Advantages of Online Banking

It's a question we get from time to time. Is online banking a good thing? Hi, I'm Rob West. If you're still using the drive-through window at your local bank branch to deposit checks and do other routine banking chores, you really should look into doing more of your banking online to save time and gas. We'll talk about it today, and then it's on to your calls at 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is Faith and Finance Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Once upon a time, going to the bank was a regular part of life in America, but online banking has made most trips to your local branch unnecessary. By the way, there's a difference between online banking and online banks. Online banking is something you can do these days with almost any brick and mortar bank or credit union, although features and services will certainly vary from one financial institution to the other. Online banks, of course, have no brick and mortar branches. They're online only, and with the exception of the ATM networks they use, all transactions with them are online. Okay, that's the difference between online banks and online banking, but the reality is that difference is getting smaller and smaller. The online features of brick and mortar banks really do rival anything that online only banks have. Still, some folks are wondering if we simply won't need brick and mortar banks someday.

We're probably a long way from that. People still need services that only brick and mortar banks can provide, like businesses that have to deposit coins and currency. You can't do that online. There are still 77,500 bank branches in the U.S. That sounds like a lot, but it's actually 12,500 fewer than five years ago. As more and more people do their banking online, traditional banks find they need fewer and fewer branches.

You've probably noticed some of them closing in your area. We'll probably always need brick and mortar banks, just fewer of them. So with both online banks and online banking, it doesn't matter where your bank is, and it also doesn't matter where you are. You can do almost everything that needs doing on your computer or smartphone. Now that's convenience. Just don't ever use public Wi-Fi for your banking or any financial transaction.

It's just too easy for hackers to steal your personal information. Now there's another huge advantage of online banking that few people really think about. If it doesn't matter where the financial institution is, you have the opportunity to select any bank or credit union for your banking needs. You may have chosen a certain bank because they have many branches or even one branch conveniently located along your way home from work. Direct deposit long ago removed the need to stop and deposit a paycheck, but now you can deposit any check with your smartphone. You might ask then, is there really much of a difference between banks? Aren't they all pretty much the same?

Actually, no. Wouldn't it be great to know that your financial institution is supporting Christian values and making a positive change in the world in addition to providing great service? Wouldn't you want to put people over profit?

Not that profit is bad, but it can't be the only priority. Stewardship is about 100% of what God gives us, not just the 10% and the offering plate. What if you could find and support institutions that are faith-based, whose mission is to help Christ followers live and give more abundantly? Online banking can give you faith-aligned options once you choose an institution that aligns with your values. There are a number of great faith-aligned banks and credit unions available today. One example is Christian Community Credit Union, an underwriter of this program. CCCU offers online banking so they can be accessed from anywhere in the country, and they're just a great example of how our banking decisions can make a positive impact for the kingdom. CCCU has donated over $6 million to ministry and mission projects in the US and around the world, and they're using banking to leverage the money their members deposit with them to help construct new church buildings, expand ministries, and help Christian business owners thrive. So if you're looking for a faith-based banking solution that aligns with your beliefs and values, I'd encourage you to consider Christian Community Credit Union.

Plus, each account is insured up to $250,000 by ASI. You can find out more at JoinChristianCommunity.com. That's JoinChristianCommunity.com. By the way, you can find institutions that align with your values in other financial areas as well. In fact, if you'd like to align your values with your investment decisions, we have a whole host of organizations that are underwriters of faith and finance that you can find on our website at FaithFi.com.

Just click on the show. That's FaithFi.com. All right, your calls are next, 800-525-7000. We'll be right back. The opinions offered during this program represent the personal or professional opinions of the participants given for informational purposes only.

Any information provided is not intended to replace advice from a financial, medical, legal or other professional who understands your specific situation. Well, I'm so glad you're along with us today on Faith and Finance live here on Moody Radio. I'm Rob West. We've got some lines open today, although the calls are coming in quickly.

The lines are filling. We'd love to hear from you though. So call right now with your questions on anything financial. The number 800-525-7000.

Again, that's 800-525-7000. We'd like to dive into whatever you're thinking about in your financial life, help you process it through the lens of Scripture and make a great decision so you can move forward with confidence. We started today by talking about the advantages of online banking.

