Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Crash Tests More Small Cars

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The Mini Cooper Countryman received a top score from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in its small overlap front crash test. Credit Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Among the most recent group of 12 small cars to undergo the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's small-overlap frontal crash test, only the Mini Cooper Countryman earned the highest rating of Good.

Pulling in the next highest rating, Acceptable, were the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt, the Ford C-Max Hybrid, the Mitsubishi Lancer and the Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ twins (models built after December 2013). The Hyundai Veloster and the Scion xB (models built after February 2014) earned a Marginal rating. The vehicles that received the lowest rating, Poor, were the Fiat 500L, the Nissan Juke, the Nissan Leaf and the Mazda 5. (All but one of the vehicles tested were 2014 models; the FR-S was a 2015.)

The small overlap evaluation, which I.I.H.S., an insurance industry-financed organization, added to its repertory of crash tests in 2012, replicates what happens when the front driver's side corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle, or with an object like a tree or utility pole, at 40 miles per hour. This is the second group of small cars subjected to the test by the institute, bringing the total number run through the small overlap front crash test to 32. Of those, 19 earned Good or Acceptable ratings, and 13 received Marginal or Poor ratings.

The institute says it is especially difficult to get a good rating in this crash test because the impact bypasses most vehicles' front-end crash-absorbing structure, making it hard for a vehicle to absorb crash energy before it reaches the passeng er compartment. As a result, the compartment can collapse in a crash. When that happens, the instrument panel, parking brake pedal and steering column can intrude into the driver's space. When unstable steering columns are pushed sideways and seats are knocked out of position, it allows the crash-test dummy's head to miss the protection of the front air bag in the steering column and possibly to hit the instrument panel or other structures inside or outside of the vehicle.

A collapsing passenger compartment was the major issue with the four small cars that received an overall rating of Poor, Joe Nolan, the institute's senior vice president for vehicle research, said in a telephone interview. The Fiat 500L, Mazda 5, Nissan Juke and Leaf received a separate rating of Poor for their structures as well.

During the test, everything in the Mini Cooper Countryman worked reasonably well, but in the Mazda 5 just about everything went wrong.

"The structure collapsed pretty dramatically, the door unhinged, the side curtain air bags didn't deploy," Mr. Nolan said, adding that the dummy's head barely contacted the front air bag before it slid off and hit the instrument panel. High crash forces on the crash dummy's leg indicated a high risk of injuries to the left thigh and left lower leg in a crash of that severity.

"I cannot think of many positives to say about the Mazda 5," he said.

In the alternat ive fuels segment, the passenger compartment of the plug-in hybrid Volt held up "reasonably well" in the test, and injury measurements taken from the dummy indicated a "low risk of any significant injuries" to a person involved in a similar crash, according to the report. In the all-electric Leaf, however, the instrument panel, parking brake pedal and footwell intruded as much as 16 inches into the driver's lower space, which meant that injuries to the left knee and left lower leg would have been likely in an actual crash of that severity.

Even though the Leaf didn't perform well in the test, Mr. Nolan said that the lithium-ion batteries in the Volt and the Leaf seemed to be in good shape after the crash, an important point since there have been concerns around the crash safety of the Tesla Model S and other electric vehicles. He said that many people ask the institute about the safety of the batteries in electric vehicles during crashes.

"We monitor the temperatures of the batteries after the crashes are done," he said. "It has been some time since the tests, and there have been no issues."

The Volt was tested on June 10 and the Leaf on June 12.

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China's local GDP data points to recovery, rebalancing

By Aileen Wang and Koh Gui Qing

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's regional economies enjoyed a revival in growth in the second quarter, data from provincial governments showed, chiming with earlier figures that suggest a burst of government stimulus measures is re-invigorating activity.

Of the 30 regions and provinces that released their local gross domestic product (GDP) data, 23 reported first-half economic growth accelerated from the first quarter.

About three-quarters posted growth that was higher than the national average of 7.4 percent in the first six months.

Growth also diverged sharply between eastern and western China. The coastal and northeastern regions fared the w orst, while activity was most buoyant in the central and western areas, where double-digit growth rates were concentrated.

Analysts said this suggested China's bid to rebalance its economy is paying off.

From redefining job targets to shifting investment to inland areas and cutting obsolete capacity in energy-guzzling sectors in the north, China wants to overhaul the world's second-largest economy and encourage more sustainable and higher-quality growth.

"The growth gap is an expected result of Beijing's efforts to rebalance regional economies and let the fruits of growth be more evenly shared by the poorer inland regions," said Nie Wen, an analyst at Hwabao Trust in Shanghai.

For a table of regional GDP data, please click on

In Hebei -- China's top steel producer -- for instance, GDP growth stayed sluggish in the first six months, even though activity picked up slightly to 5.8 percent compared with 4.2 percent in the first quarter.

Hebei's drowsy performance is in part due to its efforts to remake itself. Hebei wants to slash total steel capacity by 60 million tonnes by 2017 and to shut more outdated steel mills this year to cut air pollution in northern China.

Similarly in the northeastern Heilongjiang province, the only province that has not released its GDP data, a local statistician who declined to be identified said first-half GDP growth was likely to be the lowest in China at under 5 percent.

A hub for China's heavy industry and a major coal producer, Heilongjiang was also the weakest performer in the first quarter, when its GDP growth fell to 4.1 percent.

INLAND REGIONS OUTPACING

In contrast, economies in the west such as Chongqing, Guizhou and Qinghai all posted double-digit GDP growth between January and June, helped by policy support. Just last month, Premier Li Keqiang had vowed to sink more cash into the industries and infrastructure in western China.

"Most of Beijing's r ecent piecemeal pro-growth measures have targeted the central and western provinces," Nie said.

Meanwhile, the biggest export-oriented provinces of Guangdong and Zhejiang saw GDP growth slacken in the first-half of 2014 to between 7 percent and 7.5 percent.

Cooling growth along China's eastern coast is in line with Beijing's goal of cutting its economic reliance on exports in favor of a more sustainable expansion in domestic consumption.

Data earlier this month showed China's economic growth quickened to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, as a raft of stimulus measures helped lift the pace from an 18-month low of 7.4 percent between January and March.

Still, a Reuters poll this month found that China's economy is forecast to grow 7.4 percent this year, the slowest pace in 24 years, and many economists believe more government measures may be needed to maintain its momentum.

In eastern Shandong province, growth edged up to 8.8 percent in the first ha lf from 8.7 percent in the first quarter, but strains are evident from the earlier slowdown in growth, government efforts to reduce excess capacity and a cooling property market.

The amount of bad bank loans in the province surged 25.8 percent between January and June this year, the official Financial News reported last week.

Many economists see the property slowdown as the key risk to national and regional economies this year. A growing number of cities and local governments have eased restrictions on property purchases in recent months to shore up revenues and boost economic activity.

(Editing by Kim Coghill)

• Asia News
• Budget, Tax & Economy
• China
• western China
• GDP growth

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Meet the new Saugus High School soccer coach: Dan D’Amico

Former Saugus High School soccer star Dan D'Amico is returning to campus this fall as the new Sachems' varsity boys soccer coach, SHS Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Mike Nelson announced July 23. D'Amico, the Medford High School freshman coach from 2010-12, before becoming its varsity assistant in 2013, replaces Tom Duplisea. Duplisea was the Sachems coach since 2009.

D'Amico, a 1998 SHS graduate, was a center-midfielder/forward for Coach Mike Hashem's (the current SHS principal) teams, and was its captain in his senior year, when they went undefeated during the regular season, before losing to conference rival Danvers in the second round of the state tournament in an upset. The Sachems defeated Danvers twice in the regular season, shutting them out to boot on both occasions.

D'Amico attended Malden Catholic in his freshman year, before transferring to SHS, where he played soccer in his junior and senior years after sitting out his sophomore campaign as a transfer student. His younger brother, Marco, took the same route to SHS to form a formidable tandem with him on the pitch that was difficult to beat.

The Saugus native went on to Suffolk University, but a knee injury prevented him from continuing his soccer career on the collegiate level. D'Amico, however, did play for a men's semipro team in Boston after years as a club soccer player with The Force.

D'Amico is working as a correctional officer at the Nashua Street Jail in Boston after earning a Criminal Justice degree from Suffolk. He has one daughter, Isabella, who's 6 and playing in the Saugus Youth Soccer Association.

