When did you last Review your Insurance Coverage – Doctor?

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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Why shopping around periodically is a smart move

By Lon Jefferies, MBA CFP™  http://www.NetWorthAdvice.com

Lon JeffriesWhen is the last time you compared rates on your home and auto insurance policies – doctors and all ME-P readers? Unfortunately, a stellar safety record doesn’t always translate into lower insurance rates. Even if you think you have a good rate, shopping around periodically is smart.

A Reader’s Query

After attempting to follow my advice of maintaining an umbrella insurance policy, one of our ME-P readers contacted his insurer to add coverage. This reader was shocked when his insurer informed him that he didn’t qualify for an umbrella policy because he didn’t carry sufficient liability insurance on his auto policy. (Minimum auto liability insurance – frequently $500,000 – is required in order to purchase umbrella coverage.) Although this individual had owned his policy for eight years, he was unaware that the policy only provided $50,000 of liability coverage. This amount was clearly insufficient for an individual approaching retirement.

In addition to realizing that he was severely under-insured, this individual discovered he was also paying excessive premiums. For only $50,000 of auto liability coverage, this person was paying $914 per year. Moreover, the individual realized he was paying $351 per year for the $350,000 of liability coverage the individual had on his condo. Consequently, in total, this person was paying $1,265 per year for $50,000 of auto liability and $350,000 of home liability coverage.

Case Model

This individual then spoke with an independent insurance agent to increase auto liability coverage to an amount that enabled him to obtain an umbrella policy. This was critical, as it dramatically decreased the individual’s liability exposure, a risk an individual with accumulated assets clearly shouldn’t have. Even better, the individual was able to obtain dramatically improved rates on his policies. For a total of $1,207 (less than he was previously paying!), the individual was able to secure $1,000,000 of auto liability coverage, $350,000 of home liability, and an additional $1,000,000 umbrella policy.

policy insurance

Assessment

Clearly, it can be beneficial to occasionally review and compare rates on your insurance policies. People tend to believe that policies that have been owned for extended periods of time are efficiently priced, but it may be the opposite. If you haven’t verified that you are adequately insured and conducted a cost comparison recently, speak to an independent insurance agent and minimize your exposure with cost-effective policies.

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Conclusion

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Did You Survive the [Fleeting-Tweeting] “Flash-Crash” of 2013?

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

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The Day the Dow Jones Industrial Average Lost 150 Points

By Lon Jefferies, MBA CFP™  http://www.NetWorthAdvice.com

Lon JefferiesThe stock market just reached an all time high, crossing 15,000 for the first time.

But, within three minutes during last April 23, 2013, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 150 points, and approximately $136 billion of market value was wiped out. The recovery was just as fast, and markets returned to having a profitable session (both the Dow and the S&P 500 were up over 1% for the day). The crash and recovery both happened so fast that many Americans, and physician-investors, weren’t even aware of the events.

So what happened?

On Tweeting

Believe it or not, the crash was caused by a tweet – a 140 character message posted on Twitter. The Associated Press Twitter account — which has nearly 2 million followers — was hacked and a false tweet of “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is Injured” was posted. The message was quickly debunked by the President’s staff and markets corrected themselves. Both the crash and recovery took place in less than five minutes.

Lessons Learned

Several lessons were learned that day.

First, the power of social media is now undeniable. This was caused by a simple twelve-word lie on the internet. Further, information about the market collapse and recovery were widespread via Twitter and Facebook instantaneously, while the whole episode was over before television networks had a chance to report the events.

Second, it’s amazing how fragile our world is these days. News regarding terrorism has the potential to dramatically affect the market as well as other important aspects of our lives. It’s concerning how the world might respond if the President really was injured. (Interestingly, however, the market didn’t suffer after the Boston Marathon tragedy.)

Third, it is fascinating to examine how different asset categories responded in a time of perceived crisis. Investors build diversified portfolios hoping that when one asset category collapses, another asset class will rally. Some investors swear that gold will be the asset to own when the world struggles. Yet, when the market experienced a flash crash, gold did not rally but treasury bonds and the Japanese Yen did. Gold investors shouldn’t be as confident in their investment after this experience.

Finally, automated trading platforms have become more prevalent in the stock market. These tools execute mandatory, instant sell orders in defined market environments. When the crash occurred, algorithms read headlines and saw the initial market reaction and computers created automatic sell orders at what turned out to be the worst possible time. Traders utilizing automatic trading mechanisms with stop-loss orders suffered exaggerated losses, as they sold right after the market dip and didn’t participate in the recovery. This is a potential weakness of automatic trading that many didn’t recognize.

College Tuition Rising as Stocks are Dropping

Assessment

Why are many physician-investors unaware of this unusual market event? In reality, this drastic swing didn’t affect most investors hoping to improve their retirement. Individuals with a long-term investment strategy built around their risk tolerance don’t need to worry about these types of short-term market errors. At the end of the day, “buy-and-hold” investors had nothing to worry about and came out ahead. Perhaps we should be bragging via Twitter…

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Conclusion

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