I know this has gained in popularity over the years. And of course, we drew the distinction between online banks and online banking, where you transact business online, whether or not you have a brick or mortar bank. And there are clear advantages, but you need to be on your guard. We're seeing a significant rise in the number of fraudulent activities related to online transactions. And so just be sure you're checking those reports regularly at AnnualCreditReport.com. Be sure you're logging into your financial accounts to look for suspicious information. Enable two-factor authentication. Don't do business on public Wi-Fi. Change those passwords regularly and make them at least 10 characters long. And then finally, don't click those links in emails or ever give out information over the phone to somebody who's contacting you regardless of who they say they represent.

And if we do those things, we at least put ourselves in a position to protect ourselves from some of these more notorious, fraudulent activities going on out there. So just be on your guard. We'll help you along the way. But looking forward to diving into your questions today. So let's do that now.

We're going to begin today in Mason City, Iowa, with Diana. Go right ahead. Yes.

Thank you, Rob, for taking my call. But we have some questions here about putting beneficiaries on our properties and other financial things. And we were wondering, especially about our home deeds that we have, do we need a lawyer to draw up another deed lifting our transfer on death beneficiaries on our deeds? Yeah. Is this for a home that you own in the state of Iowa? Yes, it is a home we have here in the state of Iowa. And we also have a rental property. Okay.

Yeah. Unfortunately, the state of Iowa does not allow transfer on death deeds. And so that's not going to be an option. So you've got a couple of options here because you can't add a beneficiary on the deed of a home. The closest thing is what's called a beneficiary deed or a transfer on death deed.

But those are not available in Iowa. So if you're trying to avoid probate, then you would want to have a trust, a revocable trust drawn up that will transfer ownership of your property to your heirs outside of the probate process, meaning it can happen immediately upon your death. It could even happen prior to your death if you were incapacitated based on the, you know, the provisions of the trust itself. You would name a trustee and that person would facilitate the transfer on a timely basis. It's going to cost you somewhere between fifteen hundred and twenty five hundred dollars typically to to put that trust together. But it will ensure that you will bypass the probate court with regard to the transfer of the property. You know, beyond that, you know, you certainly could use just a basic will, although you are going to have to wait for the probate process to take place, which can happen in weeks or a few months if it's contested.

It could be longer than that. There will be some court costs related to that as well. But those are really your options. OK, so if we would have it in our will, that would be sufficient then to be transferred over.

Oh, absolutely. It would just go through the probate court. So you would name a personal representative. They would petition the court that would start the process.

If it's uncontested and fairly simple, it can move relatively quickly. They would issue a court order and you know, then your personal representative would, you know, take care of transferring the assets. You know, your heirs would then be able to use that court order to get the deed transferred over to their name.

It'll take a little time and a little expense, but absolutely a will will suffice. OK, very good. That will answer our question here. OK, very good. Thank you for calling today, Diana.

We appreciate it. We've got four lines open, 800-525-7000. You can call right now.

Let's go to Montana. Hi, Thelma. Thanks for calling. Go right ahead. Well, hi. And thank you for taking my call. Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. How can I help you? OK, I think you addressed this yesterday, but I didn't catch the ending of your remarks. I would like to know if there's a way to access equity in my home other than a reverse mortgage.

Yeah, Thelma, tell me a little bit more about what you're trying to do. I understand you want to access the equity, but for what purpose? Do you have a home renovation project one time? Is it just to supplement your income?

What are you thinking? To supplement my income. My property taxes have really escalated since I moved here close to 10 years ago. And so I'm on a fixed income. Yes, ma'am. And the increase I get doesn't seem to be actually enough to be able to still live comfortably. I can understand that.

OK, yes, ma'am. I understand that. Well, we've seen some dramatic increases in property, homeowners insurance, auto insurance, not to mention what you're paying at the grocery store. So I certainly get that. And the cost of living adjustments often are not enough in terms of you said instead of a reverse mortgage.

Tell me about that. Is there something in particular you were looking for and why you'd want to avoid a reverse mortgage? Well, it is quite costly with upfront costs to get a reverse mortgage. But is there something like a home equity loan that could do that?

