Bupa, nueva línea de productos.

El día de ayer tuvimos la oportunidad de asistir al seminario de la nueva linea de productos de Bupa. Entre las características novedosas podemos mencionar:
1.- Los productos no tienen coaseguro.
2.- Opción de deducible $00.00 en el país de origen.
3.- Máximo de 2 deducibles por año, por familia.
4.- Los deducibles incurridos en los últimos 3 meses (año póliza), aplican para el próximo año.
5.- En lo que respecta a la suscripción de negocios, existen 3 posibilidades; extraprimar, copago únicamente para la condición en cuestión o excluir la condición. Todo con el ánimo de acpetar al prospecto.
6.- Deportes peligrosos estan cubiertos. En el plan complete, incluso para quienes los practican profesionalmente.
7.- Maternidad no aplica deducible (10 meses de período de espera)
8.- Los rangos de cambio de primas son cada 5 años, y de los 70 a los 75 años es anual y de los 75 años en adelante ya no hay cambio de rango.

Estas son algunas de las características de la nueva linea de productos.

50 Ways I Can Improve Myself

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Physically
1. Simple food, quality, quantity.
2. Regularity in eating and sleep.
3. Masticate (means chew your food); leave table hungry.
4. We are a part of all we have eaten.
5. Exercise, five minutes, three times daily.
6. Air — most important.
7. Sunlight, artificial light.
8. Water inside and outside.
9. Loose clothing.
10. Early to sleep; get plenty.

Mentally
1. Think sanely.
2. Learn from mental superiors.
3. Learn to listen attentively.
4. Read best newspapers and books.
5. Improve the memory.
6. Concentrate.
7. Don’t worry unnecessarily.
8. Be systematic.
9. Weigh both sides.
10. Avoid inferior minds.

Morally
1. Right is right, wrong is wrong.
2. Be truthful.
3. Ignore precedent if wrong.
4. Seek elevating recreation.
5. Don’t deceive yourself.
6. Learn to say “no.”
7. Live up to your principles.
8. Avoid temptation.
9. Form good habits.
10. Have a constitution.

Financially
1. Increase my earnings.
2. Decrease unnecessary expense.
3. Save money, U.S. Postal Bank.
4. Money makes money.
5. Invest — don’t gamble.
6. Make family budget.
7. Hard work.
8. Study the business.
9. Pay cash for everything.
10. Increase credit balance.

Socially
1. Avoid bad associates.
2. Select helpful friends.
3. Think alone.
4. Learn to be happy alone.
5. Family best company.
6. Work out, alone, my problems.
7. Avoid so-called society.
8. Entertain economically.
9. Stand well with neighbors.
10. Do some welfare work.

Napoleon Hill

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Napoleon Hill’s Six Ways to Turn Desire Into Gold:

1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. it is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness.)

2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.”)

3. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.

4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put his plan into action.

5. Write out a clear, concise statement of th eamount of money you ntend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.

6. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night, and once after arising in the morning. As you read—seeand feel and believe yourself already in possession of the money.

All the steps are necessary. What’s cool about this method is that it can be used for accomplishing anything, not just the attainment of money. I could see this applied to goals like losing weight, training for a marathon, getting a degree, etc.

Nueva linea de Productos

En este link pueden encontrar los folletos de la nueva linea de productos de Bupa.

Gift Cards, can cover Insurance and Medical Fees

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Well Wishes: Highmark's Gift Cards Can Cover Insurance, Medical Fees
by Kris Maher
Monday, November 12, 2007

Wondering what to give your aunt this Christmas? How about paying for her next trip to the chiropractor?

Pittsburgh health insurer Highmark Inc. is selling a Healthcare Visa Gift Card from $25 to $5,000 to cover prescription co-payments, elective surgery, contact lenses and gym membership.

The cards can be used only at providers or merchants that Visa categorizes as health related, including physician's offices, pharmacies and health clubs.