Pre-season practice is still several weeks away, but D'Amico can't wait to get started. But until then, he found time to answer the following questions posed by the Saugus Advertiser about the sport's past, present and future in town from his point of view.

What was Saugus like for you as a young athlete, and when did you start playing town sports, and was it just soccer?

Saugus sports were always fun and enjoyable. I played both soccer and basketball, and it was a way to get together with friends outdoors, and enjoy [each other's company] with no worries, especially on Saturdays and Sundays, when we were dedicated to sports.

Growing up in town, who was considered to be most influential in your life as an athlete? What was your family's involvement in sports, and how did that influence you?

My younger brother Marco was most influential in my life. We pushed each other on a daily basis, competing to be the best we could be.

My family was very involved in my athletics. My mom and dad both coached on the town level, and also dedicated their time driving us to games and practices. My dad was very passionate about the game, and sometimes carried that passion onto the field. He cared a lot about his players. He was the best.

Page 2 of 3 - List the schools that you attended in town, and any of the teams that you played on? Any championships?

I attended Waybright and junior high school in town, before attending Malden Catholic, but then I transferred to SHS.

We went undefeated in my senior year to win the Northeastern Conference [soccer] title. I played in the Agganis game that year, as well.

I also played youth soccer, making numerous trips to the Pingree Cup tournament. I played youth basketball, winning a town championship, while also making the all-star team and winning the Coaches' Award for my work ethic.

I also played club soccer for The Force, capturing the U-17 state championship. Then, we played in the regional tournament, and that was fun.

Why did you leave Malden Catholic for SHS?

My brother and I attended MC to have the opportunity to play alongside my two cousins, who were on the varsity team. It was awesome all four cousins playing on the same high school field together.

After they graduated, we decided let's return to Saugus, where we felt we could get a similar education, and a different high school experience.

What will you expect from your team as a varsity head coach? What will your philosophy be, and will you be utilizing any methods from coaches that you have had over the years, and who would they be?

As the coach, I expect dedication, hard work and commitment. My goal is to win our league, and hopefully reach and win the state tourney, but as long as my team gave it everything they had, and left it all on the field, I can't ask for anything more.

I want my players to learn, and also get to experience the same type of fun I did. To see their smiles and determination will be a great reward in itself for me.

After watching the World Cup this summer, I want to win with the style and formation that Germany won with, and I would love to implement the same system throughout all of our youth programs.

At the end of the day, if you play within a team concept, and you put your heart and dedication into it, and have a will to win anything is possible. Soccer is a game of discipline and class.

How did you find out about the position, and why did you apply for it, and what's it like to be coming back to your alma mater?

I always wondered what it would be like coaching in my hometown after being in Medford for years. It has been a goal of mine to coach here one day. I ended my career a bit too soon so coaching was an easy choice, especially the way it ended in my senior year.

Page 3 of 3 - So after being notified that [Michael] Hashem was now the school's new principal, and is trying to create a new culture here in Saugus, I thought what better time to apply for the job. My old coach is now the principal, how ironic. Life comes full circle.

I thought about inquiring about the position years ago, and when it did finally open up again I was extremely honored and privileged to apply.

I am very excited to be back in Saugus to revitalize this program like it was when I played here. I want to make it fun and enjoyable like it was for me.

Have you spoken to the players/parents as of yet, and if so or not what did or will you say to them?

I have spoken with the team, and told them in a nutshell to enjoy their summer, but still practice, practice, practice, and come ready to have fun, learn and work hard this fall.

I could definitely use help from the players' families with a lot of the off the field stuff, as well.

What do you most remember about your SHS experiences, especially in soccer?

The biggest memories, besides getting an education from the school's great teachers, I would say are the friendships I made there.

My soccer team was mostly made up of my best friends. And as a whole at Saugus whether you are a senior or freshman you feel like you are a part of one tight-knit community.

What are some of your plans to build up the soccer interest in town for future high school teams?

I am actually settling into the position. I have been staying in contact with both [Assistant Principal/Athletic Director Mike] Nelson and the girls coach Chris Coviello about trying to get the soccer program as one.

I have also reached out to the Saugus Youth Soccer Association. I definitely want our youth system to one day make goals about playing at Saugus High School, because of the leaps it has made.

Ideally, I'd love a system where the youth players are on the same page with us, so when they come to SHS they are ready to play from day one. I'd also like to have a JV and freshman team in place to get them ready for the varsity.

Have you named your coaching staff yet, and if so what are the reasons why you picked those individuals? If not, what are you looking for in your assistants?

We actually are in the process of filling the JV position, and I have spoken with Mike Nelson to ask his opinion who the right candidate might be.

But in the end, I want someone with a great work ethic, open to learning and able to have fun with kids, so that if on any given day someone is called up to the varsity they will be ready to play after learning the system as a JV player.

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Why Health Insurance Plans With Narrow Networks Are Here to Stay

The New Health Care

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Credit David Doran

Traditionally, there were a few ways that health insurers could keep premiums low for individual health plans. They could select people with no prior health problems, to limit the chances of getting stuck with big hospital bills. They could pare back the services and products they offered to avoid ones that could be expensive, like maternity care or prescription drugs. They could increase premiums or deductibles so their customers would pay a larger share of any eventual bills.

By changing the rules, the Affordable Care Act pushed health insurers toward a new strategy: limiting the choice of doctors and hospitals they'll pay for. That move helped insurance companies keep premiums low despite all the new restrictions, but they're inspiri ng resistance.

Plans sold this year in the new health insurance marketplaces were much more likely than previous ones to include what insurers call tailored or narrow networks. According to an analysis from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, some 48 percent of plans offered in the most popular category included such features.

"Plans have fewer tools available to them to offer lower-cost coverage options than before, so they're using these tools to do so," said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, an industry trade group. That's because the Affordable Care Act outlawed a lot of the old options. Insurance companies can't exclude sick customers. They all have to cover a defined set of basic hea lth benefits. There's a cap on how much they can ask patients to pay each year out of pocket, and rules about what percentage of average costs they must cover to sell their plans in a certain category.

McKinsey defined a "narrow network" plan as one that included less than 70 percent of the doctors and hospitals in a given metropolitan area, though some plans they surveyed covered less than 30 percent of local providers. The plans save money by allowing insurers to avoid hospitals and doctors that charge high prices.

Insurers can offer favored hospitals lots of guaranteed patients in exchange for lower prices, or can simply squeeze out hospitals that won't negotiate on rates. That means that, in some markets, expensive, popular specialty hospitals aren� ��t covered. In some extra-narrow plans, only one big health system gets covered. Over all, the strategy has lowered premiums by 5 to 20 percent, according to an industry-funded study from the actuarial firm Milliman.

The concept is not new to health insurance, which suggests that many people may turn out to like the trade-off between low premiums and a smaller selection of providers. Traditional H.M.O.s, like Kaiser Permanente in California and Group Health Cooperative in Washington, have long attracted patients despite their lack of flexibility. And seniors are increasingly choosing private Medicare Advantage plans, which tend to have limited networks, but lower premiums and some extra benefits, over traditional Medicare, which covers every willing provider.

Continue reading the main sto ry

Continue reading the main story

In the marketplaces, so far, consumers appear to have also been choosing the narrow network plans; over half of people who understood what they were buying deliberately chose the cheaper plan with fewer doctors, according to a recent survey from the health care research group the Commonwealth Fund. (The poll also found, however, that 25 percent of people who bought new insurance didn't even understand such a choice was in play.)

But not everyone who chose a cheaper plan this year is happy. In California and Florida, consumers are complaining that they can't get care from promised doctors. In New York City, patients have protested plans that offer no out-of-network coverage at all.

Even the insurance industry survey found that about 10 percent of patients don't even have the choice of a more expensive broad plan in their market. State regulators in Washington and Montana have begun writing rules to ensure that plans cover some minimum number of doctors. After all, one easy way to save money on health care is to cover so few doctors that patients can't get the care they need.

The federal government will begin tightening its rules to make sure that narrow networks don't get too narrow. There is some precedent for the reaction: In the 1990s, cheaper narrow-network H.M.O. plans proliferated in the employer market, but they disappeared after mass public outcry.

But even if the skinniest plans are widened by regulation, narrow plans are probably here to stay this time. The whole idea of the marketplaces was to give insurers an opportunity to compete for customers on price. And as long as price continues to drive shopping decisions and the old tactics are out, insurers have every motivation to keep these plans on the market.

