Winning in Retirement

Healthcare - You Are Not Alone

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Brian Akers and Jeff Akers, certified financial planners, discuss healthcare options for early retirees. They emphasize the importance of planning healthcare decisions before age 65, when Medicare eligibility begins. Jeff explains that Medicare is primary coverage for those working at small companies, while large companies' health insurance remains primary. They detail options like COBRA, which can cost up to 102% of the premium, and the Maryland Health Connection for individual market plans, which range from $100 to $500 per month. They also highlight the need for dental and vision insurance and the importance of financial planning to manage healthcare costs effectively.

Unknown:

The following is a pre-recorded show. Welcome to Winning in Retirement with your host, Brian Akers, certified financial planner professional and founder of AKERS Financial Group. Now helping you win in your retirement. Here's Brian Akers.

BRIAN AKERS:

Welcome to Winning in Retirement. I'm Brian Akers, President and Founder of AKERS Financial Group and host of Winning in Retirement. On the show today, we have Jeff Akers, certified financial planner practitioner. Good morning, Jeff.

Jeff Akers:

Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN AKERS:

Jeff AKERS is my cousin, and he's been working with me for 25 and a half.

Jeff Akers:

It'll be 26 pretty soon, let's call it 26 years. Hey,

BRIAN AKERS:

why is a round of the 30? Right,

Jeff Akers:

we won't go down that path,

BRIAN AKERS:

all right. So, Jeff, Jeff AKERS is a financial advisor. We're both certified financial planner practitioners from AKERS Financial Group. If we have, if you ever miss anything during our talk today, go to our website at AKERS Financial group.com that's a K E R S Financial group.com Today's topic is one that we love to cover, something that we do for almost everyone as they retire, as it hits certain ages, and you guessed it, the topic is healthcare for early retirees. Health care for early retirees. In reality, we all must decide what to do. At AKERS Financial Group, we have a lot of financial advisors, and the financial advisors then become experts in different parts of financial planning to make us more of an ensemble practice of professionals that we can bring each other in on specialized cases,

Jeff Akers:

right,

BRIAN AKERS:

and Jeff AKERS is our healthcare

Jeff Akers:

person, healthcare person,

BRIAN AKERS:

and so when I'm doing financial planning and we get to the healthcare question,

Jeff Akers:

they say, "Come see Brian, or "Come see Brian, come see Jeff

BRIAN AKERS:

right, and this all started back in 2009 when Congress met together, wrote this massive bill, didn't read it, but they passed the Affordable Care Act, and thus changed health care for Brian Akers, because the rules changed so much that we sent Jeff to school ever since.

Jeff Akers:

It was a significant change, but there were healthcare issues even before then that we had to deal with, for, oh yeah, and into retirement.

BRIAN AKERS:

Well, Maryland had a really good plan back

Jeff Akers:

then,

BRIAN AKERS:

and that really good plan is very, very important for having guaranteed coverage, right. And so, what we're going to try to do today is talk about early retirees and why it's so important that they take their time and figure out what's their answer.

Jeff Akers:

Take their time and get help,

BRIAN AKERS:

right? And the get help part, all right. So, let's walk through the idea. Would be first of all, someone wants to retire before 65 So we use the word early retiree, we're using before 65 Why is that, Jeff?

Jeff Akers:

Well, at 65 is when you're typically eligible for Medicare. So we used age 65 as kind of your standard retirement date, so that you know you'll be eligible to have health insurance through Medicare at that point. That's our goal,

BRIAN AKERS:

is 65 Is Medicare now cover some basic rules for me about small companies and large companies and Medicare on how that works. I cannot do the addition and subtraction on this.

Jeff Akers:

Yeah, people hear a lot of things, I hear people say a lot of things when it comes to this, but at 65 if you work for a small company, when I say small company, I'm talking about less than you do have to sign up for Medicare, because Medicare is your primary coverage for small companies. If you work for a large company, then that company's health insurance, if you have group health insurance through the company you're working for, and it's more than 20 employees, then that coverage is primary, and that means you don't have to sign up for Medicare when you turn 65 and that's something that a lot of people don't hear, don't understand, don't know

BRIAN AKERS:

when that's because when you turn 64 you start getting 1000 things in the mail, but you have to sign up for Medicare, and then everybody at every party, oh, you gotta sign up for Medicare, and then reality is, do you have to sign up with Medicare, and so when it comes down for healthcare for early retirees, how does it apply to you and your spouse, very, very important. Understand how it applies to you, not what everybody else is doing,

Jeff Akers:

right? The other one is, let's say that one spouse is retired and the other spouse is still working and has health insurance through a large company. Well, the spouse that's already retired can be covered under their spouse's plan, sure, and they don't have to sign up for Medicare.

BRIAN AKERS:

Absolutely,

Jeff Akers:

that's a way to save some money, and there's some other issues that come up with that, but those are things that we would discuss in a meeting, because they're very specific to individual people.

BRIAN AKERS:

As we talk today, we're talking about the planning issues of health care for early retirees, we're. We'll talk about some solutions. How we come with an answer. How it's so important for you to have that meeting with a financial advisor that ties it into the financial plan. We've also done a radio show last fall that's on our website about Medicare and all the Medicare Alphabet and how it works. That's not the show today. We're not trying to teach you Medicare today. We're going to teach you the decision for health care during your retirement,

Jeff Akers:

right? Where do you get your health care, your health insurance, if you're not 65 right? Or even if you are 65 but a spouse is working, there are a lot of decisions that we have to go through.

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, I'm not going to get too technical or tricky. I won't just go with basic topics. The other topic is all right. So, let's say I work for a small company or large company, and I'm retiring at 62 and there is no coverage for me. What are my choices for coverage? And let's say I have some medical issues. So, what are my choices? What's out there? So, if you're working for a company where you have health insurance through that company, then you can sign up for Cobra, Cobra, or it's also called state continuation for smaller companies. In this case, let's

Jeff Akers:

go slow. Okay,

BRIAN AKERS:

Cobra runs for what purpose?

Jeff Akers:

Cobra is for folks that lose their job,

BRIAN AKERS:

lose their job, whatever reason. Cobra is, you can buy the coverage from the employer for the full price,

Jeff Akers:

actually, even a little bit more than that. You might pay 102% of the premium. Why? Well, because there's some administrative costs that go into

BRIAN AKERS:

for that too.

Jeff Akers:

And yes, you have to pay those,

BRIAN AKERS:

even if, when they let you go,

Jeff Akers:

even if they let you go. Sorry, yeah. So I

BRIAN AKERS:

wish I had a buzzer, I can sound.. I don't like that answer.

