My Belated Mother's Day Story

I hope everyone celebrated Mother's Day yesterday with mom, or in my case, remembering my mother and her legacy. Mother's Day conjures up all sorts of memories about my mom, grandmothers and other women who were surrogate "moms" from my childhood.

My mother was considered to be "everyone's mom" as she was accessible to most of my friends growing up. She would offer advice, encourage us and give us cooking tips. But in her later years, she slowed down a lot. In 2006, while having knee replacement surgery, she suffered a mild stroke that triggered dementia. My father insisted on taking care of her at home. 

Years earlier I had expressed concern that my parents needed Long Term Care (LTC) insurance, only to be rebuffed. As I lived two hours away and my only sibling was seven hours away, we struggled to make sure my dad, in his 80's at this point, could handle the stress of caring for his wife as well as maintaining his own health. He lost a lot of weight and would call often for assistance. It was difficult for everyone, especially when she was having "episodes" related to her dementia. 

At one point in the beginning my father told my sister, "Maybe I need to look into that Long Term Care insurance for your mother." My sister replied that it was too late, since no company would issue a policy at that point, and he should have taken my advice earlier. Frustration boiled over as we knew this was no time for "I told you so."

Watching this play out over the course of five years took it's toll on me and my sister. Our mother was there physically, and did her best to keep her dignity as she forgot who we were, including my father. She'd say things like, "This man (my dad) won't help me." Sometimes I'd visit and she recognized my face but couldn't remember my name. She would often insist her brothers, who had passed away year earlier, were in the house visiting her. 

When my mom passed away in 2011 my father was a shell of his former self. He looked old and frail, and walked with a shuffle. I never brought up the Long Term Care issue again, which would have come in handy for him as well, because shortly after my mother's passing he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. 

The fact is that most Long Term Care policies include home health benefits, which would have helped greatly for both of my parents. And now there are Short Term Home healthcare (STHHC) policies, which help with the costs associated with being at home only and not a facility. Again, both of my parents would have benefited. 

Enjoy your mother if you can, and one of the best things you can do for her and your family is to prepare for the future with LTC or STHHC coverage. And as always, stay healthy. 

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient.

A Great Disability Insurance Story

As it's Disability Insurance Awareness Month (DIAM), I thought I'd share a story about one of my clients. We will call her Mary to protect her identity. 

Several years ago, Mary had married one of my clients, who insisted that she purchase some life insurance and a disability policy. Mary was reluctant at first, but agreed and purchased both because "my husband told me to." She was very sweet about it all and I think she was just humoring me as well as her new spouse. Each of the newlyweds were small business owners. 

A year or so after she was approved for her policy she was at home when she smelled something burning. A fire had started around an electrical outlet and she managed to get out of the house, only to realize that her beloved pets were still inside. She went back in to rescue them but the fumes and smoke were too much. The fire and rescue people found her alive but burned badly. 

I was totally unaware of the situation until I read a mention of it on Facebook. Not sure of her condition, I called her husband who said she had been moved to a burn center out of state. He had already forgotten about the policy she bought, so I sent him the claim forms, which he forwarded to her mother who was taking care of her (he had to tend to his business).

Within a few weeks the insurance company was sending out the benefit checks. Mary was unaware of any of this because she was heavily sedated. Every few months I would get copied on correspondence from the company as they continued to pay the claim. After months of healing and rehabilitation, Mary was able to leave the care of her medical team. I heard she was back in town but hadn't seen her, so I was surprised when she crept up behind me in a Mexican restaurant and gave me a hug. 

"I just want to say thank you for making sure I had that policy and following up," she said. "That money came in handy while I was away!" We spoke for a few more minutes and she left. Even though she was still on the mend she looked great and I was happy to see her in good spirits.

I share this story people because it shows how a good disability policy works. Even though the vast majority of claims are actually for illnesses, her story resonates and has led to more people asking for this coverage. In these times of Covid19, people are starting to realize the value of good insurance and we are here to help. 

