10.21.22: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

10.21.22: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Producer:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs, and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Producer:
Welcome to the Active Wealth Show with your host, Ford Stokes. Ford is a fiduciary and licensed financial advisor who places your needs first. He’ll help you protect and grow your wealth. The Active Wealth Show has grown because activators like you want to activate their retirement planning with sound tax-efficient investing. And now your host Ford Stokes.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome to the Active Wealth Show, Activators. I’m Ford Stokes chief financial advisor I’ve got Sam Davis who’s our executive producer with us but I’ve got a very, very special guest. We always love talking to Bonnie Dobbs with Medicare and Other Red Tape. Bonnie is the president of Medicare and Other Red Tape. She also sits on the Council for Aging for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. And she is always speaking at senior centers and everywhere else in Atlanta. We’re so glad you’re with us and so glad that you take care of our clients and prospects for their Medicare needs. Bonnie, welcome again to the Active Wealth Show.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Thank you, Ford, for having me today. And yes, it has been an honor to be the Medicare expert that got to sit on all the panel discussions for the AJC. And then once that was from 2015 to 2020, and then when COVID shut down America, since then, they have allowed me to write articles. So thank you and thank you for having me.

Ford Stokes:
That’s pretty good stuff. I’m sure that they’re very happy to get you to provide great, important, informative content because that’s why we have you on the show today. There have been a lot of changes or it’s been some significant changes and updates from the Center for Medicare Services, from CMS. And I think a lot of our listeners are want to understand that so they understand what they’re dealing with with their own Medicare or their pre Medicare planning. Bonnie, kind of what’s new for 2022?

Bonnie Dobbs:
There’s two new requirements which will both of them will can confuse the best of us. You know those commercials you see on TV, they’re not the Medicare helpline. They’re actually marketing companies. There’s good reason that the CMS is more than irritated. So the CMS is the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They administer and oversee anything Medicare Medicaid CHIP, which is the Children’s Insurance Program and also the state and federal marketplace. So last year they got 39,000 complaints, which almost doubled from the year before.

Ford Stokes:
That’s A lot of complaints.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Well, they were mostly generated by those doggone TV commercials. So as a result, starting October the first and subsequent years, all agents, brokers, third-party marketing organizations, including the ones that you see on TV, we’re going to have to record all of our calls with our clients, including the enrollment in their entirety. Now, this is really raise the ire of many reputable agents, because in and even though there were several petitions circulated with thousands of agent signatures, the CMS did not reverse this decision. If you’ve ever called an insurance company, they it always starts off with this call might be recorded for quality assurance. So now we have we’re going to have to do the same thing. Well, you know, Medicare recipients aren’t so eager to say their address on their birthday and their legal name and their Medicare number. So people just aren’t happy. They’re not happy about this at all. And then the second change says that and every agent and marketing company is required to have this disclosure on all of their advertising. And I’m going to read this. It says, We do not offer every plan available in your area. Any information we provide is limited to those plans we do offer in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov or one 800 Medicare to get information on all your options. Well, you know, as a financial advisor, there are some companies that’s not worth your client’s time or yours, Right. They’re just not going to perform properly.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Well, in the Medicare world, it’s important that that we enroll people with stable companies, you know, companies that are established, companies that, you know, is going to. Pay their bills or be there next year. Right. So any company. This is my role. Any company who has not been in business for three years or more, I’ll never put one of my clients with that company. The other thing is, even though it may be a company that has a household name, if they’re new into an area that doesn’t automatically makes it a success, right? Both of those scenarios come to mind. Whenever I’m researching plans for any of my clients and a good example that maybe some of the people in Georgia can relate to is a few years back. And this is really I think maybe before Emory had a second campus in Northside. So a long time ago, the two main hospital chains in Atlanta were, well, Star and Piedmont. So Piedmont and Will Star got together and created an advantage plan. Well, I thought in many other agents in Atlanta thought, hey, this is going to be a shoo in. This this company is going to make it just because of the amount of people that patronize those hospitals. Well, what happened the first year they enroll like 4000 people. The second year they enroll 7000 people. The problem was they had more sick people.

Ford Stokes:
Right? It was more utilization.