Jeff Akers:

That's just the way it is, but you can have Cobra coverage for up to 18 months,

BRIAN AKERS:

so it can't extend beyond 18 months.

Jeff Akers:

There are a few circumstances where it can go to 36

BRIAN AKERS:

right?

Jeff Akers:

If you're getting well, if you're retiring and it's 18 months, if you're retiring, going on Medicare, and your spouse is too young for Medicare, they could get up to 36 months.

BRIAN AKERS:

How about that

Jeff Akers:

one? Yeah,

BRIAN AKERS:

yeah,

Jeff Akers:

that's there are ways now. Cobra, though, we just said 102% of the premium, it's expensive, right? Most people get that Cobra notice, and they're like, is there another choice?

BRIAN AKERS:

Throw in the garbage,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, so let's say, let's say I retire, you get let go on, let's call it middle of the

Jeff Akers:

month,

BRIAN AKERS:

and you're covered under that current plan till the end of the month,

Jeff Akers:

typically. Not every plan, but typically it goes to the

BRIAN AKERS:

sometimes they could cut you off right then.

Jeff Akers:

Sometimes they cut you off the day that you're let go,

BRIAN AKERS:

and you'll know by notification,

Jeff Akers:

they'll tell

BRIAN AKERS:

you, when do you pick up Cobra?

Jeff Akers:

Well, you have 45 days to sign up for Cobra, but then you, you go back and you've got to pay for that month and a half, that's

BRIAN AKERS:

right. Okay,

Jeff Akers:

you didn't have it signed up,

BRIAN AKERS:

and so that would be a way to have the same coverage, guaranteed coverage, you'd be under your same deductible, especially if you had some weird medical year, it would all tie together, right.

Jeff Akers:

It's the same health plan that you had before. One one thing to remember, though, and this happens more with smaller companies, anyway. But if a company terminates its health plan just all together, then there is no Cobra. So that's not a choice if a company has terminated health insurance.

BRIAN AKERS:

Okay. All right, so let's say no Cobra. What's the next option out there?

Jeff Akers:

Well, then we can buy from the individual market. Okay, the Affordable Care Act in the state of Maryland, you've got a website you can go to and you can look at

BRIAN AKERS:

all the what's the website

Jeff Akers:

companies in Maryland, it's the Maryland Health Connection,

BRIAN AKERS:

Maryland Health connection.com.gov.gov.gov you Gov,

Jeff Akers:

and so you can go there and you can look up different providers and different insurance plans, and it's guaranteed issue. So you mentioned before, if you have health issues, then you're not going to be denied, you're not going to have anything excluded, that's just based on your age. Yeah, pretty much, and through the Maryland Health Connection, they'll ask you to put in what your income is projected to be. It's possible you might get a subsidy, but it just depends on your, your income at that point.

BRIAN AKERS:

I have to ask clients, our clients, we have them, they come to you, and they're 62 do they go co, they go affordable health care, or they go independent,

Jeff Akers:

they generally go through the ACA, the Affordable Care Act,

BRIAN AKERS:

even without subsidies,

Jeff Akers:

even without subsidies. The insurance sometimes we can go outside of that if we know that their income is going to be way too high and they're not going to get any kind of subsidy, right? But sometimes we can actually structure their income that first couple of years, yeah, so that they don't show income, they could use bank savings or something to live on.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, so in financial planning, your bucket of money is in cash, Roth IRA withdrawals, things like that, can keep your income low, thus helping you qualify for a lower cost of your health care,

Jeff Akers:

right? But then the folks that got the subsidy, and then they turn 65 and get Medicare, no more subsidy, it becomes more expensive. Expensive,

BRIAN AKERS:

yeah, because then you have your Medicare premium, unless you choose Advantage plan or something like that, and then you have a supplement on top of that,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, and that's a future part of our show today. Today we're talking about healthcare for early retirees, early in our opinions, prior to 65 And then you want health care, well, is it provided by your company or not? And you got to say, should you take it? Some larger corporations, when you get into that early retirement, and you look at what they give you for retirement, might be a high price, right?

Jeff Akers:

Right. Well, and you might work for a company that has a pension. There's, I know, there's fewer and fewer of those, but if there's a pension and health benefits, then you can take that, and that'll get you to Medicare age, and then even when you get to Medicare, you could use that, that pension plan, that retiree plan as your supplement.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, and knowing what your employer offers is extremely important.

Jeff Akers:

Oh yeah,

BRIAN AKERS:

knowing how that works, we don't know it, but we guide you through getting information. We have conversations about your choices, and that's part of planning,

Jeff Akers:

right? Just go to HR if you have an HR, and just ask them, you know, what's it look like at age 65 or when I retire.

BRIAN AKERS:

Make sure that at 65 you got coverage, that's right. Now, large companies have to do that.

Jeff Akers:

Large companies have to do,

BRIAN AKERS:

have to give you, have to keep you on their plan after 65 if

Jeff Akers:

you're working there, yes,

BRIAN AKERS:

they have to, right? That's required. Okay, so we don't have to go ask that question.

Jeff Akers:

That's primary, as long as you've got health insurance through the large employer, that's that's primary insurance, and you don't have to sign up for Medicare. Then,

BRIAN AKERS:

all right, today's show called Healthcare for Early Retirees. It is one of the main topics in planning to retire. I mean, when we're talking about what to do, this is one we have to pre-plan for. The goal is to retire in your own way, where you walk in and quit. You need to have your healthcare decision decided before you do that,

Jeff Akers:

right? You want it to be your decision, not a decision made for you.

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, so you listen to AKERS Financial Group's show, Winning in Retirement. AKERS Financial Group, we're local, we're independent. We don't report to a big company on Wall Street. We report to you. We have offices in Lutherville, Farstil. I meet with clients all around the Mid-Atlantic region, all around the country, even a few around the world. It's so easy to begin winning in retirement. You just give us a call and schedule a free meeting with one of our team of advisors by calling 833 win retire, that's 830 3w I N R E T I R E. We'll give you a call on Monday to schedule your free in-person meeting. Go to AKERS Financial group.com or call us at 833-946-7384 to start planning for your retirement now. Will your health care premium be as high as your mortgage. Let's talk about this when we return in a moment.

Unknown:

You're listening to a pre-recorded show. Welcome back to Winning in Retirement. Call 833 Win Retire now to schedule a visit with Brian and his team and begin Winning in Retirement once again. Here's Brian Akers.