The cards aren't available at grocery or retail stores -- they can only be purchased online or by calling a toll-free number.

Highmark believes that the card fills a need for many people who want to help others -- from college students to baby boomers -- with various expensive health-related needs, but feel uncomfortable about offering cash.

"There's something about a gift card," said Kim Bellard, vice president of e-marketing and customer relations at the insurer, which is marketing the card as a stocking stuffer or as a year-round gift. "They view it as a present, not as charity."

In the case of college students, an added appeal is that students would have to use the card for health expenses, rather than using the funds to buy clothes or an iPod, for instance. "You would give this card if you want to make sure that they have funds for health-related purchases," Mr. Bellard said.

The popularity of gift cards has soared in recent years, as restaurants and specialty stores have begun selling them at supermarkets and other high- traffic retail outlets.

During last year's holiday shopping season, gift-card sales rose by 32% to $25 billion, according to the National Retail Federation, an industry group located in Washington.

Some health-care experts expect the card to have only limited appeal.

"I assume there will be a demand for it, but it's a niche product," said William Custer, director of the Center for Health Services Research at Georgia State University in Atlanta.

Highmark expects to sell "several hundred thousand" gift cards, mostly between $75 and $100, during the next year, Mr. Bellard said.

The company is initially marketing the product in Pennsylvania, but expects to expand nationwide at some point in the future.

Highmark administers health plans that cover 4.6 million people.

The Highmark gift card, which contains the Visa logo, is issued by Meta Financial Group Inc.'s MetaBank, a bank and prepaid-card issuer in Sioux Falls, S.D., through a licensing agreement with Visa Inc.'s Visa USA Inc.

Each card has a fee of $4.95, plus shipping and handling.
Copyrighted, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Target Date Indices

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Business Wire - Press Release
Zacks Launches Lifecycle Indices
10.01.07, 12:25 PM ET

Zacks Investment Research, Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of industry's first lifecycle index series. In a lifecycle program, investors simply select the fund whose target date best matches the year they plan to access their money and the rest is on autopilot. At inception, lifecycle balances have a relatively aggressive equities tilt. Then, as the pre-set target date approaches, assets gradually move along a risk "glidepath" towards more conservative fixed income positions. At all points along the glidepath, assets are prudently diversified by sector, capitalization, duration, and country.

The following are the Zacks target date indices: -0- *T Zacks 2040 Lifecycle Index Zacks 2030 Lifecycle Index Zacks 2020 Lifecycle Index Zacks 2010 Lifecycle Index Zacks At Target Lifecycle Index *T

Lifecycle funds have grown in popularity among retirement plan participants, goal-based planners, and more recently, federal regulators, because they remove investor emotions from key reallocation and asset selection decisions. While Zacks agrees that such control of human behavior improves investment outcomes, the firm notes that: -0- *T 1) Most managers assume their lifecycle funds will be used only for retirement planning. Since these glidepaths target actuarial life expectancies, they carry very high levels of risk as stated maturity dates approach. 2) In 401(k) and other qualified retirement plan markets, there is growing demand for lifecycle vehicles that are free of conflicts of interest. *T

Retirement and More: According to Michael Case Smith of the Zacks Index and Allocation Group, "The industry average allocation to equities in 2010 funds is 52%. That may be the right answer for a Monte Carlo simulation but the wrong one for investors with three years to go before they fund a retirement annuity, a vacation home, education, a wedding, or long-term medical care." As target dates near, people care more about return of capital than return on capital, regardless of what computer models say." To solve the problem, Zacks applies proprietary risk utility methodologies to traditional computer simulations for allocations that "work" for the majority of investors at each segment of the reallocation glidepath.

Conflict Free Investing: The Zacks indices are unique because they will be the basis of the industry's first securities-based lifecycle program. With no conflicts of interest or fee layering from sub-sector ETFs or proprietary mutual funds, this securities-based lifecycle program is well suited for 401(k) investing. A securities-based lifecycle program reduces plan sponsor exposure to lawsuits because it complies with the new Pension Protection Act regulations at the highest levels.