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Flood insurance nightmares still haunt Sandy families

Russ Zimmer, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, Neptune, N.J. 10:13 p.m. EDT July 28, 2014

Doug Quinn (right) shows U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., around his Sandy-ruined Toms River home . Quinn still is in a struggle over the payout for his flood insurance policy.(Photo: Russ Zimmer/Staff Photo)

TOMS RIVER, N.J. — When the storm surge from superstorm Sandy shoved the Kettle Creek into Doug Quinn's home, he waded through waist-deep water to escape in the middle of the night. Ask him today and he'll tell you that was the easy part.

"Nobody ever thought our insurance company and our government would cheat us, and I'm sorry, but that's the way we feel," he said during a news conference, arranged by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and attended by other families with insurance and rebuilding woes, in the shell of Quinn's home. "I never thought in a million years that after two years we'd still be out of our home and — take a look around — we're not even close."

Quinn has been going back and forth with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (for his National Flood Insurance Program policy payout) and the state (for disaster aid) for a home that he and 17-year-old daughter Megan have been displaced from longer than they lived in it.

Quinn, a former U.S. Marine, and Megan have been living in a rental in Toms River since the storm. To add insult to injury, Quinn has been informed that because he's been out of his house for so long — clamoring for the money needed to rebuild it — that his Pine Crest Drive home is no longer considered his primary residence for flood-insurance purposes. Because of that his premium shoots up by 25 percent, or about $500 a year.

Quinn plans on contesting the change, but he sounds exhausted just talking about it.

"Here's the thing. You can do this, that, this, that — everyone's overwhelmed," he said. "How do I make a living? How do I raise my child? How do I do all this stuff while I spend huge chunks of time filling out paperwork … on the phone arguing with people, getting bounced around, getting disconnected, waiting for phone calls not returned, emails not returned, we need this, we need that. So yeah, that fight goes on the pile — with the other 100 fights I'm fighting."

APP

The Asbury Park Press NJ Superstorm Sandy Recovery Section

Menendez, who pledged to inquire about the payout process during a Wednesday Senate hearing with the head of FEMA, said the claims process is structured in a way that is detrimental to policyholders.

"FEMA has set up the process to prevent overpayments, which has resulted in countless homeowners being low-balled," said Menendez, who has also been championing flood insurance premium relief recently.

In Quinn's case, he was covered up to $250,000 for flood damage to his home. He has been approved for $92,800 by his insurer, which administers the program on FEMA's behalf, for what Quinn and his attorney — he is considering suing for underpayment — believe was about $254,000 worth of damage.

"It works out to about 35 cents on the dollar," he said.

Selective, Quinn's insurer, did not immediately respond to messages. FEMA, which will not comment on individual policies, notes that adjusters who handle claims for insurers like Selective are paid only when cases are closed and the bigger the claim, the more they are paid. A FEMA spokesman said that $8 billion has been paid out and that 99.6 percent of Sandy-related claims have been closed.

But Quinn argues that many people were not as prepared as he was to dispute their underpayment and took what he called "shut up and go away money" because they didn't know their options.

"I'm a financial adviser," he said. "I'm used to paperwork and bureaucracy and dealing with insurance companies. … If I'm frustrated and at my wit's end, what about the average person?"

USATODAY

Survey: Low expectations for full Sandy recovery

Quinn opened up his home to reporters and another dozen or so homeowners who were invited by Menendez's staff after they made flood insurance complaints to the senator's office. Menendez spoke behind a podium, which was just in front of a gaping hole in the floor, revealing the home's foundation. All the interior walls had been knocked out.

During a 10-minute question-and-answer session with New Jersey's senior U.S. senator, homeowners leaned up against the wall frames to ask why FEMA was taking so long to respond to their appeal, or what was happening with SBA loans, or how could they be excluded from one grant program after another. Many were flummoxed by state-run programs, which Menendez has no direct influence over.

George Kasimos founded the grassroots Stop FEMA Now in January 2013 after he ran into wall after wall trying to get answers about how he should go about rebuilding his Sandy-destroyed home. He was outside the event on Monday mingling and handing out yard signs.

He encouraged people in similar situations to do what Quinn is considering — get a lawyer and file a lawsuit.

"Every insurance company in New Jersey has agreed to go to mediation if there's an issue, except for the NFIP," he said.

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Ask Carrie: How much insurance do you need in retirement?

Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz

Posted: Monday, July 28, 2014, 1:06 PM

Dear Carrie,

I'm 63 and will leave my full-time job in six months. In an effort to cut back, I'm looking at all my expenses and it seems like I'm paying an awful lot in different types of insurance premiums. What do I really need at this point in my life?

—A Reader

Dear Reader,

Smart question. Insurance needs really are different at different points in life. Some insurance is essential at any age, but some can be just a waste of money. So at your age—and as you approach retirement—this is a great time to take a step back and reevaluate.

Health insurance is a "must-have"

No matter your age or job status, you have to have health insurance. Not only because the law now mandates it, but also because it's essential for your personal and financial security. So the first thing is to look at how your health coverage will change when you leave your job.

If you're going to lose your group coverage when you leave, you have to fill that gap with another policy. COBRA is the easiest way to do that. It basically continues the coverage you've had through your employer, but it comes out of your pocket. Check with your employer while you're still working to make sure you're eligible. If you are, the good news is that COBRA also covers your spouse or other dependents that have been on your policy. The bad news is that it will most likely cost significantly more than what you've been paying as an employee.

Alternatively, you can now shop for a policy through your state health insurance exchange or the federal health insurance exchange. You might even qualify for a lower premium, depending on your income.

Once you turn 65, you'll be eligible for Medicare. But even at that time, you'll want to have a supplemental (Medigap or Medicare Advantage) policy to cover costs that standard Medicare doesn't.

A car requires insurance

It's essential to have liability insurance in the event of an accident. Most states require you to carry at least basic liability insurance to cover damage to others, including both bodily injury and property damage. If you want to cover things like damage to your car or theft, that's your decision.

Homeowners and renters insurance get high marks

If you own your home, make sure your coverage adequately protects both your dwelling and your possessions. Property values in your area may have risen since you first took out the policy, so double check that your current coverage would actually pay replacement costs if your home was damaged or destroyed.

And remember, a homeowner's policy generally covers possessions up to a specific dollar amount. Depending on where you live, you may want earthquake, flood or wind insurance as well.

If you rent, don't be content that your landlord has a policy. It will only cover damage to the dwelling, not to your possessions. You need your own renter's policy for that. Renters insurance usually covers events such as fire, theft, and vandalism, and may also protect you from damage due to faulty wiring, water, or weather. Plus, it's generally pretty inexpensive.

For extra protection, consider an umbrella policy to provide added coverage in the event that you're sued for an injury caused by you or your property. It's generally low-cost and could be well worth the extra dollars. If you have significant assets—and even if you don't—a substantial judgment could easily put your finances at risk.

Life and disability insurance are a maybe

These two types of insurance are definitely related to life stages. For instance, once the kids are grown, you may not need life insurance unless you have other dependents relying on you or you own a business.

Likewise, while disability insurance may make sense during your peak earning years, when you're no longer working—and especially when you begin taking Social Security—you can probably put that money to better use.

Long-term care insurance deserves consideration

This is always a tough one. Long-term care insurance isn't cheap and premiums and benefits vary widely. However, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that about 70 percent of people over 65 will require some type of long-term care services at some point. It's worth thinking about how the cost of care vs. insurance would affect your overall financial health.

Insurance that may be best to avoid

And now for the not so good. Life insurance for kids, car rental insurance, flight insurance, pet insurance, even private mortgage insurance in some circumstances, may be unnecessary. Before you hand over a check, make sure you understand what is (and isn't) covered, and also make sure you're not covered elsewhere.

Insurance is only worth the money if it truly protects you and your finances. At this time in life, as you approach retirement or semi-retirement, it's wise to re-examine your current policies. That way you'll know that you have what you need—and you're not wasting precious dollars on what you don't.

 

Looking for answers to your retirement questions? Check out Carrie's new book, The Charles Schwab Guide to Finances After Fifty: Answers to Your Most Important Money Questions (Crown Business, 2014), available in bookstores nationwide. Read more at http://schwab.com/book.