BRIAN AKERS:

Welcome back to Winning in Retirement. This is Brian Akers, President and Founder of AKERS Financial Group, and we welcome you to our radio podcast, Winning Retirement. And here with me today is Jeff Akers, Vice President of AKERS Financial Group. I was gonna say cousin since the day he was born,

Jeff Akers:

an all-around

BRIAN AKERS:

good guy. I'm glad you said that about yourself. I don't talk about round. I'm

Jeff Akers:

sorry, you're getting smart, man.

BRIAN AKERS:

We're not well. I'm trying to be smart. That's why we do financial radio shows. Thank you, guys, for listening out there. Today's show is probably one of the ones that you just have to listen. You have to deal with this. You have to know what you're going to do. Healthcare for early retirees, extremely important. The first quarter went by very fast, we covered what early retirement meant. What does it mean, Jeff?

Jeff Akers:

Early retirement sometime before age 65 because 65 is when you qualify for Medicare.

BRIAN AKERS:

Medicare, do you have to be on Social Security eligible to get Medicare?

Jeff Akers:

No, most people are Social Security eligible, but once you're 65 you can sign up for Medicare as long as you're paid into Medicare. I don't think you can opt out of that if you're a preacher.

BRIAN AKERS:

I don't know, I'd have to research that one.

Jeff Akers:

Yeah, we'd have to look into that one. Haven't come across it yet, but

BRIAN AKERS:

I, I believe Medicare does apply for those that have opted out of security. But there was a weird, weird case where we had to get 40 credits to make sure the spouse got it one time,

Jeff Akers:

yeah. And there's something with part A, which typically is free,

BRIAN AKERS:

yeah,

Jeff Akers:

in retirement, pay for, you have to pay for

BRIAN AKERS:

it, yeah, they had to pay for because they didn't have 40 quarters, yeah. I'm sorry, you're hearing us discuss one of those strangest cases we had years and years ago, but that's a cool thing about financial planning, we believe in something called your financial fingerprint, and that's your individual financial planning, and how that's different than everybody else. And we just don't understand how people can invest your money, advise you without knowing your whole story. We believe planning leads to the answers, leads to implementation. You're not sold something before you. Know why you need to understand the why of everything, because it all comes together.

Jeff Akers:

Yeah, everything comes out of the plan.

BRIAN AKERS:

Absolutely,

Jeff Akers:

plan determines everything.

BRIAN AKERS:

So, this quarter we're adding a new topic into this. It's called, will your health care premium be as high as your mortgage?

Jeff Akers:

What do you think, Brian?

BRIAN AKERS:

I've been talking for years about paying your mortgage off, so you can afford your health care, because

Jeff Akers:

you're going to have a new mortgage in retirement.

BRIAN AKERS:

We're still gonna have taxes on our house and insurance, which is probably higher than the original mortgage when you bought the house 3540 years ago. But then you look at your, your health care premium of Jeff 7065 sorry, and they have a let's say a husband and wife, and you have Medicare, Medicare for 2026 is 202 4090 9202

Jeff Akers:

90,

BRIAN AKERS:

got that 90 cents down

Jeff Akers:

and made that extra 50 cents,

BRIAN AKERS:

there's no pennies because they're gone, oh

Jeff Akers:

yeah, pennies are gone

BRIAN AKERS:

202 90, so almost$203

Jeff Akers:

right

BRIAN AKERS:

per person per month for Medicare.

Jeff Akers:

That's part B.

BRIAN AKERS:

Part B is that be the primary coverage, and so if you have that, not an employer plan or something else, you'd pay that, then you get a supplement,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

Give me a range of what a supplement costs for a person, just a range.

Jeff Akers:

I'm just going to say several $100 I guess it could be as cheap as 150 but it could be up to two or 300

BRIAN AKERS:

What number would you like to use in our example?

Jeff Akers:

Well, let's use two, that gets us 200 for part b2, 100 for a supplement, 400 total, and we haven't gotten prescriptions yet.

BRIAN AKERS:

How about we throw prescriptions on top? What's that number?

Jeff Akers:

Now that's going to have a wide range. You can get a prescription plan, part D, that's free if you don't use any, but if you use prescriptions, it could also be close to 100 bucks.

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, so we're sitting at $500 a month.

Jeff Akers:

Yeah, so we'll split it and say 50 bucks for prescriptions or

BRIAN AKERS:

454

Jeff Akers:

50, that's

BRIAN AKERS:

pretty cheap. It sounds like

Jeff Akers:

450 for one person,

BRIAN AKERS:

yeah.

Jeff Akers:

But you're married, so now there's two of you,

BRIAN AKERS:

there's 900

Jeff Akers:

there's 900

BRIAN AKERS:

900 ish,

Jeff Akers:

yes, ish is correct, and that's not counting deductibles, that's not counting copays that you might have anything like that, so a principal and interest payment on a mortgage that you've had for a long time, $900 might even be more than what that principal and interest payment was,

BRIAN AKERS:

all right. So I'm gonna round up to 1000 because I like saying the word 1000, but$1,000 a month for healthcare is going to be put into your budget, where, while you're working, you might have had the employer subsidize it, you might have a little piece of it

Jeff Akers:

right

BRIAN AKERS:

now. If you're a government worker and you get a pension that comes with health care, depending on how many years you've been there,

Jeff Akers:

right.

BRIAN AKERS:

And it's very important to make sure you follow their rules to make sure your spouse gets covered.

Jeff Akers:

That's right,

BRIAN AKERS:

because you've had some cases where a spouse had their own coverage, and then someone's under the state or federal plan, and that person had to switch into the government plan before retirement, or

Jeff Akers:

I didn't have that situation, but for the most part, if there's a pension with health insurance and you want your spouse to be eligible for that health insurance, the pension you take has to have a survivor benefit.

BRIAN AKERS:

Okay, so if you don't choose survivor, they don't get the surviving health care,

Jeff Akers:

right? Yeah, they can't sign up for the health care because there's no benefit for them if you die.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yes, these are all pieces of your financial planning. So we talk about health care for early retirees. It's really for all retirees on health care. We're covering this quarter a little bit about at 65 the cost. I'm gonna drop you back into the early retirees cost, Jeff.

Jeff Akers:

Okay.

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, so Affordable Healthcare, ACA, back in 2009 was created, and Maryland, you mentioned that it's through the Maryland website. What is that, the

Jeff Akers:

Maryland Health connection.gov

BRIAN AKERS:

G O V,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

And that glove,

Jeff Akers:

you just type Maryland Health Connection, it'll put the.gov on there for you.

BRIAN AKERS:

They will.

Jeff Akers:

Oh yeah,

BRIAN AKERS:

how about that?

