A Senate appropriations subcommittee approved the FY2016 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Appropriations Bill.
The committee said its recommendations include several provisions to restrain regulatory overreach by the administration, including the fiduciary rule at the Department of Labor.
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee released a draft fiscal year 2016 funding bill. In a section called “Reducing Harmful Red Tape,” the committee said the “legislation includes several provisions designed to help U.S. businesses create jobs and grow the economy by reducing or eliminating overly burdensome government regulations,” including a provision “prohibiting regulatory changes to the definition of the term ‘Fiduciary.’”
Many financial planners do not think investors need a
strategy when it comes to Social Security and Medicare, according to “The New
Foundation of Retirement Planning: Social Security and Medicare,” a new white
paper from Senior Market Sales (SMS).
However, multiple surveys have shown that more than half of investors expect
their advisers to give “specialized advice on how to maximize Social Security
and incorporate health care costs, including long-term care, in their
retirement plans,” the report says. Currently, only 36% of advisers offer
advice on Social Security and a mere 13% of advisers provide health care advice.
“This presents a major opportunity for advisers and firms that do offer this
specialized advice to differentiate themselves and gain market share,” SMS
says.
An average healthy couple retiring in 2015 will need $366,600 to cover their
health care costs in retirement, SMS says. In 10 years, 98% of an average
couple’s Social Security benefit will be needed to cover health care costs, and
in 20 years, health care costs will exceed the average Social Security payment.
It is no wonder that 63% of people over the age of 50 say their top retirement
financial worry is health care costs.
Many people think Medicare will cover all their health care
costs, but the reality is that it only covers 62%, with private insurance
covering 15% and individuals responsible for 13%. With health care expenses
continuing to grow and the number of retirees also rising, people are going to
be responsible for a greater percentage of the costs, SMS says.
Social Security currently pays a couple an average of
$556,000 in lifetime benefits, SMS says. “If half a million dollars is not
enough to convince today’s financial adviser that Social Security deserves a
seat at the table, then Social Security’s role in the context of Medicare
should,” the insurance marketing firm says. Nearly three in four Americans say
Social Security is their top source of expected retirement income for
out-of-pocket health care costs, according to Nationwide Financial Retirement
Institute.
Advisers should become conversant with the Social Security
and Medicare health plan choices people have, SMS says. “Financial advisers
must be able to provide highly specialized advice and a range of services—and
if the requisite experts aren’t in their own officers, they’ll need to team up
with allied professionals,” the white paper says.
Advisers can register with Senior Market Sales
to download the white paper here.