The Rocket Scientist and Medicare—We Won the Cold War, But Our Retirees Need Help Understanding Health Care

• Attend our Savvy Medicare 2-Day Intensive Workshop in San Diego, Oct. 13-14…
• Conquer the Retirement Health Care Challenge—Your Clients Will Love You for It…
• Get ready for 2017 client presentations…

Dear Advisor,

I recently got an excited phone call from a friend. She'd heard that Horsesmouth was training advisors on how to give smart, insightful guidance to their clients about the ins and outs of Medicare health insurance coverage.

"Wow, that's great to hear because you wouldn't believe the types of expensive mistakes people can make," she said. "Let me tell you my story."

I was all ears.

My friend reminded me that a few years ago she'd taken over managing the affairs of her elderly father—a retired scientist from California.

She said when she started managing her father's issues, she discovered that in addition to Medicare, he had two other health care insurance plans.

'Don't Worry…the Doctors' Offices Take Care of That'

She wasn't clear exactly why he had two and her father, at this stage, could offer no help. (And the insurance companies just told her not to worry—"the doctors' offices take care of submitting everything behind the scenes.")

So she tried to get advice about those health insurance plans while also trying to organize the rest of his finances.

First, she tried her own advisor, but he couldn't help her.

Then she approached her father's CPA, thinking maybe he'd know something. But he couldn't help her.

She even asked the HR people at her father's former employer. Again, no help.

Not wanting to mess up her father's health coverage, she left things as is.

Every month she saw direct debits made against his checking account for the monthly premiums. But as anyone else who's ever taken over an elderly adult's personal business knows, there were lots of other pressing issues.

So it remained a mystery—but it stressed the heck out of her because her gut told her something wasn't right.

Anyway, time moved on and she finally found someone through a professional networking group who could advise her on the plans.

A Mystery Solved

It turned out her dad had been paying for a plan he could never get value from—because it covered exactly the same things covered by an identical policy sold by a different firm. (He shouldn't have been sold the second policy.)

Now for the eye-popping number: That mistake cost at least $25,000 dollars over ten years.

Naturally, that money could have been used for many good things, including savings and investments.

And it could have helped lower his monthly retirement expenses…which had become a critical issue: He'd suffered a stroke, had an expensive second wife, and had never planned his retirement, despite retiring with a large nest egg now depleted.

(Thankfully, my friend filed a claim with the state department of insurance and got some premiums refunded.)

None of us want this sort of thing to happen—especially to our clients.

Look at the list of people and places she tried to get help from. They were all experienced professionals, but they didn't have the expertise she needed and expected them to have.

If It Can Happen to a Rocket Scientist…

And her father was a smart guy, too—an actual rocket scientist—a nuclear physicist who'd spent his whole life fighting (and winning) the Cold War!

But he could not figure things out and made a very expensive mistake.

In the end, the advisor who helped my friend has her business—and thanks— forever. Not to mention a high number of referrals!

What did this advisor have that the other professionals in this story didn't?

It wasn't a vast technical knowledge about all the ins and outs of insurance plans.

But it was enough knowledge to confidently ask the right questions of my friend and quickly discern that her father was paying for a duplicate health plan that was the equivalent of pouring the money down a drain.

This is the level of Medicare expertise we want you to have—so you, your clients, and any prospects can have an independent, unbiased professional to guide them on their way through the Medicare labyrinth. Our 2-Day Intensive Medicare Workshop will lay the foundation you need to prevent something like this from happening to your clients.

Here’s why it’s important to come our 2-Day Intensive Savvy Medicare Workshop:

• More than half of pre-retirees find Medicare confusing, or completely baffling. You’ll want to add Medicare guidance to your service offering for all retirees and pre-retirees.
•  Two in three pre-retirees can’t identify what part of Medicare covers hospital care.
• Three in four pre-retirees don’t know what part of Medicare covers doctor visits.
• Less than 1 in 10 understand the benefits of Part C/Medicare Advantage.
• The structure of Medicare is complex and always changing, and the very basics elude most people. Separate yourself from your competitors with new, important expertise.
• You can establish a niche for yourself based on unusual expertise that blends health care guidance with financial planning.
• You’ll have the opportunity to reach out to pre-retirees who need to plan for health care before leaving the job, allowing you to establish a relationship before they are faced with the rollover decision.

Add Medicare and Health Care Planning for Boomers to Your Client Education Line-Up

Your business partly grows based on hard-earned referrals you receive from clients and professional allies. Those referrals are rooted in the deep trust clients have in you. You've earned that trust by overseeing their financial lives, pointing them on the right path to growing their investments and building a retirement nest egg—and smartly drawing down on that savings to fund a regular retirement paycheck.