Jeff Akers:

Maybe it's just because I've gone to it so many times, but

BRIAN AKERS:

all right. So I'm sorry, you just threw me off, wasn't a question. So we're at the Maryland Affordable Healthcare Plan, and what is the cost for, say, someone 6263 And how does it range?

Jeff Akers:

That's a huge range. Then why

BRIAN AKERS:

does it range?

Jeff Akers:

Well, it ranges because you can pick a really high deductible plan,

BRIAN AKERS:

that's a high deductible,

Jeff Akers:

$5,000 for an individual,

BRIAN AKERS:

that mean that coverage doesn't cover one dime until I spend 5000

Jeff Akers:

that's correct.

BRIAN AKERS:

Wow,

Jeff Akers:

yeah. And the interesting thing with deductibles and co-pays, coinsurance, most of the time you go to the doctor, there's going to be a copay on your plan of 20 bucks, and the doctor charges 100 so you have to pay 100 because you haven't met your deductible, but only $80 counts against the deductible, because the other part was your co-pay.

BRIAN AKERS:

Ouch,

Jeff Akers:

so you end up spending more than the deductible before they pay any. So,

BRIAN AKERS:

after you see a doctor, three or four months later, you get a bill in the mail, and it shows all these things.

Jeff Akers:

Yeah,

BRIAN AKERS:

and that. What you're looking at,

Jeff Akers:

make sure your name's on the bill. Sometimes they get sent to the wrong place. Don't pay that. No, no, don't. But so you could get a really high deductible plan. Your premium is going to be pretty low,

BRIAN AKERS:

right?

Jeff Akers:

You could get a plan that covers everything and doesn't have a deductible. Your premium is going to be pretty high. What's

BRIAN AKERS:

high and low? What's a number? Give me a number.

Jeff Akers:

I've given me a number below 100 bucks,

BRIAN AKERS:

really.

Jeff Akers:

And on the high end, 500 bucks.

BRIAN AKERS:

If I have bucks for that, would be all-encompassing healthcare prior to 65 at least that for ACA,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

How about independent? If you just go independent coverage or setting 800 and 1000

Jeff Akers:

your range usually isn't going to be as low as you could get through the Maryland Health Connection, just because sometimes the Maryland Health Connection, you're counting a subsidy in there,

BRIAN AKERS:

sure,

Jeff Akers:

but a couple 100 bucks, 2456, if you, if you actually cover everything,

BRIAN AKERS:

yeah,

Jeff Akers:

and have no deductible, I've seen $1,000 premiums,

BRIAN AKERS:

absolutely per person,

Jeff Akers:

yeah, per person,

BRIAN AKERS:

yeah. So we're talking per person here. Alright, so Jeff, we're talking about Maryland, but that radio show does get out to a lot of people around the country. Does every state have a health connection?

Jeff Akers:

Every state has a website.

BRIAN AKERS:

Gosh, that's okay.

Jeff Akers:

I used to know the Pennsylvania one, but I don't remember what it is offhand now.

BRIAN AKERS:

That's okay, but every state should have it. If they don't, is there a national place you go?

Jeff Akers:

Well, states that didn't do their own,

BRIAN AKERS:

sure,

Jeff Akers:

the Affordable Care Act set up a national one for them, so you can just search for ACA, and it'll tell you where to go in your state.

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, I want to bring up a little bit about something called Irma, so

Jeff Akers:

your aunt,

BRIAN AKERS:

well, when we're 65 and we're getting Medicare, Medicare premium can be a certain price, like we mentioned earlier, about 202 and 90 cents,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

And that's if your income is under the IRMA limit,

Jeff Akers:

right,

BRIAN AKERS:

income-related monthly adjustment amount, which is the means testing of Medicare,

Jeff Akers:

right? Yeah,

BRIAN AKERS:

so Medicare can go higher just because you made more money, so like if you're 65 it depends on what money you made the year you were 63 right?

Jeff Akers:

That's right, yeah, it's two years before it's weird, we have to sit down and go through it with you, so that,

BRIAN AKERS:

and so your chart could say 7080 bucks more a month each, or it could be double, or triple, or 3.4 times something like that, that's crazy.

Jeff Akers:

Yeah, the next level up, the 202 90, the next level up is 284 10 this year, so there's your 80 bucks.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, so the reason we want to bring up Irma is that when you have big years or big things going on. There are some ways to get a specialized exclusion through an SSA 44 form, but it's a limited allow allowable exclusions on this Irma penalty,

Jeff Akers:

right? Yeah, but it does bring up the idea that if you retired at like 60, I'll just say 60 as a number, you have two years where, if you've got a bunch of money in an IRA that you could convert to Roth, and it won't cause IRMA for you, because problem is down the road, you'll have to take money out of the IRA, and that could push you into

BRIAN AKERS:

great savers, and those that have high pensions, or anything like that, IRMA is going to be just cost of life for each now. Some financial planning topics I got to cover in our final minute. One is this: to be able to have Affordable Care Act high deductible, you should have an emergency fund.

Jeff Akers:

That's right.

BRIAN AKERS:

So, the better emergency fund you have, six months to a year, especially as you enter retirement, you then can afford higher deductibles on your health, health insurance, and your homeowners, and your auto right, we're not going to turn those small claims in anyway,

Jeff Akers:

right.

BRIAN AKERS:

That's a way to build it out

Jeff Akers:

in a way. You're yourself funding your health insurance by having the high deductible and money and savings to cover that.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, so the other thing is, the earlier we do Roth IRAs, get money tax free, it helps long term in many different ways, and one of them is Medicare cost it also could mean if they ever mean to Social Security. These are things that early planning and paying tax now, never again. These all these concepts of our shows, you can see that coming

Jeff Akers:

right. It all kind of blends together

BRIAN AKERS:

now. If you missed out on this show earlier, or if you want to find out more about detailed Medicare talk, we have a Medicare show we have on our website under the radio podcast tab, you go right there and find out more information. Well, this keeps flying by, Jeff. Our show today is called Healthcare for Early Retirees. We love retirement, and the best part of retirement is going to be getting your time back, but you know, you gotta get ready for retirement. That's what the healthcare talks all about. In retirement, you know how to, you decide how to use your time before retirement. Your time is tied up with other commitments, you know, mainly your job. A lot of that goes away in retirement. Your time is now consumed by things that you want to do. It's so easy to begin winning in retirement. Go to our website at AKERS Financial group.com scroll to the schedule meetings section, and let us know you'd like to schedule a free consultation. And with one of our team of advisors right there, that's AKERS Financial group.com or call us at 833 W I N R E T I R E, that's 833 win retire. We'll call you back on Monday to schedule your free in-person meeting, so go to our website, AKERS Financial group.com or call us at 833-946-7384 to start planning for your retirement now. Do you have to take Medicare when you turn 65 We'll talk about that when we return with more of Winning and Retirement.

