Financial Frontlines®

Yes, there it is on the back of your card, in the Medical block, under “EXP DATE.” Before Tricare for Life, the expiration date indicated when you dropped off the Tricare Prime or Standard rolls upon turning age 65. But now we have Tricare For Life for folks 65 and over and the expiration date still exists.

The processes used for issuing military ID cards do not allow for an “indefinite” or blank input in the expiration block. The costs for changing the systems are prohibitive. So a date will continue to be printed for the foreseeable future as the DOD hashes out the options.

The DOD Tricare Management Activity is aware of the issue and has passed the word to all contracted health providers and military treatment facilities. These agencies have been told to not pay as much attention to the ID card as to their on-line DEERS eligibility systems. DEERS has your most current eligibility information.

Of course being a very large organization, the health service community, someone will not get the word and occasionally deny a military retiree service based on the expired ID card date. If this should happen to you, ask the service provider to perform an interactive DEERS query rather than rely on the ID card information. Have your Medicare Part A and B card at the ready.

For those of you who have been asked if you have a will and had to lower your eyes and say “no”, rejoice I have good news for you!  You no longer have to say “no”, because you do have a will…you just don’t know about it.  You see, if you die without a will, your state will provide one for you.  Now, before you get too happy, think about the last time you went to the DMV.  The folks who work there are fine, but let’s face it; the system doesn’t really adjust to individual circumstances or move with much quickness.  So, what am I talking about, exactly?

When you die without a will, you die intestate.  States have laws on the books that determine what will be done with your things and for your family if you die intestate.  No big deal then, right?  Well, not exactly.  You would think that if you die intestate your spouse would inherit your estate.  You’d be wrong.  In some states your spouse would have to split the estate with your children (3 kids = 25% of you estate for your spouse).  In others, your spouse would have to split the estate with your parents.  Or let’s say you have a child with special needs.  Surely, your special needs child would be taken care of and would inherit a larger portion of your estate.  Afraid not, all children are equal in the eyes of the state.  Always wanted to have your name on a plaque at the football stadium at “your” college recognizing your generous donation?  Keep wishing.  State intestate laws don’t allow for it.  Finally, if you die intestate and the state can’t find a qualified heir, the state will just keep the estate for itself.  Now as a word of warning all 50 states are different and I highly recommend you talk to a qualified estate planning attorney to determine the peculiarities of your state and determine the actions you should take.

None of us like to draft a will…we think if we do, we’ll die.  And actually we are correct.  Of course, if we don’t draft a will, we’ll die as well.  Since you don’t really need a will the question isn’t “Do you have a will?”; it is “Are you satisfied with the will you have?”…whether you designed it or the state did. 

A favorite movie quote of mine comes from Jurassic Park when the Samuel L. Jackson character Ray Arnold states “Hold on to your butts.” to foretell the coming chaos.  So understated yet so true.  The next few days of economic news and resulting market impacts will be rocky so you may want to heed Ray Arnold’s advice.

We now understand that no one at the higher levels of the financial world could predict or identify the levels of risk associated with the questionable credit being approved at the lowest levels.  The investment banks and federal regulators were clueless about the risks and the size of the problem.  The investment banks were creating investment products for us without fully understanding the nature of the loans in their products.

It appears the people who had the best feel for the imminent danger were the individuals taking out the loans and the loan officers who approved the loans.  But at their level, they had no idea of the scope of the problem they were creating for the nation.  Unfortunately as usual people were driven by greed and ignorance.  Greed in that loan companies and officers wanted the commissions and the individuals wanted their loan at any costs.  Ignorance in that some individuals may not have fully understood the risks associated with their loans but they took the chance.  So we had the makin’s of a nasty brew.  How much credit of other types, credit cards, personal loans, equity loans, etc., exists that is teetering on the edge of failure?  Other than credit cards, hopefully the people behind the loans have been more responsible in who they approved for credit.  Who’s behind the helm on the credit cards?  Remember when you had to apply for a credit card and being approved was not automatic?

Over the five years or so prior to 2008, everyones’ brother and sister were getting into the mortgage broker business.  Maybe the future should include regulations making it tougher to be a financial professional / firm who works directly with the public.    The pros have to know better and be responsible for maintaining a solid financial foundation for their organizations even if it means turning away possible profits and saying “no” to us citizens when we want what we can’t afford.

So are you staying the course or have you taken a defensive position?  In the long term, this too shall pass.  This is nothing that we haven’t been through before in some form or another.