David PR Group Client Kelsay Patterson Published in the Miami New Times

Entire Homestead City Council Sued for Leaking Sexts

By Kyle Munzenrieder Thu., Sep. 8 2011 at 3:26 PM

   Johanna Faddis

In 2009, the Homestead City Council wanted to fire City Manager Mike Shehadeh, but Shehadeh wouldn't leave without a good severance package. So the council, being as it is a Miami-Dade government body, decided to hire a private investigator. Shehedah, being as he is a Miami-Dade government official, of course had skeletons in his closet, including a habit of sending numerous sexts on his city-provided BlackBerry. Those sexts were leaked to the press, and now one of the objects of Shehedah's sexting binges is suing.                   

Johanna Faddis served as deputy city manager under Shehadah, but it seems Shehadah wanted Faddis actually under him. He sent her messages like this one:

"I have a problem! I cannot entertain another woman in my mind beside you. I am deeply in love with you girl. I am getting deeper and deeper into it."

And Shehadah was found to be visiting dominatrix sites during work. The head of the city's parks department, Robert Landen, was also found to be sending explicit sexts and sending racist jokes in the same scandal.

Those messages where then leaked to several members of the South Florida media.

Obviously, Shehadah got shown the door, but so did Faddis. The reasons given: "reduction in force." She's none too happy that the city council leaked the embarrassing messages to the press. Faddis is now suing and claims negligence, invasion of privacy, and defamation.

Named in the suit: the City of Homestead, the entire city council, Vice Mayor Judy Waldman, and the private investigation firm that turned up the messages.

"In the city's overzealous effort to bring down Mike Shehadeh, it failed to protect one of its own from collateral damage," Faddis's attorney, Kelsay Patterson, said in a statement. "Johanna Faddis never responded to Shehadeh's advances, but instead of viewing this as a potential case of sexual harassment against a married city employee, the city and council chose the sensational route and cast her as a participant in an adulterous relationship. Faddis has been irreparably harmed."

Follow Miami New Times on Facebook and Twitter @MiamiNewTimes.

Source: www.miamipublicrelations.com

David PR Group Client Published in National Underwriter

Life Settlement Video Stars Betty White

By NU ONLINE NEWS SERVICE

Published 9/14/2011
http://www.lifeandhealthinsurancenews.com/News/2011/9/Pages/Life-Settlement-Video-Stars-Betty-White.aspx

Wm. Page and Associates Inc. is turning to an 89-year-old performer to help it plant the idea of selling unwanted life insurance policies in the minds of baby boomers.

Wm. Page, Atlanta, the parent of the Life Program, will be promoting life settlements with a music video starring Betty White and Luciana, a British musician.

White is best known for playing Sue Ann Nivens on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and Rose Nylund on "The Golden Girls." She now plays Elka Ostrovsky in "Hot in Cleveland."

The music video features White dancing to Luciana’s "I’m Still Hot."

The Lifeline Program has released a 12-second clip from the video this week, and it will release one clip per week until the video premieres in October.

The video will be for sale on iTunes. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Los Angeles Zoo, Wm. Page says.

- Allison Bell
Source: www.miamipublicrelations.com

David PR Group Client Published in ProducerseSource

Life Settlements Create Golden Opportunity for Boomers and Your Agency

By Stephen Terrell

Life insurance settlements offer ethical independent agents the opportunity to help their over-insured clients evaluate the asset value of whole, universal and convertible term life insurance policies.  In the right circumstances agents earn commissions when policyholders cash out by selling the policies to legitimate investor groups.  Particularly the elderly, sick or retirees with changed personal circumstances often have pressing needs for cash within their portfolios.  Also, life insurers will soon be responsible for informing customers about options such as life insurance settlements and accelerated death benefits, according to a model act recently passed by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators.