Bonnie Dobbs:
That’s right. So before year three could begin, they sent everybody a letter. So we’re out of business. So that makes me have egg on my face. My clients are depending on me to put them with a plan that is going to be there for them. Sure. So all these clients, if they were in the middle of getting a procedure, they were not very happy with me. And even those who weren’t. Just the fact that it’s just very disruptive to have to start all over and your doctors, you know, your medications and go through the all of the for me go through all the comparison to find a plan that would fit them, you know, and now they’re wondering, well, gosh, is she going to put me on a plan that’s going to be there for me? So because of that and then I also had it happen to me in Florida, like in 2012, I think a company went out.

Ford Stokes:
Well, it’s great that you’re so experienced and you’ve been through what what you’ve seen, what’s happened with Medicare, also specifically for Medicare Part D, doing all the drug plans is one of those really arduous tasks for a medicare agent and for your agents. And you guys do it gleefully and you’re happy to help them because you just want to help people. Can you just talk about what people need to be thinking about with not just Medicare Part A and B, but also Part D and all the things you do for them.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Let me just touch on this one more minute here. So those two rulings, okay, having your conversation recorded and then us having to put this disclosure on everything, you know, it’s just going to cause more confusion with a medicare beneficiary and it’s going to create a heavier workload which instills doubt in these enrollees mind. And that’s just going to increase the number of calls that Medicare gets. So this is not only a slap in the face to agents who are reputable agents, but also the people who are going to be calling Medicare because of the length of time they’re, you know, they’re on hold. I mean, before all this, if you call, it’s like 30 minutes to an hour. So just remember that both of these new rules are in direct response to those silly TV commercials, which lead everyone to believe that they’re missing out on some kind of benefit or that they’re calling the Medicare helpline.

Ford Stokes:
Or they’re missing out on getting rides to and from their doctor’s appointment, or they’re missing out on dental plans or missing out on anything else out there. All the different things, all the different benefits that could be available as part of what it is, a social program. I mean, Medicare and Medicaid are both social programs and the Medicare Advantage plans and the Medicare supplement insurance plans. They’re there to help fill that last 20%, whether it’s co-pays or deductibles, and to help you kind of cap your risks and cap your fees and cap the money you’re going to pay. And you’ve got to have a plan for that. You know, Bonnie, it at active wealth, we help people minimize their risk and we try to build tax efficient, market efficient. But this last one is important. It’s that fee efficient part of their portfolio and that. Building a fee efficient retirement, whether you’re paying your house off or whether you’re you’re minimizing the advisory fees you pay by a bond replacement strategy, or if you minimize the amount of money you’re going to pay for health care during your 35-plus retirement years, you’re likely going to be retired almost as long as you worked. And so you’ve got to have a plan for it. And that’s why we always encourage people to call you. I referred a long-term client who just retired yesterday to you, and they’re already thrilled and happy. And and when we refer them, they call you. You’re not cold-calling them. We make sure that, hey, you need to call Bonnie. We’ve got to do everything within CMS guidelines. And yeah, sometimes the guidelines can be unreasonable, unrealistic. But I’m just so glad we have an agent like you that can take care of our clients and their needs.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Well, thank you. And I’m so glad that I have somebody like you because of clients who make like if you’re single and you make up to 91,000 are married, filing joint and you make up to 182,000, you’re going to pay more for your part day as a baby and part day for drugs. So a good financial planner will help them put their money in a place so it helps minimize their income. And that is so important.

Ford Stokes:
We’re going to talk about your example also, we’re going to talk about what to do about Medicare Part A, B and D with Bonnie Dobbs and Medicare and Other Red Tape. Right. When we come back for the break, you’ll see an active wealth show right here on AM 920. The Answer.

