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Three Reasons To Buy That

 Fixed Indexed Annuity Now

from "Life Health Pro"

Everyone is feeling the pressure of low interest rates these days-consumers, producers, distributors and manufacturers alike. If you're like me, you are checking Treasury rates two to three times a day...sometimes more. This pressure has resulted in adjustments to both fixed and index-linked interest-crediting rates across the industry. Because of this low rate environment, producers and clients often question if now is the right time to invest in a fixed indexed annuity. Shouldn't they just wait until rates get back to where they were?

Not necessarily. Waiting for interest rates to return to normal before investing in fixed indexed annuities may not be in the best interest of clients.

1. There is no guarantee that rates will rise anytime soon. Economic indicators seem to point to this low interest rate environment persisting over the next couple of years, and it may even last longer. In fact, the Fed has indicated rates will remain near zero at least until late 2014. Even if we do see Treasury rates increase, it might not be a spike. It might be a slow, steady climb. And there is always the chance they may fall again. Ten-year Treasury rates over the past few years are a prime example. After dropping to 2.38 in October of 2010, the 10-year climbed back up to 3.72 in February of 2011. In September of the same year though, it dropped again, this time down to 1.72. It climbed back up to 2.39 in October before dropping again to a historic low of 1.43 in July of 2012.

The fact of the matter is no one can predict when interest rates will rise. If your clients are currently in equity investments, their principal is not protected and there is no guarantee of growth. If they are in deposit products, they are most likely dealing with low yields with limited or no opportunity to participate in market performance. The point is that while clients are waiting, they are missing out on the protection and interest-crediting potential that can be found in fixed indexed annuities. This leads to the second point.

2. The longer clients wait, the longer it may take to achieve their financial goals. It is likely that many clients who are invested in CDs, money market and/or savings accounts are generally not happy with the return they are currently getting. Most fixed indexed annuities provide minimum guaranteed growth that is probably as good as or maybe better than what they are currently experiencing. At the same time, fixed indexed annuities also provide interest-crediting potential based on the performance of one or more market indexes. This gives them the opportunity to receive interest credit that is higher than the minimum guarantees and, consequently, get closer to achieving their financial objectives, instead of falling behind.

One may argue, though, that there's no guarantee the equity markets will experience positive performance over the next few years. That's where the third point comes in.

3. By attaching a living benefit rider to a fixed indexed annuity, clients are guaranteed income growth even if equity markets and interest rates do not improve. Most fixed indexed annuities on the market today offer the option of adding a withdrawal benefit rider for an additional cost to provide a guaranteed stream of income for the rest of your life. This income stream can grow through deferral bonuses, annual step-ups or through increased payout percentages as the client ages. So even if the equity markets go down every year, clients are still able to increase the amount of income that will be available to them when they decide to turn it on.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that many fixed indexed annuities offer premium bonuses that provide an immediate increase to the account value, which can result in even greater interest-crediting and income-growth potential.

An example

How to Increase Your

 Social Security Checks

from "US News"

These strategies will boost your retirement payments

Social Security turns 76 this week, and the program continues to be most Americans' biggest source of retirement income. However, the size of your payments will depend on how much you earn while working and when you sign up for Social Security. You may also be able to secure additional payments for your spouse, dependent children, and survivors. Here's how to maximize the amount you will receive from Social Security in retirement:

Work for at least 35 years. Social Security benefits are calculated based on the 35 years of your career in which you earn the most. If you haven't worked for at least 35 years, zeros are averaged into the calculation, which will lower your payout. "You can improve your benefit if you continue working and replace low-earning years or zeros in your record with higher-earning years later on in your career," says Jim Blankenship, a certified financial planner for Blankenship Financial Planning in New Berlin, Ill., and author of A Social Security Owner's Manual.

Earn more. Increasing your income now by asking for a raise or taking a second job not only gives you more spending power now, but will also increase the amount you get from Social Security in retirement. "Any years that you have more income than a prior year, you are increasing your benefit," says Lesley Brey, a certified financial planner for LJ Brey Inc., in Hawaii.

Wait until your full retirement age. To get the full payout you are entitled to, claim Social Security at your full retirement age. That's age 66 for most baby boomers and 67 for people born in 1960 or later. If you sign up before your full retirement age, your monthly payments will be permanently reduced. You don't necessarily need to claim Social Security the same year you retire from your job. "You can use your savings to bridge the time between 62 and 66 while you delay claiming Social Security," says Kelly O'Donnell, vice president at Financial Engines.