In 20 years the life settlements segment has grown to more than $6 billion annually.  Insurance agents are the key, client facing and with a wealth of information about policyholders and their personal and family situations.  Settlement partners receive agent applications, process and underwrite them and prepare settlement offers with sources of capital prepared to purchase the policies for cash.  Here are some tips on how to start offering life settlements to your clients
Life insurance settlements have become an increasingly viable financial option in recent years for several reasons.  First, baby boomers represent the best-insured generation of all time.  Many boomers purchased life insurance to protect spouses and children or for estate tax reasons.  If a husband purchased a life insurance policy to financially protect his wife and children, for example, the policy may have become unwanted or unneeded once the children have grown or if the marital status has changed. Recent changes in estate tax law have made some life insurance purchased for that purpose unnecessary
Another reason for life settlement’s growing popularity is that the elderly insured simply need cash.    It’s an open secret that many Baby Boomers have little or no retirement savings set aside.  Prior to life insurance settlements, unneeded or unwanted insurance often lapsed and most of the value of the policies was lost.
When your clients express updated needs such as these, agents can turn to life settlement companies currently looking for individuals with policies that match these traditional circumstances.

Step 1:  Run the Numbers for Your Agency

Insurance agents can envision their roles in the burgeoning business and get started with an estimate of the potential, based upon the number of brokers, a review of potentially eligible policies in their database and a reflection on the personal circumstances of key policyholders.  A simple spreadsheet calculation indicates twelve brokers, each converting an average one $500,000 policy per month at 2-4 percent commission could mean as much as $3 million additional agency revenues per year.

Step 2:  Reflect on Your Potential Market

Seniors 65 or older with at least $250,000 in life insurance coverage, or younger policyholders with shorter life expectancy, are prime candidates. Your initial client consultation would determine if their estate planning factors have changed, making current life insurance policies unneeded or burdensome.  A life settlement appraisal requires you to complete a simple application and obtain permission to access the policyholders’ medical records.

Step 3:  Integrate Life Settlements into Your Product Mix

As with life insurance, equities and other financial services, agents who decide to offer life settlements will likely undergo an orderly process to fully understand the products and processes, train and install metrics  and build relationships with settlement partners and investors.  This process can include:

• A review to determine agent potential, construct a management plan and set financial targets that result in the agent’s final decision to engage.

• Training and education in life settlement products and a formal integration strategy with the agent’s other products and services, complete with tactics, a timeline and metrics to evaluate progress.

• Initial contact with the agent’s database, prioritizing customers with the greatest potential needs, leveraging marketing materials and resources to target specific niches.

Step 4:  Build Your Own Settlements Network

Once agents have made the decision to offer life settlements to their policyholders, they sign a letter of intent with a settlement partner, undergo training and begin to contact top priority clients to submit applications.
From the agency standpoint, life settlements become an important integrated revenue source.  In addition to the commissions earned, the process opens opportunities for new life insurance policy sales or alternatives such as estate planning with the same clients.  Today there is limited competition as agents are just awakening to the demographic goldmine of Baby Boomers.  However, in the medium term, life settlements can also help counterbalance life insurance cycles and provide financial as well as insurance solutions to client portfolio needs.
In the course of your professional life you have helped your elderly clients amass a pile of ‘chips’ they’ve used at each stage of their lives.  Now, you can be there waiting at the cash window for those who are interested in cashing out.

About Stephen Terrel

  Stephen E. Terrell is Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Public Relations of The Lifeline Program, a life settlement provider based in Atlanta, Ga. Terrell oversees all aspects of marketing including the P3 Program (Production – Performance – Profit), which enables agencies and agents to build a new market with life settlements, broadening revenue and increasing commissions. For more information, call 770-724-7300 or visit www.thelifeline.com. Or follow him on Twitter @LifelineProgram.


Source: www.miamipublicrelations.com

David PR Group Client Published in The Miami Daily Business Review

Investors put IRAs to work in real estate

Since U.S. debt was downgraded, investors have become more interested in alternatives to stocks and bonds when making investment decisions in their tax-deferred retirement accounts. One little-known option is real estate.

Paola Iuspa-Abbott

2011-09-06 12:00:00 AM

     Tax attorney Adam Bergman clearly remembers the week his phone began ringing off the hook after U.S. debt was downgraded and the stock market began a hair-raising roller-coaster ride.

Suddenly, people began calling his Miami Beach and New York offices about pulling their retirement money out of the stock market to buy tax-deferred real estate.

"We have been quite busy the whole year, but the week of the downgrade we saw a huge spike in call volume and Internet traffic, probably close to 35 percent," said Bergman, co-founder of IRA Financial Group.