Producer:
Remember, all of Ford’s listeners receive a free financial consultation just for listening to the show. Visit ActiveWealth.com to learn more and schedule an appointment. Thanks for listening to the Active Wealth show and subscribing wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back. The Active Wealth Show activators on board stocks, your chief financial adviser. And I’ve got, of course, Sam Davis, our executive producer. But we’ve got Bonnie Dobbs with Medicare and Other Red Tape, who’s our partner with everything, Medicare that takes care of our clients and prospects. We don’t sell Medicare self-insurance or Medicare Advantage plans here at Active Wealth. We farm it out to the expert and her team of experts. And we’re a huge fan of Bonnie Dobbs. We had a great first segment understanding the two big rule changes that happened with CMS this year. And Bonnie, you had an example you wanted to talk about. And also you’re going to talk about kind of give people an idea on Medicare, A, B and D a little bit, too, and what they can do for this year and also some changes they’ve got with Medicare Part D over 2023, 2024 and 2025.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Yeah, So so thanks. Ford. The one thing is usually every year OC, A, B, c, D increases in, you know, in premium. So starting in 2023, the part A premium is $506. Now the way you get part A is by working and paying into a taxes known as Medicare taxes. And once you’ve worked for ten years, which is equivalent to 40 quarters, you’ve self-funded your part a premium. However, some people are self-employed and they never pay into pica. The US is a melting pot. Maybe somebody’s child will move to America and work and then whenever their parents become older, they’ll need to move them here so that they can care for them. So if you did not work and pay into Medicare taxes, then you can purchase Part A and it’s $506 a month beginning in January one of 2023. The part a deductible in 2023 is rising from $1556 to $6900. So if you only had original Medicare and you went in the hospital every quarter, you would have to pay that $6,900. Usually people will get a plan, though, to help offset that. Sure. And then the Part B premium, this is good news. It’s going to decrease from $170.10 down to one 6490. And the Part B deductible is going to decrease from 233 to 226. So when you add that with what’s happening with COLA, you know, COLA is going up, what is it, 8.7. Yeah, 8.7%. So they’re finally going to get a rise or an increase in their Social Security check and a decrease in their Part B premium and deductible. So they may realize for the first time since like maybe 2012, an actual increase, you know, which is that’s the good news.

Bonnie Dobbs:
The Part D deductible this year the most it’s allowed for a part D drug plan to charge is $480 now that deductibles increase by $25. So in 2023 it will be $505. So for those who may not know Part A on your Medicare card says hospital, so it covers you when you’re in the hospital, skilled nursing or hospice. So I always like to say part A covers you when you’re sick and in the bed. And then part B is whether you’re in or outpatient is going to pay for like your doctor services, any medical supply that your doctor may need to perform that service on you. So like when you go, do you need a Band-Aid or do you need stitches or joint replacement or brain surgery? It’ll pay for your doctor to do it and then any medical supply to do it with. It also covers durable medical equipment like wheelchairs, oxygen, those type things and your therapies and then test. So whether you need an MRI or CAT scan or a biopsy. So part B says medical, but it covers a whole lot of territory. So if you only have part A, part B that’s considered original Medicare and you must have both A and B in order to qualify to get one of two ways of insurance to help offset those costs. So a part C is just another name for a medicare Advantage plan. And then Part D is probably the only thing that’s easy to relate to because Part D is drug plan now. If you guys saw this because this was just published, like in the past week or so, insulins have been capped at $35 a month. That has just about bankrupt people.

Ford Stokes:
There are so many type two diabetes folks. My dad’s one of them. That’s a huge difference in the calculus of their monthly budget.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Absolutely. Because before insulin could absolutely ruin a budget. Now, in 2024, they’re going to add some more benefits. So actually, the patient’s annual out-of-pocket for drug costs is going to be capped at $3,400 because now it could be up to $7,050. And then you still pay some for the remainder of the year. Should your medications cost be that much? They’re also going to expand eligibility for low income subsidy programs. So next year, 2024, they’re increasing it to 150% of the federal poverty level, which is going to help more people who are like right on the verge. You know, they they make enough money maybe to get by, but there are medications once again deplete their their overall budget. So that’s good news. And the other thing is these Medicare Part D premiums are not going to be able to increase by more than 6% annually because I know, like in the past two years, I would have a client on a plan and say maybe it’s $29 a month, plus your co-pays. And then last year it jumped up to $60 a month. That’s a huge increase. I mean, that’s double, you know, four, six. Exactly. So a 6% increase, Will that’s something you can live with a lot more than a double.

Ford Stokes:
Can you share? So many people are going to have questions. They always do with Medicare, because you’re involved with both the financial side, because the cost side of Medicare and supplement plans and their farm, their drug costs and everything else and their co-pays on all of that, whether it’s for hospital physician or they’re they’re drug plans. And then the other side of it is, is for their health. And they want to live longer. They want to, you know, we spell love Timmy and my family, and they want people to they want to be able to spend more time with their kids and their grandkids and even see great-grandkids. And they want to see weddings. They want to see graduations. And so Medicare is a big part of their retirement life, in my opinion. It’s probably the biggest part. How can people get in touch with you? How do you guys take care of folks? Just kind of go through that over these last couple of minutes.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Yeah. So my phone number is 770 373 7541. Or you can go to the website, just Bonnie Dobbs, Bonnie Dobbs dot com. BonnieDobbs.com And when someone calls, we do have a procedure. So the first thing that we need to do is send you a link so you can complete the form and we ask all the questions that we need so we can research every plan available to you. And if we can help you, you know, someone from my office will call and get you on the schedule, and then we will go over our findings and get you enrolled. Now, if we can’t help you, if you’re on the best plan for you or you’re on an employer plan or TRICARE, Union Railroad, federal employee benefit, we will advise you to go to them because we never want anybody to lose their hard-earned benefits, you know, So our company and all my agents, I train them. So talking to one of them is just like talking to me. I train them how to research every plan that’s available to them specifically.

