We welcomed Tom Canon to the show to discuss all the details about the upcoming Westminster Fall Fest.  The annual Fall Fest runs from Thursday – Sunday over the last weekend in September each year. It’s a great way to stimulate downtown Westminster’s economy for local businesses, each year, over 40,000 people visit Westminster to attend or be a part of the Fall Fest.

Thursday always features the parade which kicks off the fest. Main Street is lined with spectators and volunteers for the event. Friday is always Midnight Madness for downtown shops, they have huge sales and stay open until 12am for excited shoppers to visit. It’s a great way to draw traffic to locally owned businesses and shops. Saturday and Sunday are the biggest days for the vendors, carnival rides, games and food suppliers/restaurants. Fall Fest is the largest event of the year in Westminster.

This month is life insurance awareness month. It is so important to have sufficient life insurance for you and your family. It is something that many people put off and wait until it is too late. If you do have life insurance, it is also important to annually review your current policy.

Examples of Why It is Important to Get a Policy Review:

1. Make sure you have enough – you can never leave your loved ones with “too much” but you can leave behind a shortage to cover expenses.
2. 1035 exchanges
3. Kill two birds with one stone
4. Update/review health insurance coverage in the process
5. Avoid waiting too long
6. Estate taxes are important to have and understand now

For our last show before the summer break, we were joined by Joe DiMaggio, Senior Vice President at Kelly & Associates and group health care consultant. Health care right now is having a major impact on the economy, which is what we wanted to discuss with Joe. At Kelly & Associates, they work with companies to set up group coverage and other services. One important task is to keep clients aware of the current state. With the Obama-care, Joe and his team has had to help customers navigate and understand the changes. It has made the insurance world much more difficult to follow and there are many uncertainties. The Obama-care changes have NOT made insurance more affordable. It increases costs and decrease the level of care. Mandates are going to be outrageous and include many unnecessary requirements.

Insurance companies pay the majority of medical costs in the US. People don’t know the actual cost of screenings, tests, exams, etc. because most just pay a small dollar amount co-pay. But when government starts to mandate health care coverage and requiring “one size fits all” products will waste money and increase costs. Someone in their 20’s doesn’t need extensive cancer testing or other screenings needed by someone in their 50’s or older. It will cause insurance companies to increase because of costs of unneeded procedures.

Group billing was created for individuals to be put together to qualify for the group rates. Age and health conditions are huge factors, so keeping a leveled, fair “pool” can be an issue. Another change was the movement to allow adults to stay on their parents’ health care coverage until the age of 26, regardless of marital status or career status.

Question from a caller: what is going to happen when someone new takes office and doesn’t agree with the ObamaCare system and the health care reform? It would take time to unwind it if someone takes office that doesn’t agree with it, but it will take time to change and will need the funding to do so. For the sake of the nation, changes need to happen sooner to stop the uncertainties before they are in place.

For information about health care options, you can call Kelly & Associates at 410-527-3400.

Biggest Mistakes Made Regarding Financial Planning:

1. Deferring saving for retirement to pay for other things
2.  Failing to plan for the impact of aging – physical restrictions and medical costs
3.  Not updating beneficiaries
4.  Fail to communicate within your family about money
5.  Avoiding to create/sticking to a budget
6. Making investment decisions based upon emotions
7. Neglecting to periodically conducting a risk management review