Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Travel considerations: Clients who frequently travel within the United States or abroad might benefit from plans that offer broader coverage. Original Medicare, often supplemented by a Medigap plan, might be more suitable for clients who travel often, as some Medicare Advantage plans have limited networks. Provider preferences: Some clients may have long-standing relationships with certain health care providers. Verifying that the selected Medicare plan includes these providers in its network is essential. Convenience and simplicity: Some clients may prioritize the simplicity of managing their health care. Medicare Advantage plans, which often bundle services including vision, dental and prescription drugs, may appeal to clients seeking a more streamlined approach. Paying for Medicare Plans Your clients can use various sources of retirement income to pay Medicare costs. Social Security benefits: Most Medicare Part B premiums are automatically deducted from Social Security benefits. You should factor this into a client’s overall retirement income planning. Required minimum distributions (RMDs): For clients over age 73, RMDs from IRAs and other retirement accounts can be used to help pay Medicare premiums. Pension income: If applicable, pension income can also be allocated to cover Medicare expenses. You should review your client’s pension plans and help them structure...

The 2017 tax cuts did produce some positive economic effects, but they were far more modest than the Trump administration and some Republicans forecast, said Kyle Pomerleau, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute. “It will be important to watch to see if markets start to panic if enough deficit spending is being contemplated, or if they’ll decide to look through it,” said Martha Gimbel, executive director of The Budget Lab at Yale and a former White House economist under Biden. Tariff Issues Trump has vowed to impose a tariff of 10% to 20% on all imported goods plus 60% on Chinese products and promoted that as an offset for tax cuts. But lawmakers will have to decide whether to enact those tariffs in the tax bill so the revenue can be officially counted — a difficult vote for Republicans, especially those who want free trade. They could also just assume revenue would continue from presidentially imposed duties, even though Trump might later strike a trade deal that drops them. “There’s always a way to make things work,” said Dave Camp a senior policy advisor at PwC and a former Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee....

That said, “the moment tax reform is on the table, everything is on the table. In order to pass the reconciliation bill, they must generate sufficient revenues to meet the agreed upon net number. This is where surprises can appear,” Bush pointed out. Retirement Policy While Secure 2.0 regulatory guidance is anticipated next year, the Labor Department’s fiduciary and ESG rules put forth under the Biden administration “are natural focal points for the incoming administration and Congress,” said Mark Iwry, the former head of national retirement policy during the Obama-Biden administration, who’s now a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Groom Law Group attorneys noted on a recent webcast that among the Secure 2.0 changes anticipated next year are projects such as the retirement “lost and found” registry, savers match and portability studies. Catch-up contribution changes and part-time employee rules are also expected in early 2025, the lawyers said. Iwry noted that two major factors should “limit the impact” of the presidential transition on Secure 2.0. First, the law “was famously bipartisan, largely because much of it was proposed by and for industry stakeholders,” Iwry said. Second, “plan sponsors and their advisors, recordkeepers and other service providers need...

Gary Gensler is making a final pitch for how the SEC should be allowed to regulate cryptocurrency markets ahead of the incoming Trump administration and its enthusiasm for digital assets. In remarks prepared for a Thursday legal conference in New York, the Securities and Exchange Commission chair repeated that the agency should be focused on “rules of the road” that apply to crypto sales and intermediaries, such as brokers and exchanges, to promote proper disclosure. The experience of the Great Depression, where so many investors were wiped out and the economy went into a tailspin, taught policymakers about the importance of “provisions about disclosure because information about securities creates a public good,” Gensler said at the Practicing Law Institute’s annual securities regulation conference. Gensler reaffirmed that Bitcoin itself isn’t a security, a position taken by his predecessor during the first Trump administration, Jay Clayton. “Our focus, rather, has been on some of the 10,000 or so other digital assets,” that total up to about $600 billion, less than 20% of the crypto market when Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins are carved out, he said. Waning Days Gensler commented as the clock begins to run out on the current administration, and perhaps...