Making that life-changing transition—however incremental it may be—starting at age 65 (when they must sign up for Medicare) will be one of the biggest challenges those clients will face. And making the right choice about health care coverage is a critical step for them.

You're the natural person in your clients' lives to offer guidance on Medicare. When you deliver direction on such a sticky, panic-inducing topic like health coverage in retirement, you make a big deposit in the client trust bank—the kind that earns undying loyalty and referrals.

This 2-Day Intensive Workshop will lay the foundation you need to start building that loyalty.

Intensive 2-Day Workshop:

Who should attend: If you want to pursue the lucrative retirement income planning market and expect to position yourself as a retirement “distribution” expert, you’ll have to understand the basics of Medicare.

What will be covered: A total immersion experience taking you through the basics of Medicare, the integration of Medicare with other insurance, the transition to Medicare, and business development strategies; plus an overview of managing healthcare expenses in retirement, case studies, and discussion of advanced issues.

Workshop goal: Take you from where you are now and put you on the path to becoming or exceeding your role as the retirement expert in your region. In order to become a trusted resource for clients and prospects, you must be able to navigate your clients through various healthcare pitfalls. Overview of what you will learn:

You’ll get a breakdown of Medicare’s basics, including…

• How Medicare works
• Who becomes eligible for Medicare and when
• Understanding Medicare enrollment periods
• How the late enrollment penalty works
• How to sign up for Medicare
• Part A: What it covers, how much it costs
• Part B: What it covers, how much it costs
• What's not covered by Part A and Part B: deductibles, copays, coinsurance
• How Medicare is financed

How Medicare works with other insurance…

• Why Medicare alone is not enough
• Types of supplemental insurance; including retiree/employer plans; Medigap policies; Medicare Advantage plans
• How to evaluate supplemental insurance

o Retiree/employee plans vs. insurance purchased on open market

o Medigap vs. Medicare Advantage

How to help your clients make a graceful transition to Medicare, including…

• How Medicare works with the various types of existing plans; including large employer group plans, small employer group plans, and individual health insurance
• When Medicare enrollment is mandatory
• When Medicare enrollment is optional
• How to evaluate existing insurance compared to Medicare: weighing costs, benefits, and expected health care usage.
• Mechanics of Medicare enrollment

How to manage health care expenses in retirement…

• How much Medicare households spend on health care
• Helping clients estimate their individual health care usage
• Estimating health care costs in retirement
• Premiums, including income-related adjustment amount
• Other out-of-pocket costs

How to plan for long-term care…

• Factors affecting the need for long-term care
• Possible triggers for long-term care
• Levels of care
• Types of long-term care
• Estimating possible long-term care costs
• Ways to fund long-term care
• Pros and cons of long-term care insurance
• How to evaluate long-term care insurance policies
• Solutions other than insurance

Building your business with Savvy Medicare Planning…

• Marketing your Medicare and healthcare expertise via seminars and workshops
• Introduction to Advanced Workshop Business Development Principles
• The anatomy of a successful seminar
• Why and how the high-end dinner seminar still produces big results
• The best way to open your workshop presentation
• How to integrate powerful client case studies into your workshop
• Tactics for handling questions
• The best ways to leverage adult school opportunities
• Tactics for getting attendees to sign up for one-on-one meetings
• How and why integrated marketing produces the best results for workshop attendance

Register here and save the date! We’ll give you updates as the time draws nearer.

Presenters

Sean M. Bailey is the editor in chief of Horsesmouth. Over the last 16 years, Sean has interviewed hundreds of advisors about “what’s working” in their efforts to grow their businesses. In his business development presentation at the Two-Day Intensive Workshop, he’ll lead you through in-depth case studies examining the prospecting side of advising Boomers about Medicare and healthcare.

8 Reasons to Attend Our 2-Day Intensive Medicare Workshop

Cancellation and Refund policy

Your workshop registration fee is 100% refundable if you cancel and contact Horsesmouth’s Member Support team 30 business days or more before the event. You must call to receive a cancellation confirmation number. You can reach Member Support at 1-888-336-6884, ext. 1.

Cancellations received between 7-29 days prior to the event will receive a Horsesmouth store credit of 50% of purchase price towards a future event, subscriptions or products, minus $100 processing fee. For cancellations received 6 days or less prior the event, no refunds will be made nor store credits given.

Substitutions/name changes may be made at any time prior to the event without penalty.

Can’t Make It Now?

Click this link and we’ll add you to our workshop information list. When a new workshop date is announced, you’ll get notified.

FOR INSTANT SERVICE, Call Toll Free: 1-888-336-6884 ext 1
(Outside U.S.): 1-212-343-8760