Ford Stokes:
So once when you have other agents, because you’ve got other agents to cover this great expanse that is in the Atlanta metro area, and all of them are licensed and certified and all that stuff. So that’s great news. Bonnie, can you also give your phone number again? I want to make sure people and let’s do it two times in a row for them.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Sure. So the number 770 373 7541. Once again, it’s 770 373 7541. We cover. Several states, and I have agents in several states also. So we can we can help you with your Medicare needs and answer your questions.

Ford Stokes:
Well, Bonnie, we just sincerely appreciate you partnering with Active Wealth Management, our private wealth management firm. And also, thanks so much for obviously contributing to the active wealth show. So we always appreciate your visits and it’s it’s great to have you on during this open enrollment period of for Medicare and all the Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement plans right now. It’s going on right now over the next six weeks. And and I would encourage everybody to reach out to Bonnie and just you can find her at Bonnie Dobbs dot com BonnieDobbs.com or you can call her phone number that she just gave. And we just love working with you, Bonnie, and thanks so much for taking care of our folks.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Thank you so much. And thank you for taking care of my folks, too, because those high-income earners, you help them minimize their taxable income. So thank you for all you do.

Ford Stokes:
Absolutely. Thanks, Bonnie. And we’ll have you on. Hopefully, if we can find the time, if we can get some in time in your schedule during open roll, we’ll have you back on one more time and kind of find out how things are going and how you’re taking care of the folks out there.

Bonnie Dobbs:
Absolutely. Have a great day. Thank you so much Ford

Ford Stokes:
All right. We’ll be right back on the Active Wealth Show.

Producer:
Thanks so much for listening to the Active Wealth Show. Make sure to rate us everywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back. Activators to the Active Wealth Show. I’m Ford Stokes, your chief financial advisor, and I’ve got Sam Davis, our executive producer with me. And Sam. It was just great to talk to and get the updates from Bonnie. It’s always great to understand what’s going on with the Center for Medicare Services or CMS. I just kind of understand because, you know, we work with a lot of pre-retirees and retirees and folks that are about to turn 65 or already 65 and on Medicare. And that’s a big expense. Health care is one of the largest expenses during your retirement years. And it’s just good to understand and get the detail on Medicare.

Producer:
Yeah, absolutely. We know we have a lot of listeners, a lot of activators here on AM 920. The answer, that have been in Medicare for a number of years and some that are just getting into Medicare for the first time. And Ford, you and I are in this world and we know how confusing the alphabet soup of Medicare can be. So it’s great to have an expert like Bonnie Dobbs come on to really help us make sense of all of it.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah, I mean, she sits on the Council for Aging for the AJC and has also written a bunch of articles for them and keeps contributing articles, which I think is great. She’s got thousands of Medicare clients because she’s got a lot of advisors that help her out, that agents that work with her. And so we encourage you to pick up the phone and give her a call. You can also just reach out to her at Bonnie Dobbs dot com or Medicare and Other Red Tape dot com. Medicareandotherredtape.com But the number one way to get in touch with Bonnie just reach out to us go ahead and just reach out to us at ActiveWealth.com Click that schedule a consultation button the upper right corner and we’ll introduce you to Bonnie and you can call her no problem again it’s active wealth dot com. ActiveWealth.com So now let’s talk about the quote of week. We’re going to talk all about this segment. We’re going to talk all about the cost of living adjustment that happened with Social Security. We’re going to get into that. But let’s first talk about the financial wisdom quote of the week.

Producer:
And now for some financial wisdom, it’s time for the Quote of the Week.