Delay claiming until age 70. After your full retirement age, your monthly payments will increase by 8 percent for each year you delay claiming up until age 70. "You're not going to get that return anywhere else, and then it will pay out forever," says Brey. After age 70, there is no additional benefit to further delaying claiming.

Claim spousal payments. Married couples are eligible to claim benefits based on their own work record or up to 50 percent of the higher earner's benefit, whichever is higher. However, spousal benefits are reduced if you claim them before your full retirement age. "The main way to improve this benefit is to delay receiving it until at least full retirement age, since it will be reduced if you take it at age 62," says Blankenship.

Claim twice. Dual-earner couples who have reached their full retirement age may be able to claim spousal benefits and then later switch to payments based on their own work record, which will then be higher due to delayed claiming. "If you are going to be delaying until age 70 anyway, this is a way to receive some benefit between age 66 and 70," says Blankenship.

Include family. If you have dependent children when you claim Social Security, you may be able to secure additional payments for them. To receive benefits, the child must be unmarried, age 19 or younger, or disabled. Each qualifying biological child, adopted child, or stepchild may receive a monthly payment up to one-half of your full retirement benefit amount up to certain annual limits.

Claim on an ex-spouses's record. If you were married for at least 10 years, you can claim Social Security benefits based on an ex-spouse's work record.

Don't earn too much in retirement. If you work and claim Social Security benefits at the same time, some of your benefit may be temporarily withheld if you earn too much. People under their full retirement age who earn more than $14,640 in 2012 will have $1 withheld for each $2 they earn above the limit. For the year you reach your full retirement age, the earning limit jumps to $38,880, and the penalty decreases to $1 withheld for every $3 earned above the limit. Once you reach the month of your full retirement age, there are no restrictions on how much you can earn while receiving benefits and your payments will be recalculated to reflect the withheld payments.

Minimize Social Security taxes. Your Social Security payout may be taxable, depending on how much income you will have in retirement. If the sum of your adjusted gross income, nontaxable interest, and half of your Social Security benefits is between $25,000 and $34,000 ($32,000 and $44,000 for couples), income tax could be due on up to 50 percent of your benefits. If those three items total more than $34,000 ($44,000 for couples), up to 85 percent of your Social Security income may be taxable.

Maximize survivor's benefits. Widows and widowers are eligible for the higher earning spouse's full retirement benefit. The higher earner can maximize the benefit the surviving spouse will receive by waiting to sign up for Social Security. "If you want the maximum amount for the survivor, the higher earner should wait until age 70," says Brey.

Sign up for direct deposit. You'll get your Social Security payments faster and can avoid fees and a trip to the bank by having them directly deposited to a bank or credit union account. New Social Security recipients no longer have the option to receive their payments as paper checks through the mail, but must have their Social Security payments directly deposited into a bank account or loaded onto a Direct Express Debit MasterCard. Existing Social Security recipients have until March 1, 2013, to select one of these forms of electronic payments.

Make sure your work counts. The Social Security Administration began offering the option to view Social Security statements online on May 1, and one million people have already downloaded their statements. It's important to check your online Social Security statement annually to make sure your earnings history and Social Security taxes paid have been recorded correctly by the Social Security Administration. If you spot any errors, take steps to correct them while you have your current tax information handy. Make sure you are getting credit for the taxes you are paying into the system.

To Learn More About Social Security

Give "Your Safe Money Team" a call at 410-758-1680

Whether they're snatching your purse, diving into your dumpster, stealing your mail, or hacking into your computer, they're out to get you. Who are they? Identity thieves.

Identity thieves can empty your bank account, max out your credit cards, open new accounts in your name, and purchase furniture, cars, and even homes on the basis of your credit history. If they give your personal information to the police during an arrest and then don't show up for a court date, you may be subsequently arrested and jailed.

And what will you get for their efforts? You'll get the headache and expense of cleaning up the mess they leave behind.

You may never be able to completely prevent your identity from being stolen, but here are some steps you can take to help protect yourself from becoming a victim.

Check yourself out

 It's important to review your credit report periodically. Check to make sure that all the information contained in it is correct, and be on the lookout for any fraudulent activity.

You may get your credit report for free once a year. To do so, contact the Annual Credit Report Request Service online at www.annualcreditreport.com or call (877) 322-8228.