This column is no substitute for an individualized recommendation, tax, legal or personalized investment advice. COPYRIGHT 2014 CHARLES SCHWAB & CO., INC. MEMBER SIPC. (0714-4681)

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Free Life-Insurance Offer Scrutinized

May 5, 2014 7:59 p.m. ET

Thousands of Florida teachers recently got a tantalizing offer: free life insurance, paid for by a group of rich investors they had never met.

To many of the teachers, it seemed too good to be true. Now they—and regulators—are trying to figure out if it actually is.

The offer to Pasco County's school district came from Ohio-based Pollock Financial Group, which promised to match the district's employees with investors eager for lucrative ways to invest their money.

Under Pollock's plan, the investors would potentially pay hundreds of millions of dollars for policies on the lives of district employees, from teachers to bus drivers and custodians, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and interviews with district officials. As deaths occur, the investors, school district and beneficiaries of the insured employees would all receive payments. Policies would be obtained from a to-be-determined insurance company.

The proposal is one of the largest efforts by investors to acquire life insurance on people in a single transaction, say insurance-industry executives and lawyers.

Mark G. Pollock, a principal and life-insurance agent with Pollock Financial, a consultancy specializing in funding of employee-benefits programs, said in an email that the proposal provides "great value [for] the client in meeting its pension, health-care and employee-benefit plan costs."

Mr. Pollock declined to discuss details of the proposed program, saying he wanted to talk to regulators first.

Pollock Financial calls its offer "Benefit Stabilization Funding." The firm's materials say the plan can help government entities, some of which are laboring under increasingly tight budgets. Pollock Financial isn't affiliated with a Northern California firm with the same name.

Pasco, in the populous Tampa Bay area, is looking seriously at Pollock's proposal, though it wants the assessment of Florida insurance regulators before moving ahead, officials said. Florida regulators say they also are taking a hard look.

While many details remain to be determined, Pollock's mate rials spell out that investors would be responsible for paying premiums. "There is no cash outlay nor any financial guarantees required from Pasco County, its employee union, nor its members," according to one document. "All related transaction expenses are paid out of the policy death benefits," it says.

District officials said they discussed with Pollock various amounts of insurance that might be taken out, from about $200,000 to about $350,000 per employee, with proceeds to be shared among investors, the district and employees' designated beneficiaries. Christine Pejot, director of human resources for Pasco schools, said the district wants employees to be able to consent to being included in the program, but that was one of many details still to be sorted out and now is on hold pending the regulatory review.

Critics say the plan is a twist on a practice that proliferated in the mid-2000s. In those transactions, commission-paid agents induced thousands of older people to take out multimillion-dollar policies to flip to investors such as hedge funds, which aimed to reap more from death benefits than they paid in premiums. Several hundred civil lawsuits resulted, and some are still working their way through courts, alleging misrepresentation and other wrongdoing by agents, investors and the insurers themselves as many of the transactions didn't work out financially.

Most states, including Florida, ban third parties from directly taking out life-insurance policies on another person unless they are a relative, employer or someone else more interested in that person being alive than dead.

There "are just a lot of questions raised by this type of proposal," Belinda Miller, general counsel of Florida's Office of Insurance Regulation, said of the proposed Pasco proposal. "It may be perfectly legitimate. We just want to find out." The office hasn't set a date for concluding its inquiry.

Joseph M. Belth, professor emeritus of insurance at Indiana University's business school and a consumer advocate, said school administrators should keep in mind the substantial litigation that stemmed from the mid-2000s efforts of promoters and investors to profit from life insurance on the lives of others.

"My unsolicited advice to the district is to reject the plan," he said.

Pollock's presentation materials state that its proposals fall within the law.

"We are in a wait-and-see mode," said Alison Crumbley, Pasco school board chairwoman. She said the district is well funded but is considering the Pollock proposal as a way to provide "something additional [to employees], at no additional cost—as long as it is viable and it is legitimate."

Mr. Pollock said in an April presentation to the district that investors would be wealthy people who "had tax incentives to invest in this type of situation," Ms. Crumbley recalled.

The policies to be used would be "pri vate placement variable universal life," a type of coverage combining a death benefit with a savings component. Under such universal-life policies, interest income or other investment gains build up on a tax-deferred basis.

Investors' share of proceeds upon deaths would be their "initial capital contribution plus investment returns," a Pollock document says.

Write to Leslie Scism at leslie.scism@wsj.com

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Making a better future for their boys, Owsley County couple work hard to get degrees

Friday, May 16, 2014

Nicholas Banks, left, graduated on May 10 with an associates degree from Hazard Community and Technical College and is three semesters away from getting his bachelor's in criminal justice from Eastern Kentucky University. His wife, Ashley, will finish her HCTC degree in human services in the fall of 2015. (Photo from HCTC)

 
Husband-and-wife teams share many things – a home, a family and, often, a business. Ashley and Nicholas Banks even share participation in the Ready to Work program and their march to college graduation.
 
The Owsley County couple were helped by the program to enroll in Hazard Community and Technical College – Nicholas on the way to becoming a parole officer and Ashley on her way to working as a counselor or a manager, essentially whatever she chooses with her degree in human services.
 
Nicholas graduated last weekend from from HCTC with an associate's degree in applied science and will be attending Eastern Kentucky University in the fall to pursue a bachelor's in criminal justice. Ashley plans to complete her HCTC degree in the fall of 2015.
 
"Ready to Work has helped me so much it's really unbelievable," said Nicholas. "I did not even graduate high school. I actually started on the Work and Learn program and stayed on that progr am until I earned my GED in 2010. It took me three tries!"
 
"I have never been very confident in myself and never really felt that I could accomplish much of anything," he added, "but when I earned my GED, I began to see that I was just as capable of doing this as anyone else and my newfound confidence has been the drive that I have needed to succeed."
 
He credits the RTW program at HCTC with helping him succeed and get the "chance to better my life for my family and myself."
 
Ashley concurs with Nicholas' assessment of RTW. "Ready to Work has been a wonderful experience for me. I have been able to earn some income to provide for my boys as well as pursue my educational goals. Without this program I highly doubt that this would have ever been possible," she said.
 
"I am proud of Nicholas and Ashley and all that they have accomplished," said Sandy Campbell, the RTW coordinator at HCTC. "They are a perfect example of le arning to overcome personal struggles to reach their full potential. Their story should be an inspiration for others as well."
 
While Nicholas struggled with self-esteem, Ashley's struggles have been more recent and involved the death of her father.
 
"My dad was diagnosed with stage-three lung cancer in April 2013 and he passed away April 5, 2014. It was one of the hardest things I have ever faced," said Ashley. "That whole week it seemed that I allowed my work to fall behind; I really could not make myself care.
 
"Then one day I heard my Daddy's voice in my head telling me to get up and do that work, so I did. I caught up on every assignment that I had missed. If I have learned anything, you cannot let life's struggles get you down. You have to keep at it even on days you don't really want to."
 
Nicholas thinks anyone can be helped by the program.
 
"Anyone can do this! I mean, look at me. I never even had a hig h school diploma. I dropped out my senior year of high school," he said.
 
"When my first son was born, I realized I had to do something to better myself for my family and I had no idea that RTW could have led me so far. It still blows me away that I am only three semesters away from my bachelor's degree in criminal justice. It's been such a blessing to be a part of such a wonderful program."
 
Like her husband, Ashley knows the struggles a parent with children faces when going back to school, but believes it's worth it.
 
"I would advise anyone who has a desire to further their education to start now; it's never too late," she said, adding, "I won't say that it has been easy. There have been many nights that I have sat at my kitchen table and worked on papers until three in the morning and then rolled out of bed to get my boys ready for school at six, but it has all been worth it … and I hope they see how hard that their dad and I have worked to make sure they have the best beginning possible."
 
From HCTC

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RAID Data Recovery and Repair Services: A Buyer's Guide

Murphy's Law tells us that anything that can go wrong will go wrong at the worst possible time. The axiom to this law says Murphy was an optimist. Which begs the question: what happens when RAID fails?

If you're using RAID 5, it means that at least two drives must fail for the array to be broken. If a single drive fails in a RAID 5 configuration, the distributed parity permits the system to continue operating. Some RAID configurations, such as RAID 0 and RAID 1, have no parity drive. As a result, it is more difficult to rebuild the array without all of the drives in working order. RAID 0 stripes data with data blocks on consecutive disks. This is used for faster performance but there is no mirroring and no parity.

