The VA is excellent at the VA. Outside it, you are on Original Medicare, which pays 80 percent with no ceiling. A $0-premium Advantage plan (you still pay the Part B premium) can add a yearly cap, care outside the VA, and dental, vision, and hearing, and your VA drug coverage means no Part D penalty
Keep the family plan at work, or move yourself to Medicare while your spouse waits a year? I am an engineer, not an advisor, so I did the arithmetic: the family premium, Part B, a supplement, an IRMAA surcharge set by a two-year-old tax return, and the HSA rule that quietly voids contributions.
The company hands you 18 months of COBRA on the way out and it feels generous. Medicare's 8-month clock started the month you left, COBRA usually costs more than Medicare would, and no, you do not get to keep both. An engineer shows his work.
My wife just started a new nursing job and picked her health plan in one evening from a list of three. At 65 it feels like three hundred, and the person down the hall who used to vet it for you is gone.
Our client care team has walked more than 2,000 clients through this year's enrollment check-in. Here is what happens to your answers next, and why the early birds sleep better in October.
Fiscal Fridays taped Friday with my dad and Greg Frantz, and for the first time Hayes Clement was fully in charge as director and producer. He was incredible. Here is what happened in the room, and how to make sure you are in it next time.
“My full trust is in you folks and always has been since the beginning.”
— Dana B., ARA client since 2019
“Best decision we made years ago in AZ was finding American Retirement Advisors!”
— Ellen K., Scottsdale
“I told my friends I was in the same position and talked to American Retirement Advisors and got my questions answered.”
— Rod H., ARA client
“I was talking to a family friend yesterday and told him what a wonderful job Marc did.”
— Susan S., Mesa
“He comes highly recommended by close friends. I only want to talk to David Edge.”
— Gene M., referred client
“This is my first year in Medicare and your input was extremely helpful.”
— Randy B., new client
We start by learning what you want to accomplish and what you have to work with. We can't help if we don't know the full picture.
We keep the best of what you already have, replace what can be better, and make sure nothing is falling through the cracks.
As life changes, so should your plan. We lock in an annual review to make sure everything is still working for you.
The VA is excellent at the VA. Outside it, you are on Original Medicare, which pays 80 percent with no ceiling. A $0-premium Advantage plan (you still pay the Part B premium) can add a yearly cap, care outside the VA, and dental, vision, and hearing, and your VA drug coverage means no Part D penalty
Keep the family plan at work, or move yourself to Medicare while your spouse waits a year? I am an engineer, not an advisor, so I did the arithmetic: the family premium, Part B, a supplement, an IRMAA surcharge set by a two-year-old tax return, and the HSA rule that quietly voids contributions.
The company hands you 18 months of COBRA on the way out and it feels generous. Medicare's 8-month clock started the month you left, COBRA usually costs more than Medicare would, and no, you do not get to keep both. An engineer shows his work.
My wife just started a new nursing job and picked her health plan in one evening from a list of three. At 65 it feels like three hundred, and the person down the hall who used to vet it for you is gone.
You would not skip your annual physical, and you should not skip your money's either. To close out our week on financial interactions, here is what actually happens in a real annual review, piece by piece, and the moment from one of ours that I would put up against any product pitch in the country.
One of our clients sees more doctors than anyone I know, and every one of them is careful, thorough, and completely unaware of what the others are doing. His money worked the same way for thirty years. Here is what happens when nobody is the general practitioner, and what it looks like when somebody
Plenty of retirees are carrying a death benefit they forgot about, tucked inside an annuity, an old policy, or a benefit from a job they left years ago. Before you buy new life insurance, take an inventory. The smartest sentence I've heard in a review meeting this year explains why.
You would never take a new medication without checking what it does alongside the ones you already take. But most people buy annuities, life insurance, even funeral policies without asking the same question. One client's story shows why the question matters more than the product.
The thing that actually splits families isn't the money. It's a ring, a chair, a photo, and the feeling of being left out. Here is how you hand it all down without anyone stopping speaking.
Asking your parents about their estate feels like reaching for the inheritance. It isn't. It's making sure the plan they built still does what they wanted. Here are the words that open it gently.
The money you give while you are alive to watch it land is worth more than the same money left behind. Here is how to do it without stepping on the parents or spoiling the kids.
Your kids can already see the money is there. Telling them the plan while you're alive is the only way to explain the why yourself, so nobody has to guess after you're gone.
