Insurance Information

Health Savings Account (HSA): What Happens to it When I Retire?


The Health Savings Account (HSA) is a great tool that is going to help us all reduce our health insurance costs and avert the current healthcare crisis in America. But what happens when a person retires? What use is an HSA then? Your HSA transforms itself at that moment you turn 65, when you officially become eligible for Medicare. Your Health Savings Account, which will have served you all those years as a nice financial cushion before you begin using your insurance policy, flips into something very similar to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). That's right. An HSA essentially becomes an IRA when you turn 65. The reason for that is that when you turn 65, you are eligible for Medicare, and HSAs are not meant to help you with Medicare, that is its own system. So what happens to that money left over in your HSA? If you haven't been sick much, there could be hundreds of thousands of dollars in there! Don't worry, it's safe. There is no "use it or lose it" policy with HSAs. That is one of the great things about the HSA. No, your dutiful HSA has now become a retirement account. Now that you're 65, you can begin to pull money out of your HSA without penalty and use it for anything. Use the money for roller blades, dinner, a new computer, a car, or give it to your kids. It's yours to do with what you want. No penalties for withdrawing money. However, remember, when you take money out of any IRA, that money is taxed by the IRS. You got a tax-deferral when you put the money in, and now you pay taxes to take the money out. Fair, isn't it? If you want to avoid paying taxes on that money, no problem. Just stick to using the money for healthcare expenses (as approved in IRS Publication 502) and you won't pay taxes on the withdrawals, even after you're 65. This is just one of the many ways HSAs are so useful and helpful for Americans savings for their own healthcare. The HSA is available today from many insurance agents and financial planners.

Health Savings Account (HSA): Do I Lose It At the End of Each Year?


The Health Savings Account (HSA) is an amazing tool to reduce healthcare expenses and insurance costs.  But do you lose it at the end of each year, like with a Flexible Savings Account (FSA)? Thank goodness, no!  You do not lose your HSA money at the end of each year. Health Savings Account were created specifically to be BETTER than their predecessors, Flexible Savings Accounts (FSA) and Medical Savings Accounts (MSA). Your HSA does not have to be used up within the year.  In fact, the money can just build and build each year if you don't need it. It will be there for your health crisis if that ever happens. If you never have that health crisis (and I hope that's the case for you!) then you will have a nice little nest egg built up of year-after-year of health savings plus the interest earned. I really like the term "Health Savings Account."  I like it because it says that you can save by being healthy.  The healthier you are, the more money you'll have left in that account when you retire. And speaking of retirement, your HSA will act like a nice Individual Retirement Account (IRA) as soon as you reach age 65. You'll be able to withdraw money without penalty for any reason you wish.  (But you'll still have to pay tax on withdrawal, just like with a traditional IRA). My advice to you is put the maximum amount into your HSA every year.  The money will be there for you if you have a health crisis, and it will be there for you in retirement if you manage to stay healthy year-after-year. Good luck with your healthcare, your health insurance and your HSA!

Consumer Driven Health Plans [ CDHP ]


Do you know that skyrocketing health care costs have been draining the federal government and employer?s exchequers over the last couple of years? The health care costs account for 15.5 percent of U.S GDP and is the most expensive benefit paid by employers, seriously affecting their competitiveness in the global market. Health care spending is projected to top $1.9 trillion in 2005, about twice the amount being spent on education. According to the Employment Policy Foundation, employers have spent $331 billion last year for health insurance, a 50 percent increase since 1998. All of these never-improving alarming statistics did result in designing the Consumer Driven Health Plan (CDHP), making the insured person an active member in controlling the costs, rather than being passive and relying on the managed benefit program. The idea was pioneered by Definity Health in Minnesota in the year 2000 and has seen a rapid adoption by the employers/employees over the years due to its inherent cure-for-all strategy.

Health Savings Account (HSA): How Do I Invest It?


The Health Savings Account (HSA) is an amazing tool that a lot of people have been talking about. It is meant to help you save money on insurance and make your life simpler, maybe even help you be healthier.

Reducing Soaring Insurance Claim Costs


With the soaring rise in claims to insurers from their customers, millions of pounds are being lost on a day to day basis throughout the industry in regards to personal property insurance. A new system in the UK provides insurance companies with an easy and effective method to reduce their personal property claims by over 80%. With fraudulent insurance claims costing the industry over £20 million a week alone, the savings created by affiliating and joining forces with companies like Want it Bak are staggering.

Insurance or Assurance - Do You Need Reassurance?


Insurance versus assurance: what is the difference?

Who Else Wants to Understand Travel Insurance Policy Language?


Aren't all travel insurance plans basically the same?

An Intro To Auto Insurance


Although premiums, policies and prices vary widely, the mandate does not. Automobile insurance is an unavoidable expense of driving. Ideally, you will never have use for your auto insurance. In the event that you do; however, you will considerably improve your satisfaction with the claims process by doing thorough research before policy inception.

Medical Bankrupticies: What You Can Do To Protect Yourself


First the bad news: about 2,000,000 personal bankruptcies each year are caused by unexpected medical expenses. Of all those people, 1,500,000 have (or had) health insurance before they ran into difficult financial straights.

What is Consumer-Driven Healthcare?


Consumer-driven healthcare is a label that we?ve put on a movement in America to change the way decisions are made in our healthcare system. Instead of insurance companies making all the decisions about how people will receive their healthcare, consumers are taking back the power over their own lives.

Why Dont Insurance Companies Reward Us for Being Healthy?


Insurance is always a gamble, a bet actually.

Home Insurance: Premium Protection In Case Mishap Takes A Rain Check


My whinstone house my castle is, I have my own four walls.

The Surety Bond Domino Effect


I have written many articles about the hard surety bond market. To my surprise many want to know more details as to how we got to where we are at. Like all industries the surety bond industry is heavily influenced by the economy. We can all remember the strength of the US economy at the end of the millennium; it seemed that businesses were flourishing with prosperity everywhere you turned. By the end of 2000 the economy began to slow down. The success of any contractor is directly effected by changes in the economy, thus more contractor's businesses began to fail. With the failing of the contractor businesses came an abundance of claims. This is not to say that the soft economy was the only cause for the increase in claims, but it was the start of the domino effect.

Life Settlement Overview


A ?Life Settlement? is a lump sum settlement paid to the owner of a life insurance policy by one of many funding sources in exchange for the ownership of the policy. Never before have non-terminal policyholders been able to receive capital in excess of their policy?s cash or surrender value to increase their wealth. A Life Settlement can usually provide anywhere from 2 to 5 times the cash surrender value of the policy. "With the life settlement option availble, there is no reason to surrender or lapse your life insurance policy." says Grant Shellhammer, of http://www.lifesettlementpro.com/.

Insurance: A Necessity for Peace of Mind


There are many choices for insurance. Insurance is a policy where you pay in a certain figure, that you do not usually get back, and pays out in the event of a certain situation. The details vary according to the type of coverage.

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