With RAID 1 all data blocks are mirrored from one drive to another, If one drive has a physical failure, the second drive can be swapped in to replace it. While there is redundancy, a malware attack on one drive is a malware attack on both. A logical failure to one is a logical failure to both.

RAID 10, sometimes referred to as RAID 1+0, uses striped disks and mirroring, although there is no parity. This approach has the same shortcomings as RAID 1 and RAID 0.

But disks will fail and sometimes, multiple disks fail at the same time. Sometimes this will occur when one disk fails and is not replaced before the second disk dies. At this point, you'll be unable to determine which disk failed first and therefore will have incomplete and outdated data.

Repairing the array will require that both disks be evaluated and possibly both be repaired in order to determine which restores the array's most recent data, but before that is done, you will likely want to hire a repair depot to conduct the data recovery and repair.

Selecting the right depot can be a daunting task. Unlike finding a qualified technician to repair a failed network infrastructure or damaged database, there are few certifications that specifically address disk drive repair. Instead, says Michael Yasumoto, a senior forensic analyst at Deadbolt Forensics in Beaverton, OR, you must do a thorough evaluation of vendors claiming to have the necessary expertise.

For example, if the disk drive became corrupted or physically damaged due to a cyber attack or possible physical misuse where legal action might be required, the drives being recovered must be done by a technician qualified in forensic recovery and be an expert witness in a court of law, and who can maintain and report on the drives' chain of custody.

The decision as to whether or not to bring in a forensic specialist, say in an enterprise setting is up to senior management and legal counsel and based on whether potential legal action is possible. Unlike a data recovery task where a file system becomes corrupt and can be repaired with one of the myriad of consumer-class software tools, data damaged due to a deliberate attack that is actionable in court must be recovered through processes that will stand up to a fierce cross-examination by attorneys. Many states, such as Texas, Nevada and Georgia, require that the person conducting the forensic data recovery be licensed as a private investigator (PI). In fact, Texas and Nevada require any data recovery to be done by a licensed PI.

Recovering multiple drives from a failed array usually is more complex than simply repairing a single drive. A typical small to midsize business might have a RAID appliance that will include five drives configured as RAID 5 — four drives acting as the primary storage and the fifth drive serving as the parity drive. Should a single drive fail, the array can be rebuilt using the parity data on the fifth drive. However, if one drive fails and then another fails either before the array is rebuilt or worse, before the IT manager has a chance to rebuild the array, the issue becomes more challenging. The technician recovering the array needs to determine which drive failed first, and therefore is most out of sync with the array.

Scott Moulton is a digital forensics expert who owns Atlanta-based consultancy Forensic Strategies Services and a data recovery company called MyHardDriveDied.com. Moulton, who also trains law enforcement, government agencies and individuals how to do forensic data recovery, says most companies that claim to do data recovery mainly focus on the high-volume, fast turnover recovery that represents 85 percent of the storage recovery market that can be repaired simply using software.

Moulton says repair depots play a numbers game, doing the "easy," software-focused repairs and turning down repairs that require opening up the drive and replacing damaged parts. Generally opening a drive requires a clean room and perhaps specialized and expensive and more complex tools such as a PC-3000 system for ACE Laboratory in Russia, DeepSpar Data Recovery Systems' DeepSpar software, or the Atola Insight data recovery tool. Both DeepSpar and Atola Technology are based in the Ukraine.

Although a company that owns these tools is not guaranteed to be able to do data recovery, Moulton says, the fact they know about these tools and made the investment can be a data point in their favor when determining if the depot has sufficient experience in repairing the drive or array. Because it is difficult to compare repair depots, it is essential to ask for and vet references to ensure the depot has explicit RAID expertise, he says.   

Before ever engaging a repair depot to recover a failed RAID, the IT manager should check the rest of the disks in the array with any basic tool to ensure there is still data on the drive, he says. Sometimes when one or more drives fail, the array could end up wiping the rest of the array as it tries to recover from the failure. Repairing a failed drive won't help if the array wipes the data on all of the good disks as well, he notes.

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Flood insurance becomes political tool in Senate race

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is running in a tight re-election race in which her leading Republican challenger, Rep. Bill Cassidy, is competing with her to take credit for a new flood insurance law.(Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)

WASHINGTON — It's been months since Congress acted to protect thousands of homeowners from dramatic premium increases under the National Flood Insurance Program. But for Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and the leading Republican in the race to take her seat, the issue is still very much alive.

Landrieu and Rep. Bill Cassidy regularly remind Louisiana voters of their individual roles in helping win passage of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act. The bill, signed into law on March 21, caps annual increases in federal flood insurance premiums at 18%.

The issue is among the tools that Landrieu and Cassidy, locked in a heated election race, use to score political points on the campaign trail. The race could be crucial in determining which party controls the Senate beginning next year.

"This is an issue that both will use, and have been using, to say, 'Look, here's an example of what I've been able to accomplish in Washington, D.C.,'' said Joshua Stockley, a political scientist at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. "They see it as a positive that they can accentuate. But I don't think either campaign realistically is using this issue as the issue by which they're going to win.''

STORY: Flood insurance bill clears Congress

Stockley said both Landreiu and Cassidy can legitimately claim to have played a vital role in getting the flood insurance bill passed.

On Wednesday, Landrieu used her role as chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security to hold a hearing called "Insuring our Future: Building a Flood Insurance Program We Can Live With, Grow With, and Prosper With."

In promoting the hearing, she promised to push for faster refunds and more accurate flood maps. She also underscored her role in helping to get money to update flood maps.

Landrieu says flood insurance — along with energy, education and other issues — resonates with Louisiana voters.

"It's this and a dozen other issues that people are going to have to say ... 'Does Sen. Landrieu's leadership make a difference?' " Landrieu said. "I think it's clear that it does."

Landrieu questioned federal emergency officials at Wednesday's hearing about plans for flood maps and checked on implementation of the new flood insurance law.

"This is not just a Louisiana (or) Mississippi coastal issue,'' she said at the hearing Wednesday. "This is a national issue of the highest priority.''

Last week, Cassidy issued a press release announcing that checks will start going out Oct. 1 to reimburse people who began paying higher flood insurance premiums before the new law took effect.

The release makes clear that the reimbursements are thanks to "the Grimm-Cassidy Substitute Amendment" that Cassidy authored with Republican Rep. Michael Grimm of New York.

"As so many families are struggling in today's economy, ensuring that families receive these refunds as quickly as possible must be a priority," Cassidy said in the release.

During congressional debate over the flood insurance legislation — and even after it passed — Landrieu and Cassidy jockeyed for credit, holding press conferences, firing off press releases and doing national and local interviews.

"It came to pass,'' Bernie Pinsonat, a Louisiana pollster, said of the legislation. "(But) it ended up being shared credit.''

Cassidy says he "spearheaded the effort'' and played a critical role in the revised measure that eventually became law.

"Together with members of the House from across the country, I passed flood insurance legislation that caps premium increases, restores grandfathered rates and provides refunds for homeowners who overpaid on their premiums,'' Cassidy said in an e-mail. "Unlike the temporary Senate version, these are permanent reforms that the Senate passed only after we took the lead in the House. We need Senators who do more than just send press releases.''

In May, Cassidy, co-chairman of the Congressional Home Protection Caucus, held a meeting with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials to discuss implementation of the flood insurance law. He invited the press.

Cassidy's supporters are making sure Landrieu "doesn't get one up on them,'' Pinsonat said.

"Whatever happens on flood insurance Cassidy has to be able to say, 'Me too, me too,' " he said

Stockley said Cassidy may use his work on the flood insurance bill to show he's willing to break ranks with GOP leaders on issues important to Louisiana. Some Republican leaders had opposed the legislation, saying the premium increases were needed to move the flood insurance program, which is $24 billion in debt, closer to solvency.

Landrieu says the idea for a bill to address flood insurance premiums started in the Senate, where she helped organize a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the issue.

"For 4,500,000 people in Louisiana, it's a pretty big deal,'' Landrieu said.

Landrieu said her subcommittee will hold more hearings on the flood insurance issue, and she will push Congress "to get complete and accurate flood maps done before we engage in trying to rewrite a flood insurance program.''

Republican and Democratic colleagues have praised Landrieu for her work on the bill passed in March. But Pinsonat said Landrieu's efforts didn't help her polling numbers.

"She got zero bump out of that,'' he said.

If the election were held today, Landrieu would lose, he said.

