July 2022

4 Living Benefits of Life Insurance

4 Living Benefits of Life Insurance
4 Living Benefits of Life Insurance

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CHICAGO, June 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — One advantage of getting a life insurance policy is the death benefit. This helps loved ones replace the policyholder’s income and pay off debts if the policyholder passes away during the policy term.

However, life insurance policies can also offer living benefits while the policy is in force. These benefits can help the policyholder make the most of their premium payments. This article will dive into how life insurance with living benefits can help policyholders while they are alive and the policy is still outstanding.

1. Cash value withdrawals

Cash value is a growth component of permanent life insurance policies. Part of each permanent policy premium goes into this component, which then grows tax-deferred at a certain rate depending on the permanent policy type.

Once the cash value grows large enough, policyholders may be able to withdraw funds from it for any use, such as emergencies, large purchases, or college tuition for their children. Keep in mind that proceeds above the policyholder’s basis, or the amount initially invested, may be taxable.

2. Taking out loans against the cash value

Policyholders can also borrow against their cash value when it grows large

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July 6, 2022 by INSURANCE

The Lawyers in the Abortion Trigger-Law Trenches

The Lawyers in the Abortion Trigger-Law Trenches
The Lawyers in the Abortion Trigger-Law Trenches

Front row (from left): Astrid Ackerman, Nancy Northup, Hillary Schneller, Genevieve Scott, Caroline Sacerdote, and Kulsoom Ijaz. Back row: Adria Bonillas, Cici Coquillette, Michelle Moriarty, Jenny Ma, Alice Wang, Meetra Mehdizadeh, Jessica Sklarsky, Nicolas Kabat, Jen Rasay, and Rabia Muqaddam.
Photo: Tina Tyrell

Amid a terrible week for reproductive rights, there was a small reprieve: On June 27, days after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, a Louisiana judge blocked a spate of so-called trigger laws designed to outlaw abortion in the state as soon as Roe fell. Similar injunctions followed in Utah, Kentucky, and Florida, while in Texas a judge blocked a ban that had been on the books before Roe. Together, these rulings are temporarily keeping abortion legal in those states and signaling that there may be a way to jam up the new anti-abortion regime.

The injunction in Louisiana took many in the media by surprise, but it’s the product of years of spadework by the Center for Reproductive Rights, whose lawyers co-authored the suit challenging the trigger laws. “We started publishing ‘What If Roe Fell?’ ” — a state-by-state report on the consequences of overturning Roe — “in 2004 because we

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July 6, 2022 by LAW

Employment insurance benefits delayed for thousands of Canadians

Employment insurance benefits delayed for thousands of Canadians
Martin Courtemanche has been waiting for <a href=employment insurance benefits since December 2021. (Radio-Canada – image credit)” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/vlbZA98qLvEivvw_uOulNQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTcyMA–/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/fdoFL_qCVz0ZtxQS.jMNNg–~B/aD04ODU7dz0xMTgwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/https://media.zenfs.com/en/cbc.ca/400ee76dbeddbb447bc9e2573dd0c698″/

Martin Courtemanche has been waiting for employment insurance benefits since December 2021. (Radio-Canada – image credit)

The last few months have been trying for Martin Courtemanche. After suffering from depression last summer, he left his job on Dec. 6, 2021. What followed, he says, was an “infernal spiral.”

“I’m at the end of my rope,” he said.

More than six months have passed since he submitted his employment insurance application, and he has yet to receive a payment.

“I have to ask myself how I’m going to pay my rent, my groceries,” he said. “I’m lucky to have some savings. I maxed my credit cards. This is how we manage to survive.”

At a time when Service Canada is mired in passport processing setbacks, delays in obtaining employment insurance are also increasing. Many unemployed people say they haven’t received a penny, several months after filing a request.

The Service Canada representatives who spoke to Courtemanche first explained to him that the pandemic caused the delays, before letting him know that a document was missing from his file: a termination of employment letter.

“I ended the call and just

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July 4, 2022 by INSURANCE

Biden signs gun safety bill into law : NPR

Biden signs gun safety bill into law : NPR
Biden signs gun safety bill into law : NPR

President Biden signs into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act gun safety bill, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Saturday as first lady Jill Biden looks on.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP


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Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

President Biden signs into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act gun safety bill, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Saturday as first lady Jill Biden looks on.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

President Biden on Saturday signed into law the first major gun safety legislation passed by Congress in nearly 30 years.

The signing comes just over a month after the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school killed 19 children and two adults. That attack came 10 days after a racist mass shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket killed 10 Black people.

“While this bill doesn’t do everything I want, it does include actions I’ve long called for that are going to save lives,” Biden said just before signing the measure.

“Today, we say more than enough. We say more than enough,” he added. “At a time when it seems impossible to get anything done in Washington, we are doing something consequential.”

The legislation, which passed the House

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July 4, 2022 by LAW

Flood insurance fight in Mayfield

Though the community of Mayfield hasn’t had a flood for decades, residents are now shelling out thousands for flood insurance.

MAYFIELD, Pa. — Editors note: A previous version of this story indicated a $2.3 million federal grant was awarded to Mayfield Borough for the completion of a levee project. While the borough has been awarded a grant to clean the river of vegetation, the article has been updated to reflect that a possible $2.3 million grant has not yet been awarded.

Mayfield Borough officials tell Newswatch 16 that water from the nearby Lackawanna River hasn’t threatened this community in more than 50 years.

Despite a significant levee, many of the homes and businesses are now considered to be in the flood plain, and that distinction is costing them. 

The Lackawanna River flows gently on the outskirts of Mayfield, the water seldom rising up the walls of the levee that stretches more than a mile and a half. 

Mayor Al Chelik says the borough has seen significant flooding once, back in the early 1960s, but since the levee was installed, it hasn’t flooded at all. 

Still, FEMA says the levee doesn’t meet its criteria and recently changed the floodplain to

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July 3, 2022 by INSURANCE