There is. You are still going to have those upfront costs. And the problem with the home equity loan is you're going to have payments on it. So not only will you know you can you pull out a lump sum and does it is it going to continue to grow with interest, but you're going to have payments that at the very minimum will involve you paying the interest every month.

And it could be principal plus interest. So if your goal is to increase cash flow, you know, that's going to be somewhat counterproductive because you're tapping into the home equity and you're adding an additional payment to your budget and you're already squeezed on that fixed income. So I think despite some of those upfront costs, a reverse mortgage really is the tool that, you know, if there's not any other options, you could move and downsize.

You could, you know, look for other, you know, you could tap into other assets. If none of those exist, then a reverse mortgage is nice because you can convert the income you have or the equity you have to an income stream paid to you monthly for the rest of your life. And the government will guarantee that you never owe on that mortgage, that reverse mortgage more than the home is able to satisfy. So you could never get upside down. So at the very least at your death, the home would be sold and whatever balances there would be paid and then the rest would be available for charity or ministry. But the nice thing about the reverse mortgage is you're never going to have a payment.

So you get the systematic payment or the line of credit, in this case, probably the systematic payment, but you never have to add anything to your budget, if that makes sense. Let's do this. I want to talk a bit more off the air because I've got to take a break, but I'll be right back.

Stay with us. Great to have you with us today on Faith and Finance Live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today on anything financial. We've got some lines open, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000. Let's go to Chicago and talk to Larry on WMBI. Go ahead, sir. Hi, Rob. Thank you very much for taking my call. I really enjoy your show.

You really helped me a lot. Quick question. The situation is my daughter and her husband are fairly well off. They have their condominium paid for.

It's worth about $350,000. They're looking to buy a home and they want to stay about $800,000 for a total purchase price. They've got about $300,000 to put down already. They were thinking about selling the condo. I said to them, as I've done many commercial properties myself, I said, don't sell the condo.

Get yourself a loan on the condo and have the loan paid for by renting it out. This way, they can use the equity in the property towards their down payment and knock the down payment of their new residence down to something a lot more manageable than what it would be otherwise. They're a little concerned about how that would all shake out.

I assured them that I've done this many times myself. I think that it's a good way to go. I was just hoping to get your opinion on it. The tax breaks for having a commercial property. If the interest rates do go lower, you can always refinance and take more cash out. Like I said, though, I don't want them to get a line of credit.

I want them to get a home equity loan for a fixed rate. Your thoughts? Yeah, let me just make sure I understand the situation.

I appreciate the background, Larry. That was helpful. The home they're looking to buy, you said they're looking to pay about $800,000. Is that right? Yeah, that's probably going to be a minimum. The way things are, it's probably closer to $900,000. Okay, so let's say it's $900,000. What did you say they have available in cash to put toward the purchase without selling the condo?

About $300,000. All right, and they were planning on putting the whole thing against it? Yes, and they still have enough for emergency funds and so forth.

Great. All right, so you said they put $300,000 down on $900,000, so about a third, which is great. Even though it's still a jumbo loan at $600,000, they're putting down 33%. Now, let's say their interest rate is 7.5. I mean, we're talking a pretty hefty mortgage payment. Have they looked at that just in terms of that's probably all in somewhere around $3,000 a month, I would gather, between property taxes, homeowners insurance, and the principal and interest. Do you know whether that fits in their budget, and I'd be looking for that to be no more than 25% of their take-home pay? Yeah, we've already done that budgeting numbers, and their maximum they can spend is $4,500 a month. They're within the range. They make good money.

They're educated people, and they're good people. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so now let's flip over to what you're suggesting. What's the value of that condo? I would say it's probably right around $325,000 to $350,000, and it's paid for.

And it's paid for. Okay, very good. So obviously, if they sold it, which was their original plan, now they're putting down $600,000 and a quarter on a $900,000 home, and they got a much lower mortgage payment. But you're suggesting don't sell it, keep it, rent it out. But you're also saying that you should get a loan against it and put that toward the new property in addition to the $300,000, is that right?

