Good Morning, PIBbers!  The State of Oregon has legislated that all health benefit plans covering Oregonians must provide payment, coverage or reimbursement of at least $500 for a tobacco use cessation program for a person enrolled in the plan who is 15 years of age or older.  Enrolled Senate Bill 734, sponsored by Senator MORRISETTE; Senators BATES, MONNES ANDERSON and TELFER is effective January 1, 2010.  This is a great way to kick the habit and have someone else pay for it!  Read the rest of this entry »

As mentioned previously (click HERE for previous post), ProSchools has partnered with ClearCert Compliance in order to ensure that our LTC courses are fully-compliant with each individual long-term care insurer’s requirements regarding mandated training needs.  ProSchools is going to make sure that we are ClearCert compliant in each state we’re in so that our students have no concerns or issues while getting fully certified Long-Term Care insurance training.  Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Pibbers!  The life and health review session for February, 2010 is set.  We will be holding the review on February 23rd, 2010 from 10:00 am until approximately 4:00 pm at our Cedar Hills classroom location.  For directions to the classroom, click HERE.

There is no cost for currently enrolled ProSchools students; however the cost for non-ProSchools students is $95.00.  For those of you that are current ProSchools students, pre-registration is not required; just show up!  For those who wish to attend the session and are NOT ProSchools students, we welcome your participation and hopefully we’ll teach you a thing or two!  Please call 800-452-4879 to register!

Good morning everyone!  ProSchools is proud to announce that we will be entering the Golden state of California within the near future!  Quoted from 50states.com, I give you the following:

“The Golden State” has long been a popular designation for California and was made the official State Nickname in 1968. It is particularly appropriate since California’s modern development can be traced back to the discovery of gold in 1848 and fields of golden poppies can be seen each spring throughout the state.

Home to manifold professional sports teams including the Dodgers, Angels, Warriors, Lakers, 49ers, Giants, Raiders and more, California is one competitive state!  Wait…where’s the professional football team in L.A.?

Speaking of competition, ProSchools is poised to offer state-of-the-art professional license training that is going to blow away the competition.  Read on for more! Read the rest of this entry »

ProSchools is proud to announce that we have partnered with ClearCert, LLC.  ClearCert is an industry-leading provider of compliance services to the major Long-Term Care (LTC) insurance companies.  ClearCert, an Ohio corporation,  has entered into agreements with insurers and insurance educational providers to ensure compliance with the new LTC educational requirements mandated by the individual states and the NAIC’s Model Long-Term Care Act.  Read on for more! Read the rest of this entry »

The management and staff at ProSchools would like to wish all of you a very happy holiday season and a safe, warm and enjoyable New Year!  The holidays bring different things to different people and with that in mind, I bring you the following!  Read on for interesting details about the holiday season! Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning, PIBBERs!  For those of you that are studying for your Illinois insurance license, we have some news for you.  The Illinois Department of Insurance has changed the pre-license rules in several different ways that affect anyone in the middle of preparing for their insurance examination.  Please read on for details. Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Pibbers!  Some time ago, I wrote an article on the use of credit scoring in insurance and it generated a slew of responses.  Most of the comments were directed at the state and their authorizing carriers to use credit as an initial underwriting tool.  Since that legislation was signed into law, there have been some instances of insurers, well, not playing by the rules!  (shock!)  To read the previous post, click HERE.  Read on for information concerning the scofflaws (read “insurer”) that blamed their “error” on a computer glitch! Read the rest of this entry »

Good Day PIBbers!  The State of Oregon has enacted new legislation that governs how financial services professionals are regulated regarding the use of professional designations and other certifications.  To quote the Oregon Insurance Division website:

These rules set forth standards to protect consumers from misleading and fraudulent marketing practices with respect to the use of special designations and certifications in the solicitation, sale or purchase of, or advice made in connection with an insurance product or in providing advice as to the value of or the advisability of purchasing insurance.

To link to the Oregon Division rules page, click HERE

To link to the specific rule, click HERE

One of the questions that I am asked frequently deals with life insurance beneficiary designations made through the life insurance company and whether a last will and testament will alter this designation.  I give you the following e-mail sent to me from Stephanie R. in Denver, Colorado concerning this issue:

“Dear PIB, my father-in-law recently passed away.  We have found out that he has several life insurance policies that show his wife (my mother) as the beneficiary on both policies.  When reading his will, the attorneys discovered that he attempted to change who gets the life insurance money through the will.  As best as we can determine, no changes were ever made at the insurance company.  We have talked to his agent, the insurance company and anyone else with knowledge about the life insurance payment and it appears as if the will won’t change anything…it had to be done through the insurance company in order to be effective.  The reason I ask is that the will named my husband and me as the people who were supposed to get the money.  We don’t need the money, it’s just that my mother has a tendency to spend money on things that she doesn’t need and we’re worried that she’ll spend it foolishly.  Any advice?  Thanks, Stephanie. Read the rest of this entry »