"She's running ads attacking Cassidy now. She's holding hearings,'' Pinsonat said. "She's doing everything she can to get the needle to start back up. The needle is not moving. She's sitting there dead in the water.''

Stockley said the importance of the flood insurance changes may be hard to sell to voters, who either don't understand them or don't care. The issue tends to be somewhat technical and disproportionately affects policyholders in South Louisiana, he said.

"This is not an issue that affects everybody identically across Louisiana," he said. "There's not much more that can be gained from the issue of flood insurance."

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Galfand Berger Lawyers Selected to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Awards

Year after year, Galfand Berger attorneys demonstrate their commitment to our clients and our community with success in and out of the courtroom. This year we are proud to announce that five of our attorneys—Arthur Bugay, Debra Jensen, Rick Jurewicz, Peter Patton and Norman Weinstein—have been named to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list.

Galfand Berger attorneys Michael Malvey and Henry Yampolsky were named to the 2014 Pennsylvania Rising Stars list, a unique award for attorneys under the age of 40.

This honor is even more noteworthy when you look at the numbers. Selection to the Super Lawyers list is reserved for only the top 5% of more than 34,000 attorneys practicing in Pennsylvania. And, the honor of Rising Star is only given to 2 ?? % of Pennsylvania lawyers. The Super Lawyers selection uses a process of nomination and voting by peers to single out attorneys with noteworthy achievements in their area of practice.

After you read their biographies, you will learn why our attorneys received these top honors:

Arthur Bugay's practice areas include Products' Liability, Construction Accident litigation, Personal Injury litigation, Negligent Security, and Employment law. Arthur is a regular presenter at Continuing Legal Education seminars and has taught at Temple University and Moravian College. He currently teaches Products Liability law at Temple University's Beasley School of Law. Arthur is an "AV" rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell and a member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates' Forum. In addition to his work in the firm's Personal Injury Department, Arthur is an advocate for disabled and injured children and for the elderly, which is evident through the volunteer legal services he provides for the Legal Clinic for the Disabled. In 2009, Arthur was Pennsylvania's regional top fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association, and has participated in a series of Iron-Man competitions to fundraise for both the ADA and Amyotrophic Lateral Scl erosis (ALS) Association. This is Arthur's fifth consecutive year to be selected to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list.

Debra Jensen has been selected five times to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list, is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, has been included in The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers – Pennsylvania,and is Galfand Berger's Managing Partner. When Debra's fellow partners unanimously elected her as Managing Partner in 1999, she became one of three women who were the top managing attorneys at Philadelphia law firms. Debra has also achieved significant results for her clients in the area of medical malpractice law, representing individuals and families who suffered catastrophic losses as a result of medical mistakes. Additionally, she a frequent lecturer on subjects including nursing home abuse, medical malpractice, and labor and employment law. Debra also helped write the firm's well-known publications, "Workers' Rights to Workers' Compensation" and "Injured on the Job."

Rick Jurewicz represents people injured by unsafe products and defective tools, equipment, and machinery. As a trial attorney, he is Board Certified as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Rick holds memberships in the Million Dollar Advocates forum, Outstanding Lawyers of America, American Association for Justice, Pennsylvania Association for Justice, the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Academy of Trial Counsel. With more than $150 million in verdicts and settlements for his clients, Rick is responsible for some of the largest recoveries in Galfand Berger's history. In 2007, he had two of the twelve highest Pennsylvania recoveries. In 2010, he had one of the top 35 Pennsylvania recoveries, and in 2011, he had two of the top 35 Pennsylvania settlements. In 2013, Rick had four of the highest reported settlements in Pennsylvania. On top of his already stellar year, this is the e leventh consecutive year that Rick has been selected to the Super Lawyer list!

Michael Malvey handles a wide variety of cases within the personal injury department, including automobile accidents, premises liability, construction site accidents, products liability, and medical malpractice. Recently named as a Senior Partner with the firm, Michael has been a member of the team of Galfand Berger lawyers who have obtained over $75 million dollars in settlements and judgments and attained some of the largest, multi-million dollar client recoveries in Pennsylvania. Michael's proficiency in Spanish has been a great asset in representing members of the Hispanic and Latino communities. He currently works with the Board of Directors at Esperanza Immigration Legal Services to provide low-cost legal services to immigrants and their families in the Philadelphia area. This is Michael's eighth year to be selected to the list of Pennsylvania Rising Stars.

Peter Patton concentrates in the fields of products liability, construction and vehicular accidents. He was awarded the American Jurisprudence Award for Professional Responsibility from the University of California, Berkeley. Peter holds membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Brain Injury Association, System Safety Society, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Bar Associations, the American Association for Justice, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, and the National Lawyers Guild. Peter has received an "AV" rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating an attorney can achieve. Peter is also listed in the Bar Register of Pre-eminent lawyers and has been included in The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers in Pennsylvania. In 2011, Peter had one of the top 35 Pennsylvania settlements. This is Peter's third year to be named to the list of Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.

Norman Weinstein is Of Counsel at Galfand Berger and chairs the firm's Community Outreach and Social Action program. He has practiced in Workers' Compensation and Personal Injury law for over 30 years. A Trustee of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation, Norman is also past President of the Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program (VIP), past Co-Chair of the Workers' Compensation Section of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and the Workers' Compensation Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association. He is past President of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and Council and Trustee of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia as well as Chairman of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia Young Leadership Council. Norman has performed pro bono work for the Support Center for Child Advocates, Legal Clinic for the Disabled and Philadelphia Volunteers of the Indigent Program (VIP). Norman is a recipient of the Pennsylv ania Trial Lawyers Association Community Service Award and has been recognized for his pro bono services by the Pennsylvania Bar Association. He is a recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Association Young Leadership Award and the Jewish Federation Myer Feinstein Young Leadership Award. Norman has been selected to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list every year since 2005.

Henry Yampolsky practices in the areas of personal injury litigation, employment discrimination and labor law, and workers' compensation. Since joining our firm, Henry has been on the team of lawyers who have achieved some of the largest client recoveries in Pennsylvania. Henry is fluent in Russian and Ukrainian and takes an active role in the affairs of the Greater Philadelphia Russian-Speaking community. He serves as the Vice-President and Member of the Board of Directors of the New World Association of Immigrants from Eastern Europe and is one of the founding directors of the Russian-Speaking Professionals Network. Additionally, Henry sits on the Board of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and was recently elected to the Amicus Curiae committee of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice. This is Henry's fifth consecutive year of inclusion in the Pennsylvania Rising Stars list.

If you or someone you know has been injured, please contact us toll free at 1-800-222-8792 or by email at mail@galfandberger.com to discuss your legal rights.

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Insurance Coverage for Fertility Treatments Varies Widely

Photo

Sarah Patterson, 27, a nurse, has had four miscarriages in four years, but her health insurance doesn't pay for treating infertility. Credit J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

Sarah Patterson, a 27-year-old nurse, suffered four miscarriages over the last four years because of several medical problems, including a condition that causes cysts to form on the ovaries. After her second loss, she said, her husband asked for a divorce because he could not handle the stress.

"I was heartbroken and devastated," said Ms. Patterson, her voice quavering as she began to cry. "It took me about six months or so before I decided I am going to be a mom, whether I am on my own or whether I had a partner by my side."

Though young, Ms. Patterson said she felt a sense of urgency because one o f her conditions had the potential to deplete her egg reserves. Her doctor recommended in vitro fertilization, in which an egg is fertilized with sperm in a lab and transferred into the uterus. Her health insurance, through the California exchange, does not cover infertility, so she is working extra shifts to save the estimated $15,000 to $25,000 it will cost her for just one cycle of I.V.F.

Photo

Credit Robert Neubecker

She said transferring two embryos into her uterus at once could improve her chances of becoming pregnant and perhaps save her money. But carrying multiple babies has extra risks. "A high-risk pregnancy scares me," said Ms. Patterson, who lives in Southern California.

As many people with fertility issues quickly learn — 7.4 million women used infertility services from 2006 to 2010 — few employers and insurers pay for many procedures, including in vitro fertilization. Though 65 percent of businesses with more than 500 employees will pay for an initial evaluation by a fertility specialist, just 27 percent cover in vitro fertilization, according to a 2013 study conducted by Mercer, a consulting firm. (That number was 23 percent in 2012.) Drug therapies were covered by 41 percent of large employers, according to the study.