Unknown:

You're listening to a pre-recorded show. Welcome back to Winning in Retirement. Call 833 win retire now to schedule a visit with Brian and his team and begin winning in retirement once again. Here's Brian Akers.

BRIAN AKERS:

Indeed, welcome back to Winning in Retirement. I'm Brian Akers. Here with me today is Jeff Akers. Thank you for listening. If you missed anything, go to our webpage at AKERS Financial group.com that's a K E R S Financial group.com There's a radio podcast tab, you can find all radio shows there and listen in many different ways. I'm Jeff Akers, certified financial planner practitioner, and so am I. And we are financial advisors through AKERS Financial Group. We're considered a fee and or commission, hybrid RA, combo fiduciary, all kinds of options. Bottom

Jeff Akers:

line, we try to structure things in the way that's best for our clients.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, I like to say we lead with financial planning. Financial planning sets us apart where we need to know why. Why are we doing this? Do we need to know everything you're doing? It's helpful if you want a solid answer. The more we know the better we can help you.

Jeff Akers:

Yep, yep, that happens for sure. I've told people that, and you don't want to take money that you're going to use next month to buy a car and put it into a six month CD or something, so gotta have the plan for things.

BRIAN AKERS:

Well, your kid calls you and says, "Hey, I'm gonna buy a house, hey, just give him some money out of my IRA, I don't need

Jeff Akers:

it. Oh,

BRIAN AKERS:

and also that's$100,000 you kicked your IRMA. Also, you paid higher Medicare. You might be 64 You just don't all the ramifications of these decisions. A financial advisor helps a lot,

Jeff Akers:

and you might be 58 and pay the penalty too.

BRIAN AKERS:

We've had that. We've had all kinds of situations. We get the phone calls.

Jeff Akers:

Yep,

BRIAN AKERS:

we want our clients calling us to, so we can play the role of advisor.

Jeff Akers:

That's correct,

BRIAN AKERS:

not just play, but actually be the advisor. It's like any professional athlete, they have coaches, they're highly successful, they're the best athlete in the world, they have a coach,

Jeff Akers:

right.

BRIAN AKERS:

Why? Why would they have a coach?

Jeff Akers:

Well, because the coach helps them to be better.

BRIAN AKERS:

It takes them where they are, no matter what level. So, our most successful clients become even more successful with coaching,

Jeff Akers:

right,

BRIAN AKERS:

and that's that's fun helping someone that didn't have any hope of getting their finances in order, and also there's this bit this day when things are in order and they this smile, right, it's wonderful too,

Jeff Akers:

yeah, that's a good feeling.

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, so we're talking about a very important topic called healthcare for early retirees. Early retirees are those that retire for 65 and you have these issues of healthcare. We've been covering it in last quarter about Affordable Care Act, independent health care, all that kind of thing. What we want to do is just make sure you understand as you turn 65 you do have to work with your Medicare options and choices. So, Jeff, let's talk about, I say, Jeff, my client's getting ready to retire. I want them to meet with you.

Jeff Akers:

Okay,

BRIAN AKERS:

let's talk about that meeting.

Jeff Akers:

Okay.

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, so most, let's call them 64 and a half,

Jeff Akers:

okay? So they're coming up on 65

BRIAN AKERS:

right? So I want them to meet you before three months before 65

Jeff Akers:

right? So the reason he says three months is we sign up for Medicare three months before we want it to take effect, so if they're going to be 65 three months before that month that they turn 65 we sign up for Medicare. Technically, you do have the month that they turn 65 and three months after that, but that can create a gap in coverage, and we don't want that

BRIAN AKERS:

gap in coverage. And then beyond that could be penalties for not taking Medicare when you were supposed to,

Jeff Akers:

right? That can happen if you're, I'm going to say, eligible, but eligible and required to take

BRIAN AKERS:

it. Eligible and required. Very important to know that when you're looking at, should you take Medicare yet or not?

Jeff Akers:

Right,

BRIAN AKERS:

don't just get Medicare because Uncle Jim got

Jeff Akers:

it

BRIAN AKERS:

needs to know your situation. Are you working full time for a large employer? You're covered at work,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

You don't have to make a change,

Jeff Akers:

right? Even part A, which is free, you don't have to sign up for it under certain circumstances until you're actually retired.

BRIAN AKERS:

Okay, that.. how do I say this nicely? It is so important that you understand that this applies to you individually. Financial advisors, and they help guide you make decisions that apply to you, not everyone else,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

So, when we work through this, don't get.. don't have anxiety over.. oh, I miss. Did I just found out a party last week that I missed my deadline? Am I gonna have this double penalty? What's going on? Don't, don't panic. Understanding you don't have to be an expert in the rule, but you have to have a financial advisor either call,

Jeff Akers:

or even worse, they found out about it before the deadline, then they signed up for something they didn't need, and they're paying a premium,

BRIAN AKERS:

and we've had that.

Jeff Akers:

We've had that happen too.

BRIAN AKERS:

What happens there?

Jeff Akers:

Well, you can stop coverage under part B. You can't get rid of part A once you got it, because it's free.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah,

Jeff Akers:

but you can stop at least the one that you're paying a premium on. But we just, we don't want you wasting money. We want to have a plan in place, and then follow the plan to be the most efficient with our money,

BRIAN AKERS:

all right. So, I have my client there, they're 64 and a half. I send them that have you do the talk, and you're doing the talk about near the six months. You sign up for Medicare, they can do it online, they don't need to go into the office, right. We actually go to the Social Security website, it's the same site where you sign up for Social Security, which I think everyone should go to ssa.gov and set up your account, get your IDs, get through all the legalese, see your social security benefits. Right? I want you to look at your work

Jeff Akers:

record,

BRIAN AKERS:

make sure it's right.

Jeff Akers:

That's right.

BRIAN AKERS:

Make sure that you can get into social security, because sometimes if you had multiple names, I had one late one lady the other day, she went through all her names, she was like four different last names, and thankfully she's 67 now, so we've already already been through getting her social security, but those four names could throw people off,

Jeff Akers:

right? And when you do sign up for social security, they ask you if you looked at your earnings record and agree with it. If you've never looked at it, then you're either going to check a box and say yeah, it's fine, and it may not be, or you're gonna have to go through and look at it, and actually sign up later, so do that in advance.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yes, we've had people have to fix it, and the way you have to fix is you have to prove

Jeff Akers:

it right,

BRIAN AKERS:

and the way to prove it is a W-2 from that year that's missing. Yeah, that's why I like keeping tax returns, because all proof is on you,

Jeff Akers:

that's right,

BRIAN AKERS:

and so I'm not a big fan of seven years and out on tax returns, but unless you check your record, if the record's right, I think we're good,

Jeff Akers:

right? Right, then you can get rid of the old,

BRIAN AKERS:

yeah, and then give financial advisor a copy of what you see online, be great,

Jeff Akers:

there you go.