Potential index constituents include U.S. equities, international equities, and domestic bonds. The index constituent selection methodology utilizes proprietary selection rules to identify stocks and bonds with risk/return profiles consistent with general market benchmarks. The indexes are adjusted quarterly, or as required, to assure timely constituent selections. The Zacks Lifecycle Indices are published by the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker symbols TDAXTN, TDAXTW, TDAXTH, TDAXFO, TDAXIT.

About Zacks

The Zacks Lifecycle Indices(TM) complement the firm's alpha-generating quantitative indices used in yield, growth & income, sector rotation, international, style box and market-cap specific products.

Founded in 1978, Zacks Investment Research has more than 25 years of experience in providing institutional and individual investors with the analytical tools and financial information necessary to the success of their investment process. Zacks created the first earnings estimate revision model and originated the concept of the Earnings Surprise. Today, Zacks' models process over 25,000 earnings estimate revisions and changes in broker recommendations weekly from over 200 brokerage firms, produced by more than 3,500 analysts. As one of the top market data and proprietary investment model providers, Zacks clients include some of the most widely known institutions in the financial industry.

$12,106.00 prima promedio de un plan médico familiar

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Health Insurance Costs Rise Again
By Michelle Andrews
Posted September 14, 2007

Health insurance premiums rose more slowly in 2007 than at any other time since 1999, but the 6.1 percent increase still outstripped the rises in workers' wages (3.7 percent) and inflation (2.6 percent), according to a study released this week. There's no relief in sight for workers, who paid almost $3,300 on average for family coverage this year. Forty-five percent of employers polled say they're likely to increase employee premiums next year, with a significant number reporting they plan to increase employee deductibles, copayments, and drug contributions as well.

The annual survey of employer-sponsored plans, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust, has charted the upward trend in healthcare costs for years. "There's no tipping point at which health insurance becomes scientifically unaffordable," Kaiser President Drew Altman said at a press conference announcing the survey results. "But we have reached a point where it's become more unaffordable for more employers and workers."

This year's survey found that the average family policy cost $12,106, a 78 percent increase since 2001. (The typical single policy cost $4,479 in 2007.) In the past six years, the amount that families pay out of pocket in premiums has increased by about $1,500. One of the consequences of higher health insurance costs, Altman noted, has been the rise in the number of uninsured, which reached 47 million in 2006, a 5 percent increase over the previous year.

Although premium costs are widely used to gauge health plan affordability, other expenses can also take big bites out of workers' wallets. In 2007, the average family-plan deductible ranged from $759 in health maintenance organization plans to $3,596 in high-deductible health plans with a savings account option. Copayments for office visits with doctors in the health plan's network ranged from $18 to $30 on average, depending on the type of plan and doctor.

These other costs are likely to rise next year, too, according to the survey. Forty-four percent of employers said they're likely to increase how much employees pay for prescription drugs. An additional 37 percent said they planned to increase deductibles, and 42 percent said they plan to increase copayments for office visits. The good news, such as it is: Only 3 percent of companies said they were very or somewhat likely to drop coverage altogether.

About 158 million people receive health coverage through their employer. The 2007 Kaiser/HRET study surveyed more than 3,000 randomly selected companies with more than three workers.

The Bush administration has touted health savings accounts, which it says could help bring healthcare costs under control. But employers don't seem to have bought that argument. This year, just 10 percent of companies offered high-deductible health plans with a savings option, which covered about 5 percent of workers. Twenty-four percent of companies said they're at least somewhat likely to offer this type of plan next year. "The [moderate rise] in premiums hasn't pushed employers to make changes as quickly as they might have otherwise," said study coauthor Gary Claxton, a vice president at Kaiser. "But insurers are still trying to sell these. It's really their only new thing. Over the next few years we'll see if it picks up."