Ford Stokes:
This one comes from Ronald Reagan, who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975, after having a career as a Hollywood actor and a union leader. And here’s what he says. He says that when a business or an individual spends more than it makes, it goes bankrupt. When government does it, it sends you the bill. When government does it for 40 years, the bill comes in two ways higher taxes and inflation. Make no mistake about it, inflation is a tax and not by accident. Also, we’ve seen Milton Friedman talk about inflation comes from United States. It comes from Washington, D.C. and we’ve got huge spending budgets and everything else like that and huge spending bills with infrastructure and green new deals and all this kind of crazy stuff that the Democrats have just done and said, oh, well, you know, corporate and the corporations need to pay their fair share. No, you guys are overspending and stop it. We’re just begging you to stop it. So that brings us now, Sam, to the important announcement, the cost of living adjustment or COLA for 2023 from the Social Security Administration. The increase for 2023 will be 8.7%. This is up from last year’s 5.9% COLA bringing the two year increase to 14.6%.

Ford Stokes:
We are living in the worst stretch of inflation in the last 40 years. Activators. Also, if you’re wondering who in activator is it somebody who listens to this show, somebody who wants to build a successful retirement by building a tax efficient fee, efficient and market efficient portfolio that also keeps pace with inflation? Here’s the good news Your Social Security income benefit has a built in adjustment to help protect your buying power. Also, I think all of you driving around right now in Atlanta, you’re heading to Home Depot or you’re heading over to Lowe’s, you’re heading to a kid’s soccer game or, you know, a fall football game. Or you’re heading to the grocery store, you’re just heading to lunch. I think all of you realized that inflation was far greater than 8.7% of what the Social Security Administration is saying, and it actually is greater than 8.7% more than likely. And here’s the bad news. The bad news is inflation is wreaking havoc on American families. I mean, the price of chicken has gone through the roof, particularly in these areas. Food costs, energy costs. New and used vehicle costs and travel costs. This is part of why we want all of our listeners to have a solid and tested plan for protecting and growing their hard-earned money.

Ford Stokes:
A lot of folks didn’t used to pay attention to the inflation rate that we placed within our financial plans. When we give them their full financial plans, what we call results in advanced planning. Over a 35 year period, we take them to age 95. And every one of them is like, Oh, I get it. Now. Inflation has a huge effect on my buying power and what my lifestyle is in today’s dollars versus future state dollars. And if you want your own free financial consultation so you can get your retirement in advance and understand the results of your retirement in advance, all you’ve got to do is reach out to us at active wealth dot com ActiveWealth.com And click that schedule a consultation button in the upper right corner. You can also call us at 770 685 1777. That’s 770 685 1777. You need to outpace inflation in order to protect your buying power and we can help you do just that. So, Sam, your thoughts on this cost of living adjustment and what’s going on out there with inflation and just you’re living through the same worst stretch of inflation the last 30 last 40 years as well.

Producer:
Yeah. Ford we’re all going through it. And I think you’re right. I think 8.7% misses the mark just a little bit. When you look at the inflation that we’ve actually experienced over the last couple of years, I mean, you’re looking at 15% nearly of an adjustment over the last two years. So translation, if you haven’t found a way to give yourself 15% more income over the last two years, you’re buying power has just dropped. So that’s why it’s so important. And here at the Active Wealth Show, we are always presenting strategies for an income plan that grows with inflation to help protect your buying power, such as a fixed-indexed annuity that can grow with the market but protect your money at the same time.

Ford Stokes:
I agree. I feel like that’s the biggest one. The biggest opportunity is to replace the bonds in your portfolio. Bonds have lost over 13 and a half percent this year and the US corporate bond market has in general as a whole. And then I think we’re seeing the same thing. You know, you’ve got erosion of the S&P 500 over the last year has been in the 25% range for for 2022 in this first nine and a half months of the year. So we only got 4 minutes left in this segment. So here’s some important stuff for you guys to understand. So. Here’s a complimentary offering for our listeners to the show. We want to take care of our activators out there. We’ll give you a full retirement plan. Consultation includes how to calculate your retirement income gap plan, whether you have a positive income surplus or a negative income. Retirement income gap that you need to deal with. We provide comprehensive consultations at no cost to our listeners. There’s absolutely no obligation as well. You only work with us if we can do better for you. We’ll help you analyze your specific and unique financial situation. But we’ll also discover exactly how much you’re paying in fees and help you cut unnecessary costs in your IRA, your four on K and other retirement savings accounts. We’ll closely examine why and how any annuities you may currently have may be right for you or wrong for you. And through our annuity x ray process, we can also help you with Social Security, income planning and Medicare planning by referring you out to Bonnie Dobbs, who’s the president, owner of Medicare and Other Red Tape. If you feel like you’ve already learned something today, feel free to give us a call at 770 685 1777 again 770 685 1777. Or you can just reach out to us at active wealth dot com. We’d love to help you answer any questions you may have about your specific situation. And now Sam, I want you to go ahead and share really fun important information about some frightening inflation figures regarding Halloween this year.