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, so we're humming through, Jeff, we're talking about Medicare a little bit, talking about all these things. Now someone's on Medicare, does Medicare just cover everything, so like if someone got real sick or injured, like broke a hip, broke a leg, or you know something that's going to cause them to need rehab, and then long-term care services, is that under Medicare?

Jeff Akers:

So if you're in the hospital and then you go from the hospital to a rehab facility that's covered for 100 days,

BRIAN AKERS:

yeah,

Jeff Akers:

but once you get past the 100 days, you're no longer rehabilitating,

BRIAN AKERS:

sure.

Jeff Akers:

And so Medicare stops covering it,

BRIAN AKERS:

they can stop earlier than that too, right? It

Jeff Akers:

can stop earlier than that. They

BRIAN AKERS:

don't feel like you're, if

Jeff Akers:

you're not getting better,

BRIAN AKERS:

right.

Jeff Akers:

We won't get into, you know, sometimes companies saying, okay, at 100 days now you're not getting better, but

BRIAN AKERS:

yeah,

Jeff Akers:

that that kind of thing happens. It's that's just the way with rules.

BRIAN AKERS:

So, what happens is Medicare would cover any medical at that time, but not your care,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

The regular care,

Jeff Akers:

so if they visited a doctor, you know, that's covered. If they got a prescription or something that's under Part D, that's covered, but the actual, they call it custodial care, the person taking care of them, helping them with different things, that's not covered

BRIAN AKERS:

right

Jeff Akers:

under so

BRIAN AKERS:

if you think you have Medicare, that everything's covered, not everything is covered,

Jeff Akers:

it's not. No,

BRIAN AKERS:

I've also heard that healthcare is great, but they don't cover your teeth or eyes, because they're not attached to our, to our body. So, is that true?

Jeff Akers:

Medicare does not cover dental or vision.

BRIAN AKERS:

Is ears coming next? I'm sorry.

Jeff Akers:

Well, you can, you can actually get hearing aids, and Medicare

BRIAN AKERS:

recovering,

Jeff Akers:

cover certain ones.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, yeah,

Jeff Akers:

yeah, but Medicare has got rules about everything, what it'll cover, and whatever. If you're over

BRIAN AKERS:

65 can you get dental insurance?

Jeff Akers:

Oh, yeah, okay, you can get dental insurance and get vision insurance.

BRIAN AKERS:

So, early retirees, they can get their own dental if they don't.

Jeff Akers:

If you've got one of those plans where had one of those jobs that has a pension in healthcare, you might have dental, vision through that. If not, you can buy an individual dental plan,

BRIAN AKERS:

and that's covered, like no history, no.

Jeff Akers:

Oh, yeah, there's no exclusion. Well, yeah, every dental plan excludes some things, but

BRIAN AKERS:

then they have limited coverages.

Jeff Akers:

Yeah, odds are you're not going to need braces, so you could skip that part.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, absolutely, that's true. I love asking these weird questions, and Jeff, just to see if I can get you, get you on the

Jeff Akers:

trying to trip me up, is that

BRIAN AKERS:

it? At least once, it is fun. But look, the show healthcare for retirees, early retirees. So, when a client calls and they have questions in financial planning practice like ours, we do investing in. Insurance, everything about planning, but we have to drive it with purposeful goals, things that are going on in our life, and we got to take care of what we need to take care of. We need our wills, our power of attorneys. We didn't know about, know about our health care, we need to know about life insurance, long term care insurance, all these things have to be put into a good financial plan. Healthcare for early retirees is a major issue when it comes to cost and new coverage, and make sure it's in line, so that you don't get absorbed into a place where you don't have the right coverage, and you have a major bill, and all sudden financially the plan doesn't work anymore, because the money is needed for all the healthcare.

Jeff Akers:

Right, there are certain decisions that you make early on at the beginning that are either not possible to change later or very difficult to change later.

BRIAN AKERS:

So, one example is a Medicare option, right? If you choose a low, like a low plan in Medicare, you can't change

Jeff Akers:

it, right? The supplement plans, there are plans that cover.. well, I was going to say almost nothing, but they, they cover very little, and other plans that cover almost everything. If you pick one that covers very little, and then later on you get sick, and you want to move up the one that covers a bunch of stuff, can't do that,

BRIAN AKERS:

not at all.

Jeff Akers:

No, but because then it's medically underwritten, and at that point the carrier can say, okay, we're going to exclude this, this, this, and this, which is the reason you were signing up for them in the first place.

BRIAN AKERS:

But you could bump it up if you're healthy,

Jeff Akers:

if you're healthy,

BRIAN AKERS:

but you gotta go through an application process,

Jeff Akers:

but you got to remember you're also older, so it's going to cost more than it would have when you were originally 65 That's

BRIAN AKERS:

very true. Yeah, so in retirement we have the winning in retirement years, where you're really winning and doing everything you've ever wanted, and then there's this time in retirement where every appointment is a doctor's appointment, and you get in that phase of life, you're running the roads for doctor appointments, and then some people have helped, some people don't. There's a lot of issues there, and but one of the biggest things is what's being covered, what's not being covered, how you gonna pay for it, who's providing the care, all very important,

Jeff Akers:

right. We have expectations, and sometimes our expectations are wrong, so we need to know that in advance.

BRIAN AKERS:

The reason I bring that up is that when we're talking about health care for early retirement, it's part of a plan. We love doing the plan. We have inside of our office financial advisors with expertise for different topics, and then they add to the planners recommendations, so this team that comes and helps our clients guides them through these situations and makes sure we don't have any surprises. We love what we do. You don't have to become the expert, we have the experts here, and that's the idea at AKERS Financial Group, is that you'll be taken care of, where winning in retirement is a goal, and then financial planning is what we do for you, and so what we want you to do is think about having an opportunity to meet with one of our team of advisors to get started with AKERS Financial Group. All you got to do is give us a call at 833 win retire and schedule an in-person meeting with one of our team of advisors, that's 830 3w I N R E T I R E, that's 833-946-7384 or go to our website at AKERS Financial group.com scroll down to the BOM the homepage and schedule a meeting right there. Facing major meta healthcare issues alone, how can your financial advisor help? We'll talk about that in a moment.