If you're curious as to how much a policy like this would cost, run yourself an estimate on the "Get A Quote" tool in the upper right of the page.  Stay healthy and let us know if you need anything.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient

Get You Some Insurance and Relax

The Greek word for "insurance" is "asfalisi", which literally means "security".  Not like a security guard, but more like a security blanket. In other words, insurance makes us feel secure knowing that if something bad should happen to us, like an accident or health crisis, our bills will be taken care of and so will our loved ones.

People love to "get away from it all", with trips, vacations, hobbies or music. We all need something to take our minds off of the everyday issues we deal with, from work to family, traffic to bad neighbors. There's a lot of stress out there and some in the medical community point to this stress as the root of a gamut of medical problems. And the cause can be those nagging little voices in the back of our heads letting us know if we get sick or hurt, we still have bills to pay.

Are you the breadwinner of the family? What would happen to your loved ones if you were to die too soon? Could your spouse and children stay in their home? What about debt? Who is going to pay those bills? Can the kids go to college? And what about those day-to-day expenditures, like when the refrigerator breaks down or you need a car in a pinch?

Sure, you could do something like a GoFundMe page, but why not avoid all of that by purchasing a life or disability insurance policy from now?  And with a pandemic all around us now is a great time to call us at Surf Financial Brokers and have a conversation.

We hear people always say that life is too short to suffer through all the aggravations and stress. Let us help you get a little more peace of mind with coverage that is affordable. And stay healthy!

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient

DIAM Is Here!

May has been designated as Disability Insurance Awareness Month, which is a great idea when you consider that Disability Insurance (DI) is one of the most undersold, yet necessary products offered. There are a lot of misconceptions about the product and how it works, along with some screwy ideas of when to get rid of it.

When I speak to a group on the topic of different types of insurance, I discuss the "Holy Trinity of Insurance" (covered in a previous post), which are life insurance, health insurance and DI. Oddly enough, some people insists that they can't afford it, but don't understand that it protects their greatest asset, their ability to earn a living. Being able to earn an income allows us to purchase the things we want, like a home or car. If we can't work, we still need to pay for things we need, like housing, groceries and utilities.

And yes, DI covers Covid-19, as long as you don't have it when you apply for a policy.

Check out the short video and let us know if we can help you preserve your greatest asset.




Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient

Life Insurance or Flat Screen TV?

Part of my job is helping people get their priorities straight.  For instance, I met with a client this past December who was married and had two small kids.  He had no life insurance.  He agreed that it was important but added, "I can't afford it right now, the kids want a flatscreen TV."

My response was "If another car crosses the center line and kills you, that flatscreen television won't be able to put your kids through college, help your wife pay off the mortgage, replace your income, erase your credit card debt or pay for your funeral."

The client said, "I just can't do it right now."

I could have continued to extol the virtues of purchasing a life insurance policy, not for himself, but for his family.  It wouldn't have made a difference.  His priorities were out of whack.  It was Christmas and he wanted to make the family happy for the short term.

I came to two conclusions after this meeting.  1. For some reason, this generation fails to think in the long term.  We don't plan for others that will come behind us, only for what gives us gratification now.  And 2, people can "afford" what they want to buy.

I'm not saying that this young man was a bad person. He obviously loved his family by wanting to make them happy at Christmas. My job is to try to convince this person that an extra $40-50 each month was going to keep his family, that he loved so much, in their home if he was to die unexpectedly. In a case like this, he wasn't going to budge and really didn't want to pressure him.

He really wanted to buy that TV. But why didn't he want to buy life insurance? Maybe he thought he wasn't going to die anytime soon. Or maybe because it's an intangible product, whereas a TV has lots of buttons and can offer some instant entertainment gratification. A life insurance policy will only satisfy others.

When we buy life, disability or long term care insurance, we get the satisfaction of knowing that if something should happen to us, the others around us aren't burdened with bills or taking care of us. In other words, can you sleep comfortably knowing that your family will be okay if something bad happens to you?