Yes, that's my suggestion. I understand that because it will be a rental, then, that they won't be able to get the full amount for a loan as if they had a mortgage, because I guess that's classified now as a commercial loan. So they would probably be down around, I would say probably about $250,000 to $275,000, being that it would be now a commercial property.

Yeah, okay. And are you looking for them to be able to deduct the interest? Is that why you're wanting them to do that? Well, that's so much to deduct the interest.

My whole goal for them is to build wealth. And if they hang on to the condo and rent it, and essentially the loan on the condo and its costs are covered by a tenant, which they could probably get about three grand to $3,200 a month for from the numbers that I ran in that area. To me, it's a wash.

It's almost like a no brainer. Somebody's handing you $325,000 and somebody else is going to pay for it and you're building equity in your condo. I mean, I really don't see a downside.

That's what I'm trying to do. Right. No, I hear you, but I guess I'm wondering why, if they're ready to be landlords and they've got the financial wherewithal to do it, and you said they do, why not just keep that property free and clear, go ahead and rent it, still buy the new place, put down the $300,000, go and get the $600,000 loan that they can more than cover because you said they could go up to $4,500 and I'm guessing it's going to be about $3,000 a month. And then take that surplus cash flow that they're throwing off because they're going to get a better rate on their primary residence than they are in the investment property for the loan. Take that cash flow that they're throwing off and use that to pay down the primary mortgage. Oh, I see what you're saying. In other words, just use the monthly rental that you're getting to add to the monthly payment.

On the new primary residence. Yes, yes, I understand. I'm just concerned that the jumbo loan is going to be so much higher in that regard, as opposed to, instead of being a $600,000 loan, they'd have a $300,000 loan.

Yeah, yeah. You know, I think it's probably going to be a wash. The difference between, I think actually the jumbo rate is going to be less than the rate on the investment property, which is going to be a secondary residence. So they could look at that, but I'm more inclined to them, you know, to keep, get the mortgage the way they were planning currently. And then let's just use all that extra cash flow to throw it off and accelerate the mortgage payoff. And the fact that they're down under 20% of their take-home pay on that mortgage, even though it's at $3,000 a month, you know, is going to, you know, something they can still carry, even if they don't have a renter, but I think they're going to be better off with that approach.

So I think one of the two would be perhaps the way to go, but I kind of like and think that on paper, using the, owning it free and clear on the investment property is the better option. Thanks for your call, Larry. We'll be right back.

Hey, thanks for joining us today on faith and finance live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today. We've got some lines open 800-525-7000 is the number to call. Let's go to Connersville, Indiana. Hi, Randy. Go right ahead. Thank you, sir.

Take my calls. I was just asking, I told your screener, I sold my mom's house yesterday. Wasn't very much money. But there never was a former will. She put it in mine and hers name years ago and then passed away. And then I went into my name and my wife's name. And my brother lived in it for the last 12 or 15 years under a life estate. And he passed away about a month ago.

And it come back to my name. So we went ahead and sold the house. But I have another brother that we're splitting this money down the middle. And my concern was capital gain tax. And I was just wondering how that worked.

Yeah, very good. Well, you have a stepped up in basis that happens at the date of death. So the new cost basis to determine capital gains is stepped up to the market value as of the date of death. And then from that point forward, if you turn around and sell it, you really wouldn't have any capital gains. If you hang on to it and it appreciates in value, then you certainly would.

And that would be both at the federal and the state level, depending on where you live. But that, you know, are you selling it right on the heels of receiving this through the inheritance? Well, we sold it. My mother's been passed for 10 years now. We're selling it on the heels of getting my brother off of the life estate.

Like I said, there never was really a form of will. But the amount of money I sold this whole house for 75,000 and I'm splitting this with my middle brother, which would be 35, 36, whatever. And I think the threshold for gain is like 44,000 here in Indiana, I don't know. And I was advised just to put the check in the bank for the house and write my brother a personal check and put in the memo section, proceed half of this house. And I shouldn't have anything to worry about. Yeah. So the life estate helped me understand that. So it was obviously that's a joint form of ownership where it was your mother and your brother on the life estate.

Is that right? It was my mother's and I put him on a life estate. I had a lawyer draw it up in a whole nine yards where he could live there as long as his natural life.