Unknown:

You're listening to a pre-recorded show. Welcome back to Winning in Retirement. Call 833 win retire now to schedule a visit with Brian and his team and begin winning in retirement once again. Here's Brian Akers.

BRIAN AKERS:

Welcome back to Winning in Retirement. This is fourth quarter with BRIAN AKERS and Jeff Akers, certified financial planner practitioners from AKERS Finance Group. We thank you for listening to our show today. Our show is called Health Care for Early Retirees. Healthcare for Early Retirees, that's one of the number one reasons that people have to wait to 65 right, Jeff.

Jeff Akers:

That's right, they want to have health insurance, which is a good thing to have.

BRIAN AKERS:

It's one of those things that prevent the unknown. I go without health insurance. I feel good today.

Jeff Akers:

Next doctor's appointment, see what the diagnosis might be.

BRIAN AKERS:

But when you think about people in their 20s, why do they go bankrupt? It's health problems, not having insurance, it's under insurance or auto

Jeff Akers:

at all ages, a lack of insurance can cause significant problems,

BRIAN AKERS:

but in our early, and that 62 to 65 don't just say I'm not gonna have any insurance on 65 we could lose everything we save just to cover a major medical problem.

Jeff Akers:

I got a million bucks in my 401 k. Well, you had a million dollars until you got this diagnosis.

BRIAN AKERS:

Absolutely, all right. So, what's happening in the is here in the fourth quarter. We're talking about a very important topic, and that topic is when it comes to health care. Do you have help facing major health care issues, major major changes in your life alone? Do you have help, and I found. This to be one of those topics when financial planning and investments become a secondary to just helping that person and their family with day to day, and what to do.

Jeff Akers:

You mentioned earlier a coach, someone to help coach you through, navigate through these different things that come up.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, I mean, just yesterday the wife left the husband at home for them with dementia with a caregiver, and they had a special helpers that come in at $33 an hour,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

So she can go out and do things, and that's just something she was able to get through her, and I have been talking the last three years as she knew things are going going downhill. How to make things better, how to set up the accounts, how to prepare

Jeff Akers:

right,

BRIAN AKERS:

all the best we can,

Jeff Akers:

right,

BRIAN AKERS:

having power of attorneys back in the day when he was doing well,

Jeff Akers:

that's right, power of attorney, health care directive, make sure the will is good to go, all that stuff,

BRIAN AKERS:

when we're retiring, I believe what you got to do is do your whole financial plan, get everything in order, and get that done, so you just go live, enjoy your retirement years. You don't have to say,'Oh, I'm gonna do legal documents later. Some people don't want to talk about it. It's not a fun topic. It's not like you talk talking to kids about it, and all sudden they're trying to divide up your clothes already, or your money or your car or putting their name on something, but you don't want that. But

Jeff Akers:

I've heard people say I'm not going to make my kids the healthcare power because they don't plug me just to plug in their iPhone.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, different clients. Yeah, I haven't heard that one, that's pretty funny. That's funny, beside the, but the idea there is, when it comes to making decisions on all of this, the emotions of things, emotions of I don't want to talk about it, is probably the reason to talk about

Jeff Akers:

it, right?

BRIAN AKERS:

Because if someone calls us on a Monday morning, saying Dad went into the hospital with a brain aneurysm, and he has all the, all the savings in his name,

Jeff Akers:

right.

BRIAN AKERS:

I, we can't get money out of there,

Jeff Akers:

right. We can't do anything.

BRIAN AKERS:

We can't send money just on a request of us of a child or even the wife without having a power of attorney,

Jeff Akers:

right.

BRIAN AKERS:

And so, what we have to do is, we must get these documents in place, and get it over with.

Jeff Akers:

Right,

BRIAN AKERS:

we need to have this organized in a way where you have the ability to go retire, and then if worst case happens, we're already prepared,

Jeff Akers:

right? Based just on a basic level, you have to have things titled correctly. What

BRIAN AKERS:

do you mean by that? Is

Jeff Akers:

it just in his name, or is it joint with him and his wife,

BRIAN AKERS:

right. So, joint is great. Retirement plans, we can't do joint,

Jeff Akers:

right? Yeah, we can't do anything about that. So, for retirement plans, you've got to have that power of attorney set up. And I tell people in our meetings when I'm going through the legal documents that if you know the husband's in his name and something happens and the wife calls me, there's nothing I can do because it's in his name, so we need that power of attorney.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yes, I've been bringing up stories, I'm not telling stories out of school, I'm just talking about different clients, different phone calls we've had, and the response. So, what happened was, we got a phone call with the mom and all three kids on a Monday morning. Dad's in hospital, brain aneurysm. What do we do? And I walk through everything we've done. Our website, I showed them that we had uploaded to them with access to be able to see the documents is already in place, and who's in charge. And mom was going to be in charge, right? Mom, at this point, so distraught, doesn't want to be in charge, and there's a secondary child who was chosen.

Jeff Akers:

Okay,

BRIAN AKERS:

not all three, but one was chosen, and so it's just a way of getting it through, because a lot of parents, they might be all in with their kids. Here's all the information, or the total opposite, right? Where these kids don't even know if they have $5

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

They haven't shown them once,

Jeff Akers:

one or two,

BRIAN AKERS:

one card yet.

Jeff Akers:

Yeah,

BRIAN AKERS:

usually they're not showing that means they have something

Jeff Akers:

right.

BRIAN AKERS:

Just saying,

Jeff Akers:

sometimes not always,

BRIAN AKERS:

but they don't want you to change your mindset or how you treat them or trying to get at that money early,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

I really think that when people save money, it's their money

Jeff Akers:

right

BRIAN AKERS:

now. They might say to me, 'Oh, it's a legacy. I want to grow this money for my kids, but the reality is I want to take care of that client to the very last day,

Jeff Akers:

right.

BRIAN AKERS:

And then we, then we give the rest,

Jeff Akers:

and that's the person who has the money, that's their choice, how they want to use it. So, if they want to use it for legacy, that's fine, but it's available while they're alive,

BRIAN AKERS:

part of retirement planning, long term care. What are you going to do? Are you going to self insure, meaning that you're going to pay the bills yourself? That'll bring your net worth down, but maybe there's enough money to do that,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

Have you done that with somebody?

Jeff Akers:

There are folks that don't need long term care insurance because of that very thing. They've got plenty of assets.

BRIAN AKERS:

What's plenty? What's. Number,

Jeff Akers:

well, the number is going to depend on a number of

BRIAN AKERS:

that theory. Trick questions, trick question.