As an insurance agent, I have to help my clients find the right path to financial security. Sometimes the client doesn't want to be helped. I hope this gentleman's wife and kids can help him learn what his priorities are before it's too late.

Stay healthy and let us know if we can help you with your insurance needs.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient.

The H.U.G. Plan

Recently I wrote on the subject of Disability Income (DI) coverage and gave you all kinds of good reasons why you need the coverage. And we also discussed what DI covers, which of course is you most valuable asset -your ability to earn a living.

With all that we talked about, I failed to go over the most important part, which is how much you need. Most carriers will allow you to insure between 65-70% of your gross income as a maximum. But do you really need that much? There are some people out there who have high incomes but low bills. Or they may already have a passive income stream, like a rental property. In other words, you may be able to survive a few months on just 40% of your income.

That's where our H.U.G. plan comes in. We can estimate your most basic financial needs by totaling up your costs for housing, utilities and groceries. It's simple and takes a few minutes. 

And by figuring up a "good guess" of what your DI needs are, you can save money on your premium. In today's environment, saving a few dollars is a good thing, but having the coverage you need also gives you the peace of mind you want.

For a quick snapshot of how much a policy can cost, click on the "Get a Quote" button in the upper right of this page. Need to stay socially distant? We can discuss with you over the phone.


Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient.

The Issues With Annuities Part 2

In the previous post we discussed Fixed Indexed Annuities (FIA's) and how they work. The basic concept behind them is that you give the insurance company a lump sum of money and after a set number of years, usually 5, 7 or 10, the annuity will start giving you an income stream, typically 5% of the accrued value. Sounds good until you crunch the numbers as we did.

In this low interest rate environment, the caps (the most your annuity can earn) are very low as well. As I mentioned, there are people that this plan can still work for, but at this point I rarely make that recommendation to clients.

Why do so many other agents like selling annuities then? In a word, commissions. I'm not trying to throw any agents under the bus, but for example, if an agent moves $100k from a CD in a bank to an annuity, they can make anywhere from $5000 to $8000 in commissions. Not bad for basically doing some paperwork. And there are no health underwriting questions like life insurance.

Locally we have an agent who loves to sell annuities, mostly to seniors. I've seen his presentation and he weighs heavily on doom and gloom, telling his audience that the world is falling apart (which at the time of this post very well could be) and selling the "safety" of his annuities. At one point he brings out a miniature toilet and says something like, "Here's the sound of the economy!" while flushing it. In case you're wondering, he did this when the economy was booming as well.

And how does he get his audience? He invites them to a nice steak dinner, that's how. And while he's talking and scaring the crowd with his gloomy forecast his assistant walks around the room setting appointments for him. The prospects are told to bring any investment statements with them to the appointment and that's where the real fun begins.

A friend of mine worked down the hall from the agent's office and could overhear the conversations. My friend said that the clients, mostly retired, were told that their current investments were bad and that someone had "ripped them off". Of course the only cure for their problem was an annuity.

Among my peers and colleagues this kind of sales is frowned upon to say the least. High pressure of any sort, and especially to our seniors, makes our industry look bad. Luckily, the vast majority of agents know the difference between working for a client and sticking it to them. But a few bad apples...

In general terms, when should you NOT buy an annuity. Here are a few examples:

• If you are under 50. The IRS will assess a 10% penalty if you access the funds before 59 1/2. 
• If you are over 70. Given that the contracts can take anywhere between 5 and 12 years, do you want to tie your money up when you may need it?
• If you are going to need that money soon. Again, these products are illiquid and have a lot of surrender charges.
• If you are a risk taker or an aggressive investor. Annuities are for very conservative clients.

As I say, there is a place for all insurance products, but not every product is for everyone. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments section. Stay healthy and remember at Surf Financial Brokers, we only do #nopressureinsurance.

Chris Castanes is the president of Surf Financial Brokers, as well as a professional speaker helping sales people be more productive and efficient.