Let him live there. Okay. And he passed away about a month ago.

And then I had to go to the courthouse and get an affidavit. Remove it back to where it would pass back to me. Okay. And so he was the owner solely of the property during his life? No, he never did. He never did own it. Okay.

Yeah. So what we've got to determine is what portion of the capital gain you're responsible for. And it sounds like and this is what you need to confirm with the CPA. It sounds like you're going to be responsible for the gain in the property from the date of her death, which you said goes back 10 years. And so if this property is sold in 2024, depending on do you file taxes as a single person or married? My wife and I do. Okay.

Yeah. So married filing jointly between $94,000 and $583,000 in taxable income, you'll have a 15% capital gain rate on any of the gains that you have, assuming that's calculated back as of your mom's date of death, you know, a decade or so ago. If you have less than $94,000 in income for 2024, the capital gains rate is zero. And if you have more than $583,000 in income, it goes up to 20%. So it sounds like for at least your portion of the property that you owned, you would be responsible for the capital gains on the gain from her date of death to the sale. That's what I was asking because the house sold for 75,000.

I'm splitting it right down the middle with my brother, which would leave us like 3567 thousand a piece. And that's why I say I don't know where the threshold is for capital gains starting. It doesn't have anything to do with there is no threshold starts on the first dollar of the gain. It has to do with your income. And then you apply the appropriate capital gains rate based on your income to whatever that gain is starting with dollar one. So what was the value of this property that you just sold for 75,000 when your mom passed?

Do you have any idea? I would say 75,000. So it hasn't appreciated at all in 10 years? Not really because you know, they were old, they just lived there and they done their day one improvements this that and the other, but there never was any capital improvement in it.

Right. But the capital gain is the appreciation of the market value of the property itself. So I mean, real estate is up dramatically over the last 1210 years. I'd be hard pressed even if you did nothing to it unless it was in the state of disrepair that it hasn't appreciated regardless of whether they put a lot of money in it. Okay, I understand what you're saying there.

Yeah. So what I what you would need to do is go back and establish the market value as of the date of death. And then assuming your CPA says yes, you're responsible for all the capital gains, you would subtract the selling price from the purchase or from the market value as of her date of death. And that's going to help you determine how much capital gain do we really have between that market value as of the date of death and our selling price. And then you would apply your appropriate capital gain rate to the portion that you owned.

And if you owned it all, and you're given half of it to your brother, well, he'd have to pay, you know, you'd have to discount how much you give him by the amount of the taxes that he's responsible for, for 50% of the property. But it starts on the first dollar, it just has to do with how much gain has occurred since the step up in basis if you follow me. Right. I got you. That's what I was wondering. Yep, very good.

So I would check with your your CPA on that. Yes, sir. Glad to take it, Randy. And thanks for your kind remarks.

Quickly to a Youngstown. Lynn, thanks for your patience. Go ahead.

Hi, thanks. A couple questions from mobile banking kind of do you do you like having the apps and working through the banks and mobile mobile banking and also cash transfers like Zenmo versus Zelle or PayPal? Yeah, what's your you know, I really I mean, they're all about the same. They're generally considered as long as you stay with the big brand name Zelle Venmo PayPal cash app. They're generally considered safe to use. I mean, they all use data encryption and security measures to protect your account transactions. A lot of them share, you know, an aggregator in terms of when you're logging into your bank, you're using a third party. So for instance, I know Venmo and perhaps one other uses Plaid, which is the one of the biggest in the in the world. And so they don't store your personal information.

And they have all the latest, you know, safety features. So I think for that reason, I'm comfortable with it. But with any of these, you need to keep up with your, you know, logging into the account and watching the transactions just to make sure nobody compromises your account, which can happen at your bank or in a in one of these payment apps like Venmo or Zelle.

And so that's where you're just always looking for potential fraudulent transactions, things that you don't recognize. Does that make sense? Yep, great. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for your call, Lynn. By the way, I'll go back to the things I mentioned before.