Producer:
Yeah absolutely Ford So all the activators, I’m sure driving around Atlanta have seen some of the fall colors starting to come through, which means we’re about to get the holiday season kicked off with Halloween. And I know my wife Bailey always wants to make sure we have enough candy for the trick-or-treaters that come around in our neighborhood. And that is where our inflation figures start. So the cost of candy is up 13%. For comparison, it took nine years from 1997 to 2006 for candy prices to rise 13%. And we’ve just experienced that increase in one year. So why has candy gone up? Sugars up 17% since last September and flour prices have risen 24% over the last 12 months. And if you think what is candy made of? There’s a lot of sugar and flour in there. And that’s one of the reasons why. So along with candy comes costumes. Now, the CPI does not specifically track costume prices, but we can say the price of clothing has jumped five and a half percent since last year. And if you’re making your own costume, sewing machines, fabric and supplies are up 11% over the last 12 months. Halloween spending is expected to reach a record $10.6 billion this year and have a safe and fun Halloween. But you’re going to be paying a little bit more for it this year.

Ford Stokes:
Amen. Just everybody stay safe out there during Halloween and just have a great time with your family. And again, we spell love in our family time. Make sure you’re spending time with your family during this Halloween season. But those are some frightening Halloween inflation stats. That was, you know, credit to you and Matt and our crack staff for coming up with some of that. That was a great information segment. I love that one. You’ve got to have a plan for it. You got to have a plan for inflation. You got to have a plan for market volatility. You’ve got to have a plan for increased taxes. If do you think taxes are going to go up in the future? And if you don’t, I would beg you to reconsider, especially right now with the person we’ve got in the White House that I’m not a fan of. Also, I would encourage everybody to get out and vote and vote with your wallets and vote because of your wallets and vote because of your accounts and vote so that you can afford to spend more time with your family and you can afford the retirement lifestyle that you deserve that you’ve worked so hard for. Don’t let it erode over just a couple of years of high inflation. Let’s do everything we can to get a plan for it. Don’t just sit there and suffer. 25% losses in the S&P 513 and one-half plus percent losses in the corporate bond market this year. Just the 6040 portfolio hasn’t done as well. When we come back from the break, we’re going to talk more about how to deal with inflation. We’re also going to play right or wrong. I think you’re going to really like this right or wrong segment.

Ford Stokes:
You going to want to come back for that. And we’ve got a housing update as well and a whole lot more right here on the Active Wealth show on AM 920 the answer.

Ford Stokes:
And welcome back the Active Wealth Show activators. I’m Ford Stokes, chief financial advisor and we’ve got Sam Davis, our executive producer and I wanted to give a shout out and recognize just an incredible lady. She’s my wife’s aunt. Her name was Virginia Satterfield, Her full name was Myrna Virginia Satterfield. She was 84 years old and passed away on Sunday, October 16th. And also visitation was this past week over at Darby Funeral Home. And she was just an incredible lady. She hosted the Butterworth Christmas and the Butterworth Easter. Every year she and my mother-in-law did that. And they were sisters. And I mean, Sam, you wouldn’t believe this. There was like 60 people there. It just it was incredible. I’ve been going to Butterworth Christmas and Butterworth Easter Easter parties and get-togethers for literally 25 years since I became my wife’s boyfriend. And it’s it’s been unreal. Let me tell you. She’s survived by her son, David, Keith, her two sons, David and Keith. She’s got two daughters. She had three daughters, Andrea, Cathy and Carol. She’s also survived by her brother Kenneth, and also her sister Janice, which is who’s my Janice, who’s my mother in law. And it’s great to have a mother-in-law who loves you. That’s a big deal. And then also, Suzanne is her sister as well. She had Sam. She had 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren who also survived. So that’s 23 people that exist today because she decided to have five kids.

Producer:
That’s an that’s an incredible legacy for it. And I know that, you know, it’s so important to those grandparents out there to have the little ones around. I know they get so much energy from seeing their kids grow up and then seeing their kids have kids that grow up. And, you know, that’s an incredible story. And it’s it’s so special when you have a member of a family like that that can really bring the whole family together.