And although 15 states require insurers to provide some degree of infertility coverage or offer the option of coverage to those buying plans, many of those mandates impose restrictions on who can qualify, raising questions about who should be covered by infertility insurance.

In Arkansas, Hawaii, Maryland and Texas, for instance, coverage is required only if a woman's eggs are fertilized with her spouse's sperm, according to Resolve, a consumer advocacy group, which lists all of the states' requirements. So single women, unmarried partners, men with sperm issues and married lesbians with medical conditions causing infertility are exclude d.

Some large insurers' standard definitions of infertility appear to be more inclusive. They cover people regardless of their relationship status, as long as their infertility is the result of a medical problem. One common definition says a patient is deemed infertile if she fails to achieve or sustain a pregnancy after a year of trying naturally, or through a certain number of attempts at artificial insemination at her own expense. (Aetna makes women try a dozen times if they are under 35, while Cigna requires six attempts.) But these insurers do not go as far as covering, say, women without fertility problems who for one reason or another are using donor sperm.

And plenty of insurance policies exclude gay couples and single women — particularly those who have trouble getting pregnant through artificial insemination — because they define infertility as an inability to become pregnant through sexual intercourse, according to Cathy Sakimura, family law director and supervising lawyer at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. (But she said some medical procedures, like correcting a blocked fallopian tube that compromised fertility, would often be covered.)

Of the states that mandate coverage, only eight — Arkansas, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island — require some level of coverage for in vitro fertilization, according to Resolve. (All of the state mandates typically apply only to health plans regulated by the state. Large employers, which are typically self-insured, are not subject to the rules because they are federally regulated.)

Some states also make patients wait very long and seemingly medically unsound periods before qualifying for benefits for a condition in which the passage of time can be damaging. Hawaii requires a five-year history of infertility, according to Resolve, while several other states require a two-year history. And in New York, fertility patients must be covered by their insurance for at least a year before receiving coverage. (Group policies are required to cover certain diagnostics, but New York does not require insurers to cover in vitro fertilization.)

The mandates "are really old, outdated and they need attention," said Barbara Collura, chief executive of Resolve.

The Affordable Care Act did little to expand infertility coverage, experts said. While exchange plans require coverage of certain essential benefits, the act allows the states to define those terms. "In states that do not require plans to cover infertility, they rarely do," said Karen Davenport, director of health policy at the National Women's Law Center. "They are mostly doing the minimum."

The lack of insurance coverage often leads some women to take risks that will increase their chances of becoming pregnant, fertility experts say. Not only are they aching for a successful pregnancy, most do not have limitless money to spend on multiple in vitro fertilization cycles.

So some women choose to trans fer more than one embryo a cycle (which may be recommended for older women), hoping that at least one will be successful. But in the long run, some infertility experts say, this costs the insurers more money because women may choose clinics or options, like transferring too many embryos, which may not necessarily produce the best results. Having multiple babies increases health risks for the mother and children and often requires more costly medical care after birth.

"If you are paying out of pocket, you are pretty desperate to have that cycle work when you've paid $15,000 into an I.V.F. cycle," said Dr. Bradley Van Voorhis, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. "Although it appears to be an attractive proposition, what many couples fail to understand are the risks of prematurit y, including long-term health consequences and large increases in health care costs."

Continue reading the main story

But some employers may be beginning to think longer-term as they see higher-cost claims associated with multiple births, which carry a higher risk of prematurity, cesarean sections, a need for neonatal intensive care and other complications. Brenna Haviland Shebel, a director at the National Business Group on Health, a membership organization of large employers, is researching infertility coverage on behalf of large employers. Some of those employers are thinking about adding coverage or at least providing services that help members select providers.

The reason, in large part, is to help control costs and improve results, she said. Employers may steer their employees to high-quality infertility clinics, including those that favor implan ting only one embryo in hopes of producing a single, healthy baby.

Aetna introduced a program along those lines last year for women whose policies already cover in vitro fertilization. The insurer said it would cover the entire cost of the first I.V.F cycle if one embryo was transferred instead of two or more. If that attempt fails, it will cover the cost of a second attempt using a single frozen embryo. (If the woman's plan limits the number of cycles covered, the second attempt will not count against that limit.)

The insurer said this approach tried to strike the right balance between success and safety.

That is precisely the balance most people are trying to strike as well, while shou ldering the costs entirely on their own. "What is the role of insurance?" asked Ms. Collura, of the advocacy group, Resolve. "Those are ethical questions. Those are medical questions. Those are societal questions."

A version of this article appears in print on July 26, 2014, on page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Insurance Coverage for Fertility Treatments Varies Widely. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe

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Struggling Life-Insurance Companies Look to Middle-Class for Revival

July 24, 2014 10:30 p.m. ET

ROSWELL, Ga.— Ray Burton isn't your typical insurance man.

From a spot in the pharmacy section of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in this Atlanta suburb, the 44-year-old MetLife Inc. MET -0.73% MetLife Inc. U.S.: NYSE ^$54.75 -0.40 -0.73% July 25, 2014 4:04 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 4.85M AFTER HOURS ^$54.75 0.00 % July 25, 2014 6:30 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 67,185 P/E Ratio 17.06 Market Cap $62.08 Billion Dividend Yield 2.56% Rev. per Employee $1,065,030 07/24/14 Struggling Life-Insurance Comp... 07/17/14 Insurers' Dodd-Frank Change Fa... 07/15/14 Plots & Ploys More quote details and news » manager eyed a kiosk nearby that urged shoppers to "get life insurance today for only $5." That buys the first month of a policy with a death benefit of as much as $50,000.

The kiosks are part of a push by the biggest U.S. life insurer in assets to reverse a long slide in sales of life insurance to the middle class. Instead of the army of agents that used to sell policies door-to-door and over conversations at the kitchen table, MetLife is trying an experiment that includes touch-screen-equipped kiosks at 223 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT -0.50% Wal-Mart Stores Inc. U.S.: NYSE ^$75.97 -0.38 -0.50% July 25, 2014 4:01 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 3.79M AFTER HOURS ^$75.97 0.00 % July 25, 2014 6:30 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 155,041 P/E Ratio 15.60 Market Cap $246.12 Billion Dividend Yield 2.53% Rev. per Employee $216,954 07/24/14 Struggling Life-Insurance Comp... 07/24/14 Buyers and Brands Beware in Ch... 07/24/14 Wal-Mart's U.S. Chief Bill Sim... More quote details and news » locations.

As he watched for about 90 minutes, just two shoppers stopped to check out MetLife's insurance offer. No one took a $5 card needed to activate the new coverage with a follow-up phone call.

"You don't go into something like this assuming you'll have a blockbuster," said Mr. Burton, wearing bluejeans and a determined expression. "It's a learning process."

MetLife won't disclose financial results for the Wal-Mart effort, but the New York insurer said in June that it expects to suffer about $40 million in losses this year on startup costs and other expenses tied to direct-marketing initiatives in the U.S. MetLife reports second-quarter results July 30.

Even rival insurers are hoping for the best. "As an industry…we need to change these [sales] trends," said Mark Hug, an executive vice president in Prudential Financial Inc. PRU -1.00% Prudential Financial Inc. U.S.: NYSE ^$88.92 -0.90 -1.00% July 25, 2014 4:01 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 2.78M AFTER HOURS ^$88.92 0.00 % July 25, 2014 4:53 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 29,905 P/E Ratio 32.22 Market Cap $41.50 Billion Dividend Yield 2.38% Rev. per Employee $1,068,990 07/24/14 Struggling Life-Insurance Comp... 07/23/14 U.S. Considers Issuing Debt Wi... 07/20/14 Peter Wallison: Four Years of ... More quote details and news » 's individual life-insurance unit. The Newark, N.J., company also is trying to sell more policies to middle-class Americans, including through websites and branches of banks across the U.S.

MetLife's premiums on policies sold to individuals last year totaled $409 million, a decline of 26% from $553 million in 2005. Industrywide sales of individual life-insurance policies are down 45% since the mid-1980s, according to industry-funded research firm Limra. About 30% of American households have no life insurance at all, up from 19% about 30 years ago.

The change in strategy partly reflects investor pressure on some insurers to trim their reliance on some types of variable annuities, which let buyers invest in stocks and bonds on a tax-deferred basis, somewhat like a 401(k) or individual retirement account. Those annuities were hit badly during the financial crisis, and chronically low interest rates since then have made it more costly for insurers to hedge against po tential losses.