His office helps retirement investors with the paperwork to set up IRAs and 401(k) retirement accounts that can be directed to buy real estate and other nontraditional assets. A self-directed 401(k) or IRA is created by rolling over a former employer's 401(K) account or transferring an IRA or Roth IRA into a self-directed 401(k) or IRA.

"People just want more stability," he said of investors seeking more control over retirement investment decisions. "They want to diversify."

As with most retirement funds, revenue generated by investments must go back into the self-directed retirement account to remain tax-deferred or tax-free. The revenue can't be touched without penalty until the account holder turns 59½, barring some exceptions.

Replacing bonds and stocks with brick and mortar is gaining momentum because home prices are affordable to the point where many retirement accounts can cover much of a purchase price. Most retirement account values generally range from $80,000 to $100,000, said Bergman, who often charges a one-time fee of $1,200 to set up a self-directed account.

Many account holders were locked out of the market during the housing boom. But since then, prices have dropped by more than 50 percent across South Florida. Now, they have an opportunity to jump into the housing market, said Glen Mather, a principal with Entrust Administration Services near Orlando.

His company establishes self-directed retirement accounts for 401(k) rollovers and IRA transfers moving from financial institutions like T. Rowe Price, Schwab and JPMorgan Chase, which hold stocks, bonds and mutual funds but rarely hold nontraditional assets like real estate, he said.

"For our investors, real estate is booming again," said Mather, who just signed a lease to open an office on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. He wants to tap into South Florida investors seeking to buy properties to be held in their retirement accounts.

"Most people want to invest in what they know and understand so if they live in Kendall, they will want to invest there," he said, adding he expects 80 percent of his South Florida clients to be buying properties in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

IRA and 401(k) administrators like Entrust charge fees to manage the account and do the reporting to the Internal Revenue Service. For example, Entrust charges $50 to open an account, $95 to execute real estate transactions and $295 a year per property held in the self-directed retirement account, Mather said.

With home values down, rental properties are generating income in the 8 percent range, said Jim Pamplin, who co-chairs the Dade Real Estate Investor Association.

He owns a Lauderdale Lakes condo through his self-directed retirement account and rents the property to tenants.

"If you want to be in the rental business, this is a great time," he said. "You can get returns now that you couldn't get before."

Mather said the fact that property values can't fall too much farther gives retirement investors more confidence than they now have in the stock market.

"There is safety in real estate if you buy it at a low enough price," he said.

Becoming A Lender

Retirement investors also are increasingly using their self-directed accounts to lend money to real estate investors.

"They become the bank, and they benefit from this investment like a bank would," said Eddie Miller, who buys single-family homes in Miami-Dade County and fixes them to flip or rent. A big part of his business is financed by investors using their self-directed retirement funds.

Miller often offers them returns of 8 percent to 10 percent, depending on the property. He takes loans for no less than $15,000.

"The money we get from them is backed by a note and a mortgage on the property," said Miller, chief executive of Miami Property Solutions. "When I sell the property, their money goes back into their retirement account."

Miller, a former construction project manager, began raising money from retirement investors three years ago as the credit markets froze. He usually borrows from one or two investors per home and never borrows more than 70 percent of the value of the remodeled home, he said.

"Usually, one person puts up the money for the purchase price and the other for the rehab cost," Miller added.

No Hand Free

Buying real estate to hold in a self-directed retirement account requires work, said Pamplin, who also lends his retirement money.

"It is not a hands-free occupation as it is investing in the stock market," he said.

Before buying a property or lending money, retirement investors need to educate themselves on specific real estate markets and analyze the risks.

"You need to understand property values in the area you are buying, the work that needs to be done in the property and the cost of owning it," he said, referring to property taxes and homeowner association fees.

Real estate consultant Dan Mathason said buying real estate through self-directed retirement accounts is not for everybody.

"Is it a good idea?" he asked. "It really depends on which real estate you are looking at, it depends on which stock you are comparing it to, it depends on your timing and depends on your expertise."

He said investors need to have enough money to deal with the unexpected, such as repairs, association fees and taxes even when the property is vacant.

"If there is a problem with the tenant, you eat the loss in the interim," said Mathason, a principal with Miami-based Ultra Strategy Group. "With a stock, you can buy it and sell it within two seconds, and there is no active management at all."

Paola Iuspa-Abbott can be reached at (305) 347-6657.

Source: www.miamipublicrelations.com