Jane Bryant Quinn Get
a Life, Plus Cash, for Insurance Policy June 18 (Bloomberg.com).
Jane Bryant Quinn takes a look at the life-settlement industry.
"With a life settlement, you're selling your policy to an outside
investor who will pay the premiums while you live and collect the
proceeds when you die. . . '[It's] useful if you have a policy that's
poorly priced -- say, an older universal life policy with large
surrender charges. Sometimes you can sell it for enough to buy a
new and better policy for the same face amount, says fee-only life
insurance adviser Peter Katt of Mattawan, Michigan.'"
Life INSURANCE PERSPECTIVES An
Annuity-Rescue Strategy
The June 2008 newsletter is now available on-line. An annuity-rescue
strategy with an emphasis on paying close attention to the details.
AAII Journal Insurance
Products and Taxes: Keeping Uncle Sam at Bay
June, 2008, by Peter Katt. Taxes are a fact of American life that
impact many areas, including life and disability income insurance.
Understanding the relationship between insurance and taxes is important.
A look at several tax issues, with the goal of making you a more
astute consumer of insurance.
Journal of Financial Planning A
Life Settlement Mosaic
March 2008, by Peter Katt. The market for buying and selling life
insurance policies for investment purposes has a rational basis.
But 95 percent of potential policy sellers should retain them, at
least until the policy is near termination.
FORBES.COM Forbes is now posting articles
by Peter Katt on their website, www.Forbes.com. To see his articles,
go to their website and search for Peter Katt. The most recent article
is Taxes,
Life & Disability Income Insurance, posted 4/23/2008.
The Wall Street Journal
Trading Up: When to Replace Your Long-Term-Care Policy
Wednesday, November 14, 2007, D1, by Jeff D. Opdyke. This
article takes a look at long-term care policies. When these policies
were first introduced they were wildly underpriced, causing insurers
to push premiums much higher in recent years. Such rate increases
are rare with newer policies. Mr. Opdyke takes a look at when consumers
should consider policy replacement.
"So should consumers who
routinely confront rate increases replace their current long-term-care
coverage with a new policy?. . . 'That would be a reasonable consideration'
for some policyholders, says Peter Katt, a fee-only insurance
adviser in Mattawan, Mich."
WNYC WNYC Interview
June 15th, 2007 Peter Katt was interviewed by Brian Lehrer on WNYC.
The purpose of the interview was to discuss a Wall Street Journal
article by Ian McDonald, "Golden Years: As Boomers Retire,
Insurers Aim to Cash In". This article discusses how AXA and
other insurers are pushing variable annuities to baby boomers entering
their retirement years. Daniel Gross, of Slate, was also a guest
on the show.
Wealth Manager
Protective Covering December 2006,
by Nancy Opiela. Many fee-only financial advisors stay away from
insurance products, concentrating mainly on asset accumulation.
Ms. Opiela makes the case that their clients may be missing advantageous
planning strategies that incorporate risk management, and that by
doing so they may be leaving the door open for their clients to
seek help from other advisors. One of the areas addressed in the
article is the need to turn emotional decisions into rational decisions.
"Peter Katt, CFP,
Founder of Katt & Company, a national fee-only life insurance
advising firm in Mattawan, Mich., says '... the difference between
insurance salesmen and our firm is the difference between magicians
and physicists... Magicians are a lot more fun, but our role with
the client is not to tell them what to do, but rather to present
a menu of choices. Our point isn't that the client should avoid
any one product, but rather that each product has its own set of
potential advantages and disadvantages.'"
The New York Times
How Much Is Enough in Insuring a Life? September 23, 2006,
by Hillary Chura. If you died today, would your family be destitute
in a few years, comfortable, or toasting your good planning as they
vacationed on the Riviera?... "Dr. Alexander Sudarshan, an
eye surgeon from Los Fresnos, Tex., has $4.8 million in life insurance
- $1.6 million in whole life and the rest in term. The idea is that
his wife and three adolescent sons would live off the interest were
he to die unexpectedly. To calculate his needs, he hired Peter Katt,
a national fee-only life insurance consultant from Mattawan, [Mi.],
who charges $325 an hour."
Money Magazine
Hidden Assets: Stop paying for unneeded life insurance August 2006, by
Carla Fried. Everyone has one: the folder where you stash old savings
bonds, unused gift cards, crinkled IRA statements and dusty insurance
policies. Comb through it and you might uncover some real treasure...
"Peter Katt, a life insurance adviser in Mattawan, Michi.,
suggests a strategy that can save you from paying the premium, free
up some cash without generating a tax bill, and keep a tax-free
inheritance intact for your heirs."
The Wall Street Journal
As Workers' Pensions Wither, Those for Executives Flourish Friday, June 23,
2006, by Ellen E. Schultz and Theo Francis. Companies run up big
IOUs, mostly obscured, to grant bosses a lucrative benefit. "This
is the pension squeeze companies aren't talking about: Even as many
reduce, freeze or eliminate pensions for the workers - complaining
of the costs - their executives are building up ever-bigger pensions,
causing the companies' financial obligations for them to balloon.
. . Actuarial estimate[s] done for the Journal by Katt & Co.
of Mattawan, Mich. "
Forbes
Die or Your Money Back April 24, 2006,
by Carrie Coolidge. "New term life policies give back the premiums
you paid--if you live long enough. . . . The no-tax policy, however,
is not enshrined in IRS regs. So Peter Katt, a fee-only life insurance
expert in Mattawan, Mich., warns there's always a chance that the
agency might change its mind."
The Wall Street Journal
Setting Up Your Own Pension Saturday/Sunday,
March 11-12, 2006, by Tom Lauricella. As employer plans disappear,
insurers offer more products promising income for life. ".
. .Genworth takes a slightly different approach with its ClearCourse
product. It is structured as a variable annuity, which is essentially
a mutual fund wrapped in an insurance guarantee. . . Peter Katt,
a fee-only insurance adviser in Mattawan, Mich., says he considers
the guaranteed returns on ClearCourse lackluster. The guarantee
'would be more valuable if the investor could direct their investment
to high risk, high-reward accounts,' he says.""
Katt
& Company 890 Treasure Island Drive Mattawan, MI 49071
Phone: 269.372.3497 Fax: 269.372.4681
Email: PKatt@PeterKatt.com