Ford Stokes:
Yeah. She and she and my mother-in-law were just super cute, awesome at those parties. Everybody would kind of come and see them while they’re sitting down and kind of receiving everybody and all the grandkids gather around them. It was really neat stuff. And she was just a really neat lady. Her husband, Marvin, passed away a few a couple of years ago, and so she didn’t last much longer after him. And he played basketball at Georgia at the University of Georgia. And he was just an incredible ambassador type of guy. Just everybody would want to want to be around both of them. And, you know, it’s a big void in our family. But I wanted to give a shout out to them and specifically to Virginia Satterfield, because she was just a really neat lady. And I also want to do it in the backdrop of all of us need to think about our own legacy. I mean, she’s obviously leaving an incredible legacy that’s well beyond money with 11 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. And that’s a big deal. And but at the same time, you also need to have a plan. So how are you going to fund it? How are you going to fund your retirement? What are you going to do to make sure you can spend the time with your family? And if you haven’t reached out to a financial advisor and you feel like you’ve had way too many losses this year, I would encourage you to reach out to us and visit us at Active Wealth to try to figure out what you can do to get a better plan for retirement so that runaway inflation is not going to take away your buying power in. Sam, you’ve experienced and seen a lot of this recently as well with some of the folks that we’ve met with. Just your thoughts on on why people really should come in and talk to us.

Producer:
Yeah. You know, next to your family, your money and being able to provide for your family is is one of the most important things. Right. And so, you know, when it costs nothing to to check with the experts and to you know it’s really just so valuable to sit down and take the time to review your financial situation. Maybe you already have a plan in place, but, you know, you and the rest of us here are active wealth. We can double check and make sure that that comprehensive plan is going to get you to and through your 30 plus year retirement. We talk about it all the time. You know, people nowadays are living longer and some people are working just as long as they spend during retirement. So you need to have a plan in place to maybe take you through three decades of life after.

Ford Stokes:
Work right before we play. Right or wrong, I want to, with the backdrop of Virginia and Marvin’s life, I want to just kind of share this. You’ve got to have a plan for when one of the spouses passes away because you’re going to lose at least 33% of your Social Security income when one of those two spouses pass away. And I would just encourage every everybody to have a plan for that eventual day to happen, because more than likely, we’re we’re not going to go out at the same time as our spouses. So let’s just try to make sure we have a plan to fill in our retirement income gap and make sure we start our retirement with a retirement income surplus. And if you don’t know if you have one or not, then I would encourage you to visit us at active wealth dot com ActiveWealth.com And click that schedule a consultation button the upper right corner, and we’ll be happy to help you. All right now, Sam, let’s play right or wrong.

Producer:
Come on down as we test your financial knowledge in right or wrong.

Producer:
All right, Ford, first item on right or wrong, for this week, life insurance can only be used as a death benefit and provides no other features unless the policyholder dies. Is that right or wrong?

Ford Stokes:
That is wrong. So life insurance can be money for living or money for dying. Permanent life insurance policies build cash value, and some policies are tied to an index providing growth potential for tax free retirement income. We happen to like those. We like index universal life policies to give us the best market like market link and market like growth. And if you have questions about that and how you can get tax free income from an indexed universal life policy that you invest in over time, then we would encourage you to reach out to us at active wealth dot com or just call us at 770 685 1777.

Producer:
All right. Ford, here’s one related to Medicare. We’ve been talking about Medicare the last few weeks. We had Bonnie Dobbs on in the first two segments of this week’s show. And here’s the item. You can enroll in Medicare and change your coverage plans at any time. Is that right or wrong?

Ford Stokes:
Unfortunately, that one’s wrong as well. You must enroll in Medicare and make any adjustments during the annual enrollment period, which runs right now. It’s running from October 15th through December 7th and it’s October 15th through December 7th every year.

Producer:
All right. Number three, you can use an annuity to fund your Medicare expenses throughout your entire lifetime. Is that right or wrong?