10 tips para un discurso exitoso

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Free Articles

3/22/2006
Ten MUSTS For a Successful Speech
Stephan Schiffman

New York, NY (March 14th): Fear of public speaking ranks high on nearly every study of common anxieties -- higher even than the fear of death!

As someone who has delivered hundreds of speeches before groups of all kinds, and trained many people to do the same, I have some insights on this. What people really fear is not so much public speaking itself as the possibility of being unprepared for a speech.

If you prepare well, you will eliminate most of the fear. Here are the ten “MUSTS” for a successful speech. Cover all ten, and you will be well prepared for the big event.

1. You MUST use humor to establish rapport with the audience very early on in the speech -- and preferably self-deprecating humor. (Abraham Lincoln was once accused of being two-faced. Lincoln replied, “If I had two faces, do you think this is the one I’d be wearing?” )

2. You MUST know your audience and match your content to their world.

3. You MUST know your material thoroughly. In other words, you must practice delivering the major points, in the order you want to cover them, preferably in front of people such as family or friends. (Doing this ahead of time will also help you identify what should be eliminated from the speech.) Consider making an audio or video of your speech and reviewing it closely before you deliver it to a “live” group.

4. You MUST know your own strengths and weaknesses as a speaker. Make sure you are emphasizing your strengths during the speech.

5. You MUST wear appropriate attire for the occasion.

6. You MUST project comfort and confidence to the audience. Erect posture and the ability to take deep breaths is a part of this. Do not confuse “confidence” with “arrogance”—being able to admit that you do not know something, or that you made an error about something, will usually win you attention and interest.

7. You MUST use appropriate body language – hand gestures, walking, spreading your arms – to retain visual interest from the audience.

8. You MUST speak comprehensibly. If this is a problem according to other people who listen to you practice delivering your speech, make a conscious choice to slow down and enunciate. Find ways to remind yourself of this during the speech.

9. You MUST speak loudly enough to be heard by everyone. (If you don’t have a microphone, pitch your voice so that the person in the back of the room will hear what you’re saying.)

10. You MUST speak with enthusiasm and conviction. If the audience does not believe that you believe what you’re saying, they will tune out.

STEPHAN SCHIFFMAN is the president of D.E.I., one of the largest sales training companies in the U.S. He is the author of a number of best-selling books including Cold Calling Techniques (That Really Work!), and The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Effective Salespeople, and Stephan Schiffman’s Telesales. Schiffman’s writings have appeared in many publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and INC. magazine. He has appeared as a guest on CNBC’s “Minding Your Business,” “How to Succeed in Business,” and “Smart Money,” among many other programs. Mr. Schiffman holds degrees from Ithaca College and Cornell, and has taught at New York University, Marymount Collge, and Adelphi University. He is a past president of the New York City Chamber of Commerce.

Herramienta interesante de Fidelity

My Plan

¿Busca una renta mensual?

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Fidelity recently introduced a new kind of mutual fund called an income replacement fund. This kind of fund is managed with the goal in mind of maximizing income by balancing growth investing, income investing, and a return of principal.

They give an example in this video of a woman who wants to invest $100,000 for 20 years. Her average monthly income from her $100,000 investment is $540. Here’s a look at her projected monthly income based on the year:


It’s important to note that these monthly income payments ARE NOT guaranteed. That said, the funds are designed based on the time horizon. In other words, as time progresses, the funds become more conservative. These funds carry an expense ratio around .61%, which isn’t too bad especially when you consider the expenses on most annuities that are designed to do essentially the same thing but with some guarantees.

I think this is an interesting concept that is only going to get more popular. In fact, I read last week in the Wall Street Journal that Vanguard is planning their own versions of income replacement funds called “Managed Payout Funds.” From the article:

Vanguard filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week to launch Managed Payout Real Growth, Managed Payout Moderate Growth and Managed Payout Capital Preservation.

Vanguard’s expense ratio on these funds is expected to be around .34% or roughly half of what Fidelity charges.

This is only the beginning…