Journey explores Medicare open enrollment readiness

It’s Medicare open enrollment – should you be making changes? More than 60 Journey friends recently tuned in to our webinar of the same name to answer that very question for themselves. Open enrollment (also known as the annual election period) offers an annual dedicated window in which to review your current coverage, compare it with other options, and make any necessary changes. But it’s tough to make decisions when you have unanswered questions. Our esteemed presenters Jonathan Burlison, SHIP/SMP Administrator with the Nebraska SHIP/SMP division of the Nebraska Department of Insurance, and TJ Hansen, Wealth Advisor in the Wealth Management Division at UBT, offered guidance through the lenses of their respective areas of expertise.

Jonathan Burlison took us through the various components of Medicare, addressing important changes to parts of Medicare for the upcoming year and improvements to enrollment period deadlines. Virtual attendees were appreciative of the time Jonathan spent covering Medicare rules that affect coverage and stressing the factors that should impact your decision (hint: they all begin with the letter ‘c’). He also gave a thorough explanation of the difference between Medicare with a supplement and Medicare Advantage along with some sound tips for those opting to go with Medicare Advantage. Although this presentation was geared toward those already enrolled in Medicare, first-time enrollees could greatly benefit from it, as well. And we all learned how to handle the phone calls asking if we’d like an upgrade to a plastic Medicare card: hang up, it’s a scam!

TJ Hansen gave us an insightful look at intentional retirement planning, the kind that ensures your retirement savings can accommodate the plans you’ve made. The crucial steps in the financial planning process were outlined, along with what a comprehensive retirement check-in should consist of, and why taking the time to do so regularly is important (just think of all the ways life happens). TJ explained what should be counted as retirement income, how working in retirement may impact benefits, and how to evaluate income and spending. Charitable giving, tax planning, and estate plan review were touched on — one attendee commented on learning a great deal about tax loss harvesting from our UBT pros!

Both presentations were well received, and there was certainly no shortage of questions (which they did an excellent job of answering). If you missed out on this excellent piece of programming, or would just like to watch it again for the wealth of information it covered, we recorded it to serve as an invaluable resource to you and those you know. Click here to watch it again. And speaking of resources, you won’t want to miss out on our Medicare readiness checklist which we put together as a companion piece to this webinar.

Looking for more content designed with you in mind? Visit our Journey page.