Ford Stokes:
Believe or not, That’s right. We believe this is a smart idea as well. This is a great step to ensure that you and your spouse will be able to fund expensive healthcare costs during your retirement. Fidelity. They came out with their retirement survey earlier this year and they estimated that it was up to 25,000. It went from 300000 to 325000 for health care costs for a married couple throughout their retirement years. That’s an incredible increase. It’s almost a 10% increase in one year. And so you’ve got to have a plan on how to fund at least fund your Medicare surcharges, the charges you have to pay Medicare that that comes out of your Social Security check, plus whether you’ve got a medicare Advantage plan or a medicare Medigap supplement insurance plan, you need to have a plan for to at least kind of cap your costs and reduce your risks to backfill the 20% of deductibles and co-pays that don’t that aren’t paid for are not covered by Medicare.

Producer:
All right. And the last one here, on right or wrong for the activators this week, your Social Security benefit can increase annually due to inflation. Is that right or wrong?

Ford Stokes:
Well, as we’ve seen it and we said earlier on this segment, I mean, on the show today in segment three, the cost of living adjustment went up 8.7% this year. So for 2023, the benefits will go up 8.7%. That is absolutely correct. That is right. There have only been three years since COLAs first began in 1975 where there was a 0% increase and that was 2009, 2010 and 2015. There have been increases in every other year since so or in every other year period since 1975. So, yes, it does. They do go up and thankfully they go up, but they never go up in on pace with the actual rate of inflation is. It’s the final.

Producer:
Countdown. So let’s recap what you may have missed. It’s the final countdown.

Ford Stokes:
So on this week’s show, we had Bonnie Dobbs and we interviewed her about the changes that have happened with the Center for Medicare Services, what’s going on with Medicare? Again, we’re always trying to keep you informed year over year with what’s going on with Medicare. Also, the decisions you make with Medicare Advantage or Medicare supplement insurance, those are very important. And they affect your wallet and they affect your monthly budget. So please make sure you’re talking to somebody who is certified with Medicare to do that. We like working with Bonnie Dobbs and she’ll take care of you. And you can visit her at Bonnie Dobbs dot com BonnieDobbs.com Or Medicare and Other Red Tape dot com. Medicareandotherredtape.com Also, we talked about the rate of inflation, the cost of living adjustment going up to 8.7% for Social Security. So you’re going to see your Social Security income benefit check starting in January and February is going to rise 8.7%. So that’s good news. The bad news is it’s not keeping pace with the actual rate of inflation. Also, we’ve seen a lot of changes in the grocery store and at the pump. So be careful and try to minimize the cost impact of inflation for you and your family. And we’ve played right or wrong. We’ve also talked to you at Sam did a great job sharing the increased inflationary cost on Halloween this year and we’re really trying to help you better plan. And so we would encourage you to replace the bond your portfolio with either fixed indexed annuities or a structured note ladder or both. And then also make sure you’re utilizing tactical asset allocation to better protect your assets and not ride the market all the way down to the bottom and do a better job at protecting and growing your hard earned and hard saved assets. Sam, any final thoughts from you?

Producer:
Just make sure that you get in touch with us at active wealth dot com ActiveWealth.com Schedule that complimentary consultation with us. An important thing to get done before the calendar flips to 2023. Get a head start on that New Year’s resolution and make 2023 the best year yet. You can also give us a call at 770 685 1777.

Ford Stokes:
Totally agree. And remember everybody, if you’re seeking information about your retirement planning, if you’re going to be a bear, be a grizzly, be aggressive about that. Try to understand all the aspects of how taxation is going to affect you during retirement. And listen, let’s do that New Year’s resolution. Let’s get active on this and let’s go ahead and reach out to us at Active Wealth dot com ActiveWealth.com. And let’s go ahead and start that retirement planning this year. Just like Sam said, you know, you really need to go ahead and reach out to us at active wealth dot com ActiveWealth.com So you can schedule your financial consultation. We’re happy to help you It’s free. It’s a $1500 value at no cost to you. Go ahead and reach out to us today at active Walmart.com and have a great week everybody.

Producer:
Thanks for listening to the Active Wealth Show. You deserve to work with a private wealth management firm that will strategically work to protect your hard-earned assets, To schedule your free consultation, call your Chief Financial Advisor Ford Stokes at 770 685 1777 or visit Active Wealth dot com. ActiveWealth.com.

Producer:
Investment Advisory Services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC become a Registered Investment Advisor BCM and Active Wealth Management are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Past performance cannot be used as an indicator to determine future results.

Producer:
Fixed annuities, including multi-year guaranteed rate annuities, are not designed for short-term investments and may be subject to restrictions, fees and surrender charges as described in the annuity contract. Guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying ability of the issuer.

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