Universal Life Insurance

A universal life (UL) insurance policy is more flexible than other permanent policies, so you can customize it to fit your lifestyle.

Universal life insurance:

• May provide a guaranteed death benefit, ensuring the financial security of your family.
• Gives you the flexibility of choosing how much, and when, to make premium payments. (Depends upon the cash value in your policy.)
• Accumulates tax deferred and is accessible on a tax-preferred basis and is generally income tax free (under current tax law) to your beneficiary upon your death.
• Lets you access the cash value for any purpose you may choose including a down payment on a home, a tuition payment for your child or to provide cash flow during your retirement.*
• Allows you to change your death benefit which means you can increase or decrease your death benefit amount (increases are subject to underwriting) as your needs change.
• Guarantees the interest rate that you earn on your cash value to be at least 3 percent annually, although our credited rate, which is not guaranteed, has been much higher.

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 Courtesy of Ohio National

The protection you need.....

Do you have the protection you need to make sure your new life keeps heading in the right financial direction?

You may have just graduated from college or recently taken steps towards independence by getting a full-time job and moving away from home. Either way, you are out on your own.

As a young worker, you may be wondering whether you need life insurance coverage. One thing to consider is the fact that being younger may help you to get a lower premium. It is to your advantage to get your policy as early as you can.

Term life insurance may be a good way to start. It offers low premiums plus you can convert the coverage to a permanent plan, such as whole life, universal life or variable universal life insurance, once you have more income to support your plan.

Disability income insurance is also a consideration in the event you're unable to work for a length of time due to illness or injury.
Whatever your financial needs or goals, I have the products that can protect you and your family throughout your life. Please contact me to discuss your choices.

^{Wendy M. Bowen, Attorney at Law and Licensed Insurance Provider (South Carolina)} 

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To Tell or Not To Tell...that is the Question.

In legal terms, one who tattle-tales, is also known as a Whistle Blower.  Although this term has garnered negative connotations, it is usually someone who has some sense of morals and decency standing up to an employer for doing some wrong.

 More specifically, we will discuss a Qui Tam Whistle blower.  Qui tam is a law passed by Congress that allows a private citizen, with knowledge of fraud committed against the federal government, to act as a government whistle blower.  The private citizen is allowed to actually bring about a qui tam lawsuit on behalf of the United States. Most of these lawsuits stem from situations where a company or individual has defrauded the government in some sort of Medicare or pharmaceutical fraud.

A whistle blower who successfully files a qui tam lawsuit is entitled to receive between 15 percent and 30 percent of the lawsuit settlement funds recovered for the government. That's right.  The person who tattle-tales and is successful is actually entitled to a percentage of the funds recovered on behalf of Uncle Sam.  This is important legislation, because a considerable amount (estimates are as high as 10 percent) of the United States annual budget is paid to companies or individuals who defraud the government.  The government is usually overcharged,  paying for submitted bills for services never performed, or over-billed for services provided. Qui tam whistle blower lawsuits include government contract fraud, defense contractor fraud, Medicare fraud, Medicaid fraud, pharmaceutical fraud and other public benefit fraud.

In 2001, the US Department of Justice reported $1.2 billion of the Department's settlements and judgments related to cases filed under the federal whistle blower statute. In the fiscal year October 2000 to September 2001, more than $210 million was awarded to federal whistle blowers. Health care was the largest category of fraud recoveries with the runner-up involving oil and other minerals extracted from public lands.

The Department of Justice states that a record level of recoveries for fiscal year 2001 included the following:

• $22.5 million from the University of California for alleged false claims by UC's five teaching hospitals for reimbursement under Medicare and other federal health insurance programs for services purportedly performed or supervised by faculty physicians rather than by residents without supervision, and for upcoding - the improper assignment of diagnostic codes for the purpose of increasing reimbursement amounts;
  
  
• $15.7 million from Contech Construction for alleged false claims for providing pipe in connection with a Department of Transportation contract that did not conform with contract specifications;
  
  
• $9 million from Gateway for allegedly failing to pass along to the government price reductions required under a multiple award schedule contract for computers and components; and
  
  
• $14 million from Bayer, including $6.2 million on behalf of 45 states for their share of Medicaid payments for prescription costs allegedly inflated by the company's fraudulent practices. 

Whistle blowers are also provided protections in the False Claims Act of 1986.  Such protections are:  entitling the whistle blower to reinstatement with seniority, double back pay, interest, special damages sustained as a result of discriminatory treatment, and attorneys fees and costs, even if the case is never filed, as long as the whistle blower's allegations could legitimately support a False Claims Act case.

The False Claims Act also protects qui tam plaintiffs from being discriminated against by their employer for acts done in furtherance of filing a claim under the Act. These protections have encouraged more qui tam cases.

If you think you have witnessed a violation of the False Claims Act and you are willing to become a qui tam whistle blower, you should first speak to an attorney, like Wendy M. Bowen, Attorney at Law to see if you have a case, determine any deadlines for bringing a legal claim, and assist you with bringing a lawsuit on behalf of the US government to recover damages for fraudulent practices.

Social Security judges facing more violent threats

Have a pending social security disability claim?  Frustrated with the system? Click the news link below regarding claimants frustration with the social security disability system....Yahoo News: Threats to Administrative Law Judges who handle Social Security Disability Claims

Billionaire to pay $10.25 million plus $100,000 per month to support ex-wife's child

Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian agreed Friday to pay more than $10 million in back child support plus $100,000 a month for a child his ex-wife has admitted is not his biological daughter.
Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, who was married briefly to the casino mogul after a long relationship, acknowledged during a child support battle that she had faked a DNA paternity test by using saliva she obtained from Kerkorian's adult daughter. She said the biological father actually was Hollywood movie producer Stephen Bing.
Michael Trope, the attorney for Bonder Kerkorian, filed the settlement Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. He declined to comment. Kerkorian's lawyer, Joseph Mannis, did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press.
Kira Kerkorian is now 12, and court papers have said that she has known for quite some time that she has "two papas." Kerkorian, 93, has had joint custody of the girl, who lives with her mother.
The settlement, which provides $100,000 a month until Kira turns 19 or until she graduates from high school, no longer is a full-time student or no longer is living with her mother full-time. After that, the settlement says, the child support will be reduced to $50,000 a month.
The agreement also provides for Kerkorian to pay expenses including school costs, equestrian expense, clothing, housing, travel, hobbies, automobile, food, beauty treatments, tutoring, entertainment, parties and pets.
Bonder Kerkorian, 45, a former tennis pro, was married to Kerkorian for 28 days in 1999. They had been romantically linked for years. Kerkorian, once the majority shareholder of what is now MGM Resorts International, is the legal father of the child because the couple married.
The legal battle over child support between Kerkorian and his ex-wife has been going on since 2002. Bonder Kerkorian originally sought $320,000 a month in alimony and child support. The current agreement includes no alimony.  Click the link below for the entire news story:
 $100,000 a month child support