You know, anytime we're doing online banking, some best practices, long passwords, 10 characters or more, change them regularly, check your credit reports, check those financial accounts, freeze your credit, don't use public Wi Fi, and don't click links on emails or give out information for people that call you over the phone, even if they say they're with the IRS. We'll be right back. I'm so glad you're joining us for faith and finance live. I'm Rob West. We're taking your calls and questions today.

800-525-7000. Hey, do you find value in this program? Do you consider yourself a part of the faith five family? Well, if so, let me invite you into a really important group of people that really help us make this happen every day. It's what we call our faith five partners. So these are folks that are committed to our work here. They want to see others be blessed by God's wisdom for financial decision making.

They found some value in this. They want to stay up to date with the ministry and all that God is doing here. And so our partner program is for those folks who say, listen, I want to stand with you financially and on a monthly basis of at least thirty five dollars a month or more. And for that group, we're going to do several things. We keep them up to date on all of the latest developments in the ministry with a quarterly update that's exclusive to our faith five partners.

In addition to that, we send them a pre-release copy of all of our new resources. So, you know, we just came out with our new four week study, Rich Toward God. Our next resource is coming out in July and it's a twenty one day devotion called Look at the Sparrow. It's an incredible twenty one day devotion on fear and anxiety related to money taking you into scripture, providing you with really an encouraging daily walk over three weeks.

We're working on our new study for the fall on the Book of Ecclesiastes. All of these studies and devotions will be delivered to your door as a faith five partner before they're available to everyone else. And on top of that, we give you a discount on faith by pro in the faith by app. We'd love for you to consider being one of our faith five partners. Again, it would be a critical piece of our work to continue to bring you this broadcast every day. And it's simple and easy to do. Just head to faith five dot com and click give.

That's faith f i dot com and click give. All right. Let's head back to the phones.

We're gonna go to Chicago next and talk to Lewis. Go ahead, sir. Yes, hello. Thank you. I had a general question for this.

It's my friend. She had her parents pass away. Her dad ran a business and for some reason she has not received her. I guess whatever was in the will of the trust. So the question is, she had a her dad had a former business partner.

I'm wondering if that could interfere. The business partner was old. Was old. Sorry, old. Any money? Yeah, that's it.

Yeah, that's a great question. I'm sorry to hear about that. You know, it's probably just stuck in probate, which is the legal process of validating the will and administering the estate. It can take time, often several months or more. But if we're, you know, years down the road, then obviously something is awry here and it's worth anybody who is an heir or a beneficiary of any part of the estate to ask for an update from the probate court or better yet, the personal representative. Do you know who's been named personal representative on this estate? Do I know? No, I can't say I do.

Okay. Well, that would be an important thing to determine. And that would be a part of the probate court documents.

And that's part of the public record. If someone can test the will or if there's disputes among the beneficiaries regarding the interpretation of the wills provisions, I mean, those, among other things, can significantly prolong the proceedings. And if it includes complex assets like a business or properties in different states or extensive investments, it's, you know, that can slow it down through the inventorying process and the appraisals that have to be done. So the executor is responsible for settling any outstanding debts and taxes, which may require liquidating assets. That, of course, can be time consuming. So, you know, it also can stem from the executor's performance. So if the executor is not fulfilling their duties efficiently or correctly because they're just inexperienced or there's personal issues or they don't understand properly their responsibilities, then that can slow it down as well.

And so I would have that individual that is concerned about this petition the court for an update on the status of the proceeding and find out who that personal representative and see if they can get more information that way. Okay. Thank you very much.

All right, Lewis. Appreciate that. Absolutely, sir. Thank you for your call. We appreciate it.

Let's go to Boca Raton. Hi, Renee. Go ahead. Hi, how are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for calling.

My question is this. I live alone and I'm single. I have about $100,000 in a liquid savings account that I know I need to do something with. And I'm working 69 years old, collecting Social Security and do not want to stop working. What can I do with with this money that so that if I ever got sick, it would the government wouldn't take it for me because I don't have any Medicaid. I just have a Medicare Advantage plan.

Yeah. Well, Medicaid would step in automatically, Renee, if you spent your assets down below the threshold of $2,000. And so once you get down below that threshold, then Medicaid would automatically kick in.

