax if I only withdraw an amount equal to what I have paid in premiums and then borrow any amount over my ‘cost basis’ and have my cash grow tax-deferred. If the policy matures as a death benefit, I can have the remaining death benefits paid tax-free to my heirs.”

Life insurance can also be used to supplement other savings vehicles such as corporate pensions, IRAs, investments and social security proceeds.

Another advantage is that in most states the policy values of life insurance are creditor protected and if the beneficiary other than the “estate” is named, proceeds can escape probate.

This article was originally published by Life Quotes, Inc.

Whether it’s the loss of a job, unexpected medical expenses, home repairs or just putting the kids through college, anyone in a financial bind has a variety of resources they can turn to—particularly if they already have a bit of equity to borrow against.

Options include borrowing from a life insurance policy or a 401(k) plan, tapping a home equity loan, an ordinary refinancing or getting a reverse mortgage.

Of course no discussion of these issues would be complete without first mentioning the importance of financial planning to try and avoid this scenario. Each of these options comes with potential drawbacks to the point where some financial analysts argue for just avoiding them altogether.

Of course no discussion of these issues would be complete without first mentioning the importance of financial planning to try and avoid this scenario. Each of these options comes with potential drawbacks to the point where some financial analysts argue for just avoiding them altogether.

Bill Palmer, senior financial advisor and a Certified Financial Planner with Win Wealth Management in Denver, Colo. says everyone should have about six months of living expenses set aside in an emergency fund which they can earn interest on, rather than borrowing when they get in a pinch.

“These are solutions for people who are not planning so why not better serve those people by encouraging them to plan and to save and to live within their means, or better yet below their means so that they can save. It’s all about striking a balance between consuming today and starving tomorrow,” Palmer says. “Interest is a reduction in your total cash flow so if you don’t have to pay interest in the grand scheme you’re much better off.”

Palmer suggests keeping a reserve fund in a four-year Certificate of Deposit to earn interest, then pay whatever penalty might arise from having to draw on that money in an emergency.

Yet not everyone is willing or perhaps able to follow that advice. Anyone reading this article might be at the point where they need resources now. That’s why we’ll take a look at each of these options and consider the issues surrounding all of them.

“Any resource can be a tool so long as it’s wisely used. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a reverse mortgage or a home equity credit line or you borrow cash value from your life insurance policy or 401(k) plans,” says Neil Van Zutphen, president of Delta Ventures and a Certified Financial Planner in Mesa, Ariz. “You have to think of each as its own tool and understand the pros and cons of each of the tools.”

He says the first step, before even considering these options, is to cut back on expenses and save as much as possible. While tapping these resources can help those in a bind, they can easily let someone get lulled into a false sense of financial security.

“They spend at a normal level when they should be saying to themselves holy smokes I need to really ratchet this down and spend the least amount possible so that we can preserve and conserve our capital for as long as possible,” Van Zutphen says.

Refinancing

At a time when interest rates are at such low levels, a simple refinancing could reduce a mortgage payment and provide extra cash in a homeowner’s budget. Unfortunately, a weakness in the housing market means anyone who bought a house within the past few years is probably underwater as their home could be worth far less than the mortgage they have on it.

“If you have at least 20 percent equity in your home you ought to have a good opportunity to refinance, if you have good credit, and obtain historic low interest rates,” says Samuel Tamkin, a Chicago-based real estate attorney, real estate expert and columnist for ThinkGlink.com.

“Recently I talked to someone who said they were offered a 2 ¾ interest rate on a 15-year mortgage. That interest rate seemed so low to me that it was almost free money,” Tamkin says.

While some homeowners might be tempted to get extra cash from refinancing by borrowing more than they have in their existing mortgage, Tamkin says this could be difficult unless a home’s value is substantially higher than the new mortgage amount.

Palmer says refinancing would be an option for those whose loan to value ratio is at 80 percent, although he warns against pulling excess capital out of a mortgage as most people aren’t responsible enough to use that money wisely.  He suggests putting money into an index fund rather than trying to beat the markets.

“For those who have discipline then I’m okay with having a home mortgage that you take cash out of when you refinance if you immediately invest it in a long-term investment plan and you don’t gamble it on speculative investments,” Palmer says. “That’s the only time when I would encourage somebody to take out cash, but the rule of thumb is if the rate of the debt cost you less than the highly probable expected return, not an eyes in the sky end of the rainbow expected return, but something pragmatic and realistic.”

Home equity loans

Home equity loans and Home Equity Lines of Credit are basically second mortgages of a different name. They allow a homeowner to borrow against the equity in their home at rates lower than other means of borrowing, such as a credit card. (see sidebar)

A home-equity loan provides a one lump payment at a fixed rate and is generally used for a set amount of money for specific purpose, such as repairing a home or building an addition.

A HELOC comes with a variable interest rate that usually tracks the prime lending rate, plus a few points. A borrower gets special checks they can draw on at any time and are often used as an emergency fund.

The HELOC doesn’t accrue interest charges until the line of credit is actually tapped by the borrower, so it can function as a backup financial plan in case of emergency. A HELOC can be revoked or altered at any time by the bank for various reasons, such as a substantial decline in a home’s value or a change in the homeowner’s finances.

“It’s only there in the event of a true emergency. If you lose your job or both of you lose your jobs,” Van Zutphen says. “You try not to tap into it all at once, you just use it as you can and then try to pay it back as quickly as possible.”

Interest rates are low enough to make a home equity loan affordable, Tamkin says, although it’s unlikely that anyone who bought a home within the past seven years or so would have enough equity in their home to borrow against.

“Some markets you may have seen prices go back to around the year 2000 but if you bought in 1994 and you’ve been in your home almost 20 years, you may still have a substantial amount of equity in your home, particularly if when you refinanced you only refinanced prior balances and didn’t take additional money out,” Tamkin says.

Palmer says the best use of a HELOC is to have one on hold with a bank, but only as a backup resource to an emergency fund that can be used after a six-month savings reserve has been depleted.