If you need to correct any information or dispute any entries, contact the three national credit reporting agencies:

1. Equifax: www.equifax.com
   (800) 685-1111
2. Experian: www.experian.com
   (888) 397-3742
3. TransUnion: www.transunion.com
   (800) 916-8800

Your most important personal identifier is your Social Security number (SSN). Guard it carefully. Never carry your Social Security card with you unless you'll need it. The same goes for other forms of identification (for example, health insurance cards) that display your SSN. If your state uses your SSN as your driver's license number, request an alternate number.

Don't have your SSN preprinted on your checks, and don't let merchants write it on your checks. Don't give it out over the phone unless you initiate the call to an organization you trust. Ask the three major credit reporting agencies to truncate it on your credit reports. Try to avoid listing it on employment applications; offer instead to provide it during a job interview.

Most of us carry our checkbooks and all of our credit cards, debit cards, and telephone cards with us all the time. That's a bad idea; if your wallet or purse is stolen, the thief will have a treasure chest of new toys to play with.

Carry only the cards and/or checks you'll need for any one trip. And keep a written record of all your account numbers, credit card expiration dates, and the telephone numbers of the customer service and fraud departments in a secure place--at home.

When you make a purchase with a credit or debit card, you're given a receipt. Don't throw it away or leave it behind; it may contain your credit or debit card number. And don't leave it in the shopping bag inside your car while you continue shopping; if your car is broken into and the item you bought is stolen, your identity may be as well.

Save your receipts until you can check them against your monthly credit card and bank statements, and watch your statements for purchases you didn't make.

Before you throw out any financial records such as credit or debit card receipts and statements, cancelled checks, or even offers for credit you receive in the mail, shred the documents, preferably with a cross-cut shredder. If you don't, you may find the panhandler going through your dumpster was looking for more than discarded leftovers.

The more your personal information is available to others, the more likely you are to be victimized by identity theft. While you don't need to become a hermit in a cave, there are steps you can take to help minimize your exposure:

• To stop telephone calls from national telemarketers, list your telephone number with the Federal Trade Commission's National Do Not Call Registry by calling (888) 382-1222 or registering online at www.donotcall.gov
• To remove your name from most national mailing and e-mailing lists, as well as most telemarketing lists, write the Direct Marketing Association at 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036-6700, or register online at www.dmachoice.org
• To remove your name from marketing lists prepared by the three national consumer reporting agencies, call (888) 567-8688 or register online at www.optoutprescreen.com
• When given the opportunity to do so by your bank, investment firm, insurance company, and credit card companies, opt out of allowing them to share your financial information with other organizations
• You may even want to consider having your name and address removed from the telephone book and reverse directories

Whatever else you may want your computer to do, you don't want it to inadvertently reveal your personal information to others. Take steps to help assure that this won't happen.

Install a firewall to prevent hackers from obtaining information from your hard drive or hijacking your computer to use it for committing other crimes. This is especially important if you use a high-speed connection that leaves you continuously connected to the Internet. Moreover, install virus protection software and update it on a regular basis.

Try to avoid storing personal and financial information on a laptop; if it's stolen, the thief may obtain more than your computer. If you must store such information on your laptop, make things as difficult as possible for a thief by protecting these files with a strong password--one that's six to eight characters long, and that contains letters (upper and lower case), numbers, and symbols.

"If a stranger calls, don't answer." Opening e-mails from people you don't know, especially if you download attached files or click on hyperlinks within the message, can expose you to viruses, infect your computer with "spyware" that captures information by recording your keystrokes, or lead you to "spoofs" (websites that replicate legitimate business sites) designed to trick you into revealing personal information that can be used to steal your identity.

If you wish to visit a business's legitimate website, use your stored bookmark or type the URL address directly into the browser. If you provide personal or financial information about yourself over the Internet, do so only at secure websites; to determine if a site is secure, look for a URL that begins with "https" (instead of "http") or a lock icon on the browser's status bar.

And when it comes time to upgrade to a new computer, remove all your personal information from the old one before you dispose of it. Using the "delete" function isn't sufficient to do the job; overwrite the hard drive by using a "wipe" utility program. The minimal cost of investing in this software may save you from being wiped out later by an identity thief.

Be diligent

As the grizzled duty sergeant used to say on a televised police drama, "Be careful out there." The identity you save may be your own.

_______________________________ 

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