And if you needed to, you needed care and you had to rely on Medicaid to do that, then you'd have to go to a Medicaid approved facility. And so there's really nothing you need to do other than just make sure you are well planned, you know, with regard to your estate plan. So do you have a valid will, for instance?

You know, do you have a health care surrogate named? Do you have a durable power of attorney if for some reason you were incapacitated and, you know, you needed somebody to make decisions on your behalf? I mean, those are the kinds of things that you need to have in place. And I wouldn't be concerned about, you know, necessarily protecting, quote unquote, your assets. I mean, if you get to the place where you need expensive care and long term care can be expensive, you would have to spend down your assets. And then at some point, once they were nearly complete depleted, then that's where Medicaid would stick would would kick in. OK, OK, so I'll get all this in order and go from there.

Yeah, I think that's right. And I would find a godly estate attorney there in Boca. If you don't have one, you can reach out to a certified kingdom adviser and ask for a referral. They would all have a Christian estate attorney that they work with.

This is a key part of helping their clients just managing their financial affairs. So you could go to our website at faithfi.com. That's faithfi.com. Right there at the top of the page is find a professional and you could put in a zip code search and any one of those men or women, you could call them and say, I listen to faith and finance.

I need a godly estate attorney and they'll give you a name and number. Well, many thanks. I appreciate it. You're welcome, today. Thanks for your call today. Let's go to Kurt.

It looks like Kirtland, Ohio. Hi, Millie. Go ahead.

Hi, Rob. Thank you for taking my call. This is in regards to a long term health insurance policy that I have with John Hancock. I took it out several years ago and it had gotten up to, at this point, $29,147 in paid up policy. When I purchased it, it was $300 a quarter. And I remember him saying it hadn't gone up in years and years and years.

And I know everything is going up now. But in the past couple years now, it's gone up to $388 a quarter. Now, I just got a paper saying that as of July 1, it's going to go up to $480 a quarter. And that's not even the worst of it when you're on social security and attention. Then in 2025, it's going up to $593 a quarter. And then July 31, 2026, it's going up to $734. And it's like, obviously, they're allowed to do this legally.

But what they're doing is they're, you know, getting people at a certain age in life where it's like, this is crazy. You either drop it or you go broke paying it. As far as I can see, that's why I'm calling you because I do listen to you every day. So my son was telling me that I do not even have an option to sell this to somebody because it's not that kind of insurance.

Most insurance is you can, but this one is not. So I'd like to know what you have to say about this. What do I do? Yeah, well, it's a real challenge, Millie. And I get that. And, you know, the cost of of health care, as you know, is just rising dramatically and these policies are increasing along with it. And as a result, a lot of folks are in the same position you are. They're not able to, you know, underwrite these. Once you have them, they can increase the policies policyholder by policyholder.

They have to do it in the aggregate and they petition the state for the increases based on their real costs, which are real. I mean, the cost of health care is going up dramatically and you're bearing the brunt of that. So what do you do?

Well, at some point, I mean, I would I would keep it as long as you can. What are your options? Well, if you're able to pay the increased premium, then you keep your current level of coverage.

No other action is required. Option two is adjust your coverage. So you could call them and say, listen, I can't afford this.

So let's talk about, you know, something is better than nothing. And so how could I have less coverage and reduce my benefits and therefore reduce or maintain my premium? And, you know, that's going to allow you to, you know, maybe, you know, these are often measured in the terms of, you know, the daily benefit amount or the waiting period before benefits kick in or shortening the duration of the coverage. You know, so instead of paying out for, you know, four years, it caps at three years. So I think, you know, that would be the second option. The third is you just tell them that you want to, you know, pull out the the paid up value. And so a lot of folks, when it gets beyond affordability, they'll choose the payout option last laps, the policy, and then they'll send you a check for the paid up option. And then you could just kind of stick that on the side and have it there. Unfortunately, there's not a great choice here.

So I think you need to sit down, crunch the numbers, contact the insurance company and see by reducing benefits what that would mean in terms of your ability to at least hang on to something to offset this need if you have it down the road. I've got to run, Millie, but thanks for your call today. Faith in Finance Live is a partnership between Moody Radio and FaithFi. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye bye.