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Affiliated Marketing Group
 
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Phone 713.977.0611
 
 

 

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AMG Is Giving Away An Apple iPad
 


 

 

AMG will be giving a new iPad to one of our EZ Life users.

The Contest is simple:

For the first application submitted, five tickets will be entered into our drawing to win.

The second application receives two additional tickets, the third application three tickets, the fourth four tickets and each additional application will receive five tickets.

Each submitted and paid application increases your chances of winning.  The contest is open to both existing and new users of our proprietary EZ Life system.

The contest starts May 1st, 2012 and the drawing will be held on Friday November 30th. 

EZ Life is a secure web based program that offers clients the opportunity to purchase term insurance from multiple companies. These quotes are from some of the most competitive highly rated insurance companies in the industry. Names your clients will recognize and trust.  HIPPA compliant and with state of the art technology from Verisign, your clients personal information is secure throughout the process.

You have no paper application to complete and are only responsible after submission for policy delivery and placement.

Your clients have the opportunity to purchase term life insurance at prices that can run 40% less than they may find with other carriers. Using EZ-Life, you receive full commissions and eliminate much of the time and effort associated with selling term life insurance policies.

Visit our EZ Life Page to sign up for your free account.  Customized with your company name you can use it directly or add a link to your website.  In addition to it's term quote engine and one page application that is the same for all carriers, your Ez Life Account offers 24/7 status and marketing tools including customized emails for contacting your clients.

For additional information and assistance contact Steve Gresso at 713.977.0611

 


Medicare Advantage Demonstration Program Under Fire

An $8 billion Medicare demonstration program being carried out by the Obama administration is poorly designed and should be canceled, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) said.

The program is designed to reward the highest-quality Medicare Advantage plans, but instead pays out most of its award money to mediocre plans, according to a report released Monday.

In 2011, about one-quarter of all Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, which are run by private insurers. The plans tend to offer additional benefits -- such as dental coverage -- not included in traditional Medicare plans.

Instead of continuing with the ineffective "MA Quality Bonus Payment Demonstration," which began this year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) should revert to the Medicare Advantage bonus plan that was passed in the Affordable Care Act, GAO investigators concluded.

Rather than implement the plan laid out in the ACA, CMS announced it would conduct the MA Quality Bonus Payment Demonstration, which would extend bonuses to plans with three or more stars, and increase the size of the bonuses, according to a letter GAO investigators sent to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who requested the report.

"Rather than rewarding only high-performing plans, most of the additional payments made under the demonstration will accrue to average-performing plans," the GAO investigators wrote, concluding it is "unlikely that the demonstration will produce meaningful results."

GAO also pointed to the size and cost of the demonstration. It "dwarfs all other Medicare demonstrations" conducted in the past 12 years in its cost, and is larger in size and scope than many past demonstration projects.

Hatch said the GAO findings show that HHS "abused its authority by creating what isn't really a demonstration program at all."

"The Obama administration launched this demonstration program to divert attention away from cuts to the popular Medicare Advantage program," Hatch said in a press release. "The Obama administration seems to be using a technicality to side step Congress and write itself a blank check to spend more money for political purposes leading into this year's elections. This is simply unacceptable."

 


Using a SLAT In Estate Planning Gains Popularity

An Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) is a common estate planning technique created to own life insurance outside your estate in an irrevocable trust. A Spousal Limited Access Trust (SLAT) makes a traditional ILIT more flexible by providing lifetime access to the life insurance policy's cash value. Loans and withdrawals of the cash value can be used for emergencies, supplemental retirement income or other needs, while maintaining the policy's death benefit outside the taxable estate.

How a SLAT works:

One spouse (in this example, husband) establishes a SLAT, which allows the trustee to make distributions to the other spouse (in this example, wife) and their children for their health, education, maintenance and support during husband's lifetime.
 

The ILIT trustee purchases a single life policy on the grantor (husband) or survivorship policy on both spouses. If a survivorship policy is used, then they must use an independent trustee.
 

Typically, the grantor spouse (husband) funds the premium by making gifts of his annual exclusion amount to the SLAT (using separate property in community property states). In addition, both spouses can use their annual exclusion gifts by 'gift-splitting.' However, the wife cannot make separate gifts to the trust.


The SLAT is for married individuals who want the death benefit of the policy outside the transfer tax system and
want the flexibility to access the cash value of a life insurance policy by the non-grantor spouse inside the trust.
 

Contact Steve Gresso for more information and to obtain quotes.

 

 

 For producer or Broker/Dealer Use Only. Not for public distribution nor intended to be used as financial or tax advice.