Variable-annuity sales at MetLife got "out of whack" compared with other business lines, said William Wheeler, president of the insurer's Americas region. Executives concluded there is as much opportunity to sell basic life insurance to middle-class families in the U.S. as there is in emerging markets also being targeted by the company.

The U.S. market is one "we think we can win in," Mr. Wheeler added. A Limra spokeswoman said recent signs show "insurers are finding new ways to connect with Americans."

For generations, many middle-class and lower-income families saw life insurance as a staple of basic financial planning. MetLife prospered with its strategy, born in the late 1800s, of hiring agents to canvass neighborhoods with "workingmen's" insurance, typically just big enough for burial expenses.

MetLife and other insurers got another big boost from "permanent life" policies, which combine a death benefit with a tax-deferred savings vehicle.

But traditional life insurance began losing popularity with the rise of mutual funds and 401(k)s in the 1980s. Financial planners urged many Americans to buy cheaper, bare-bones "term life" coverage—and pour more money into products aimed at helping them have enough money in retirement.

The lower premiums on term-life policies chased agents who rely on commissions out of the insurance business or into products aimed at wealthier Americans, including variable annuities. Permanent life policies remain popular am ong people in higher tax brackets because savings grow tax-deferred.

Another reason for the sales decline: MetLife, Prudential and other insurers that went public in the 1990s and early 2000s got more fixated on the bottom line. As a result, insurers shrank their ranks of in-house agents to save on recruitment, training and other costs. They farmed out sales to securities brokers and independent financial advisers, who also tend to have well-to-do clients.

Melina Ahmadpour didn't know that her mother, a hair stylist in a Las Vegas casino, had no life insurance and little savings until shortly before the mother died of cancer in 2009 at the age of 52. "No one ever talked to her about it," said Ms. Ahmadpour, now 24 years old.

Relatives pulled together about $20,000 for Ms. Ahmadpour and her older sister. Nearly half of it was spent on burial costs. To raise more money, the sisters put their mother's property up for sale on Craigslist.

"Strangers came into our apartment, bargaining to get the price down," she said. Ms. Ahmadpour has had 10 different jobs since her mother died and lost a college scholarship because her grades suffered. Ms. Ahmadpour believes she would have earned a master's degree by now if her mother had bought life insurance.

Last year, MetLife got 16% of its total operating earnings of $6.29 billion from the company's U.S. individual life-insurance business and 25% from retail annuities. In addition, about 30% of MetLife's operating income now comes from outside the U.S.

Prudential, the nation's second-largest life insurer, earns about half its operating income in other countries. During the financial crisis, Prudential and MetLife both acquired non-U.S. life-insurance operations from American International Group Inc.

Insurers have been successful at persuading companies to offer life insurance as an employee benefit. But that makes some Americans feel even less need to buy life insurance on the ir own, even though employer-provided coverage can be lost when a job ends and usually carries a small payout amount.

One rule of thumb among insurers, financial planners and consumer advocates is that a family's breadwinner should have enough insurance to replace five to 10 years of income.

But only 4% of private-sector workers who have employer-sponsored policies are covered for more than two years of earnings, according to a Labor Department survey in 2013. More than 60% are covered for just a year's pay.

Research firm Conning Inc. estimates a "life-insurance protection gap" of more than $3 trillion for the middle quintile of Americans. Households with average annual income of $50,477 need $166,000 more life insurance than they have, even after other financial assets and Social Security survivor benefits.

That is where Mr. Burton comes in. A former All-American swimmer at the University of South Carolina, he spent four years at E*Trade Financial Corp. ETFC -1.69% E*TRADE Financial Corp. U.S.: Nasdaq ^$20.38 -0.35 -1.69% July 25, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 3.97M AFTER HOURS ^$20.38 -0.00 -0.01% July 25, 2014 4:53 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 18,896 P/E Ratio 21.45 Market Cap $5.98 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $656,307 07/25/14 Check Brokerage Statements and... 07/24/14 Struggling Life-Insurance Comp... 07/23/14 E*Trade Financial Swings to Pr... More quote details and news » , creating marketing strategies to encourage retail investors to open money-market accounts at the online brokerage rather than traditional financial firms.

At MetLife, Mr. Burton's team includes about 45 people who are tackling the challenges of distribution, sales and underwriting. Many of those employees were hired from companies skilled in selling online and by phone, such as banks and credit-card issuers.

MetLife has a total of 65,000 employees. Mr. Burton's boss is a former chief marketing officer at online florist 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. FLWS -2.40% 1-800-FLOWERS.COM Inc. Cl A U.S.: Nasdaq ^$5.28 -0.13 -2.40% July 25, 2014 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 57,095 AFTER HOURS ^$5.28 0.00 % July 25, 2014 4:45 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 3,700 P/E Ratio 41.48 Market Cap $346.71 Million Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $345,088 07/24/14 Struggling Life-Insurance Comp... 07/02/14 BitBeat: Overstock Boosts Comm... More quote details and news »

Unlike most industries, online sales of life insurance haven't taken off, largely because getting the best rates depends on the applicant's health and requires a review of medical records and a blood sample.

To overcome that hurdle, MetLife is developing a website that will connect to prescription-drug, motor-vehicle and other databases to verify and analyze information submitted by applicants for policies as large as $500,000.

MetLife also has begun selling "final expense" policies for the first time in decades. Such policies carry payouts as small as $2,500 and are less risky to the insurer than bigger policies. Coverage can be bought with no medical questions asked.

Buyers dial a toll-free number, and MetLife's technology automatically routes calls to agents with the correct state licensing. MetLife is ramping up its use of television ads to promote the policies.

The Wal-Mart experiment began in 2012 with "insurance in a box" that was disp layed on shelves. The boxes contained a prepaid card good for one year of coverage.

"It looked nice, but it was expensive to produce the box" and displays, Mr. Burton said. Another problem: Many shoppers were put off by having to decide the size of their new life-insurance policy at the store and pay a one-year premium at the checkout counter. It usually cost a couple hundred dollars.

The first kiosks were installed in 2013. After the initial $5 payment for the first month of coverage, buyers switch to a monthly premium based on gender and age. Rates are set at a "blended" level between the insurer's normal premiums for excellent and poor health and smokers and nonsmokers.

That means people with the best health can get better prices elsewhere. MetLife isn't aiming to be the cheapest seller. It wants to offer an affordable price that is easily accessible.

Mr. Burton said many consumers use the digital screens on kiosks to calculate how much insurance they can buy for $20 to $30 a month, working backward to the size of the policy.

The kiosks at Wal-Mart pitch a death benefit of as much as $50,000, but MetLife's call-center agents can sell coverage with a face value of as much as $100,000 to buyers who want bigger policies.

One afternoon in May, Gene Richards, 51, checked out a MetLife kiosk while waiting in a pharmacy line at a Wal-Mart in Greenville, S.C. He wanted the rates for a 65-year-old, since he hopes to retire at that age from his job as a machinist at a packaging manufacturer.

"Too dad-gum high," Mr. Richards said of the $66.75-a-month cost for a $20,000 life-insurance policy. "Maybe I'd do better putting money in the bank to pay for my funeral."

When buyers call a toll-free number at MetLife to activate the policy, employees ask about a dozen specific medical issues. Buyers with heart conditions and certain other illnesses could be offered smaller policies with two-year restrictions on payouts, according to MetLife.

Skeptics question whether the direct-sales approach can ever match the effectiveness of real-life insurance agents. "People still have to be moved from the intellectual 'I need to do this' to the actual doing it," said David Woods, 77, an agent since 1966 with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.

MassMutual, a policyholder-owned insurer based in Springfield, Mass., remains committed to hiring and training a large sales force.

For now, MetLife's pilot project with Wal-Mart is limited to Georgia and South Carolina, which rank in the bottom half among U.S. states in median household income. Mr. Burton said the results there are "intriguing" enough that MetLife will expand to a couple of other states soon.

"I have to figure out something," said Bob Hester, a forklift driver who looked at a MetLife kiosk while shopping one evening in Commerce, Ga. He decided not to buy a life-insurance policy on the spot because "it seems like $5 here and $15 there. It adds up."

Yet other facts of life nagged at him. Mr. Hester has three school-aged children and almost no savings. He ought to buy a policy, he said, but "it's just taking time to do it."

Write to Leslie Scism at leslie.scism@wsj.com

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