Jeff Akers:

Yeah, try to get me on.

BRIAN AKERS:

Well, the thing is, is as we grow our assets and we get to a certain level, it's like, well, if the portfolio can buy the insurance, it's protecting the portfolio to have an insurance, insurance, and right now we really only see life, long-term care as an option,

Jeff Akers:

right, because

BRIAN AKERS:

the old plans have just not worked out well. In

Jeff Akers:

life long term care, you need to qualify for life insurance in order to get it. So,

BRIAN AKERS:

so pre retirement or right at retirement is the moment,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

We've had people denied for having a bad thumb.

Jeff Akers:

Thumb,

BRIAN AKERS:

I had one lady denied for life long term care because she broke her leg with a cast, and then she wanted to go hiking, so she cut it off herself. Never went back to the doctor, so she wasn't cleared, so she got that denied for long-term care life because of that.

Jeff Akers:

That goes back to making healthcare decisions by yourself alone. One

BRIAN AKERS:

of the most healthy for people I have is because she got denied, and the egg had to wait a year to get back to go blank. I'm sorry, that was a funny one. That the best thing about financial planning is our stories, the true ones, are actually funny and true, right? Oh no, like I try to change it so it doesn't apply exactly to a client. Protect

Jeff Akers:

the innocent.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, that's why Fred Flintstone of Wilmar, my favorite clients. I'm totally off the subject now today's talk is healthcare for early retirees, and we start talking healthcare and retirement. You get all these things on you. I want you to see how we're driving the show, the driving the show, and the planning. Why do we have emergency fund? Hey, assuming you have high deductibles. Well, I have a financial planning firm that knows about health care that would guide you through and help you make decisions, is because it saves you money, it makes you get through another decision point, like when we're retiring with our clients, we meet them before, we meet them pre, we get the healthcare lined up, we help them fill out their forms, we meet them two or three weeks after, bring the assets together, we work on the income plan, we get checks coming, or not, depending on what's going on, and we meet probably five or six times retirement year to get you ready to be retired and stay retired,

Jeff Akers:

right? 65 rolls around, we can help you sign up for Medicare. Yep, all those things.

BRIAN AKERS:

Yeah, so what's great is this: we don't want you to think you're doing it alone, and we believe a financial advisor is part of a team to guide you in the good days and the bad days, I've been doing this 39 years, and my clients have come all the way through,

Jeff Akers:

yep,

BRIAN AKERS:

all the way through retirement until the end.

Jeff Akers:

You were working with them when they were working, saving money, and now you've seen them retire.

BRIAN AKERS:

Us cool financial planners call that g1 Generation One. I'm sorry,

Jeff Akers:

the cool financial planners. I'm

BRIAN AKERS:

sorry, whenever I learn a new word, I like to pretend. So, g1 and then g2 is generation two. We have clients there, generation three, and sometimes we have generation four of clients, where we're working and working the plan down

Jeff Akers:

right.

BRIAN AKERS:

What's wonderful is when you have a client that becomes very successful, and then generation two is successful because everything in place. Generation three is as a financial planning and the good mindset. We're trying to create people that have an education of finance, know how to live within the means of the money that's provided for them.

Jeff Akers:

Right? One of the mentioned generation 1231, of the things that's very encouraging, satisfying, whatever you want to call it, is when you know we've got a client, and they tell their kids, "You got to come, and then they come, and we work with them, and then they tell their kids, "You got to come. So, we've got grandkids of the first generation client, and some, in some cases, we get down to great-grandkids, like you said.

BRIAN AKERS:

Absolutely. Final thing is this: health insurance is a. it's not your healthcare, it's a tool. Health insurance is what helps pay for the choices of healthcare, is usually family decisions, and sometimes on long-term care, we got to bring in other people that are experts in that,

Jeff Akers:

right?

BRIAN AKERS:

But guides and people like that. But health insurance is a decision, like almost like commodities, you have to decide, I want to buy gas on Lead It, or whatever, correct. It's individual, and that is a key piece of our talk today. Healthcare for early retirees, your healthcare decision, health insurance decision is important,

Jeff Akers:

right? Sometimes people get confused with the words, but health insurance is the way that we pay for our health care,

BRIAN AKERS:

right?

Jeff Akers:

So health insurance is where we get to make a decision about how we're going to pay for it. Health care is where we make a decision with our doctor or family about what care we're actually going to receive.

BRIAN AKERS:

Absolutely, there's a lot of things out there for you to search and research and understand things, so whatever phase of this journey, when it comes to retirement and healthcare, we've helped kids take care of their parents, we've helped parents take care of their kids, we've helped, we've helped them 1000 different ways, spouses

Jeff Akers:

taking care of the spouse, absolutely kinds of things,

BRIAN AKERS:

trying to make the money last a lifetime, sometimes it's just trying to squeeze it out the best we can, that's. So today's show is healthcare for early retirees, is just trying to walk us through these decision points. We're driving you back to planning, we're driving you back to having the ability to understand where you are, so you make sure it works

Jeff Akers:

right. The plan determines other things.

BRIAN AKERS:

All right, Jeff Akers, thank you for a very good show today. Appreciate it.

Jeff Akers:

My pleasure,

BRIAN AKERS:

of course. All right, so we do look forward to meeting with you. We want to thank, we want you to win in your retirement by taking advantage of the opportunity to begin planning with us at AKERS Financial Group. To schedule a free meeting with one of our team of advisors, go to our website at AKERS Financial group.com scroll to the schedule meeting section, and let us know you'd like to schedule your free meeting right there, that's A K E R S Financial group.com or call us at 833 win, retire 830 3w I N R E T I R E. We'll call you on Monday to schedule a free in-person meeting with one of our team of advisors. Start planning for your retirement now. Go to AKERS Financial group.com or call us at 833-946-7384 Thank you for listening. I'm BRIAN AKERS from AKERS Financial Group, and we want you to be winning in retirement.

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You've been listening to Winning in Retirement with your host, Brian Akers, of AKERS Financial Group. AKERS Financial Group offers securities through Arkadios Capital and SIPC and Finra member firm. Advisory services are provided through Arkadios Wealth AKERS Financial Group, and Arkadios do not share any common ownership. Neither Arkadios nor AKERS Financial Group provides tax or legal advice. Advice given on winning in retirement is general in nature, and one should seek further advice from their financial advisor, broker, attorney, and/or tax accountant before investing. Be sure to read each prospectus carefully to understand all the risks associated with each investment, examples and scenarios shared are meant to be for illustrative purposes only. Past performance is not indicative of future results.