Insurance & Retirement Guides

Plain-language guides on Medicare, health coverage before 65, life insurance, and retirement income from Way Maker Insurance Group in Cumming, GA.

Questions Worth Asking Before You Sign an Annuity

The short answer: before signing an annuity, get plain answers to a short list — how long the money is committed, which number on the statement is actually yours, what any optional feature costs, what happens to the money when you die, and how the person selling it is paid. Any of those answered vaguely…

What an Index Annuity Actually Does — and What It Doesn’t

The short answer: a fixed indexed annuity credits interest linked to a market index, with a floor that protects your account value from index losses and a ceiling that limits how much of a good year you keep. You are not invested in the market and you do not own the index. What you trade…

Life Insurance With a Health History: What’s Still Available

The short answer: a health history rarely closes the door on life insurance — it usually changes which door you go through. There are three levels of underwriting, from full questions and medical records down to no questions at all, and each asks less in exchange for costing more. A decline from one company is…

Final Expense Insurance: What It Covers and Who It Fits

The short answer: final expense insurance is a small permanent life policy sized to cover a funeral and the bills that follow, rather than to replace an income. It does not expire, the premium stays level, and the health questions are short or absent. The trade is that per dollar of coverage it is expensive…

Do You Still Need Life Insurance After 65?

The short answer: after 65, life insurance stops being about replacing a paycheck and starts being about specific gaps — a surviving spouse’s income drop, final expenses, a debt that would outlive you. Many people need less than they think. Some need it for the first time. The honest way to decide is to name…

Retiring Before 65: Bridging the Gap to Medicare

The short answer: retiring before 65 means buying your own health coverage for a known number of years, and health insurance is usually the largest cost people fail to budget for. The bridge has two halves: covering the gap years, and handing off cleanly to Medicare. Both are planned before you retire, not after. Key…

Losing Job Health Coverage: What to Do First

The short answer: losing job-based health coverage opens a special enrollment window of about 60 days to buy your own plan — and it runs from the date coverage ends, not from the day you get around to it. You have three routes: continuing the employer plan, an ACA Marketplace plan, or a private plan…

The ACA Subsidy Cliff Is Back for 2026

The short answer: the temporary expansion that removed the income ceiling on Marketplace premium tax credits expired on 1 January 2026. The original rule is back: above 400% of the federal poverty level, the credit is zero — not smaller, zero. One dollar of income over the line can change what a plan costs for…

Does Medicare Cover Assisted Living?

The short answer: No — Medicare does not pay for assisted living. Not the apartment, not the meals, not the daily help with bathing and dressing that defines it. What Medicare continues to cover is your medical care while you live there: doctor visits, hospital stays, covered therapy, even hospice. The residence itself is entirely…

Does Medicare Cover Oxygen and Medical Equipment?

The short answer: Yes — durable medical equipment is a core Part B benefit: oxygen equipment, CPAP machines, walkers, wheelchairs, hospital beds, and more, when a doctor orders them for use in your home. You pay the usual 20% after the deductible. The detail that decides whether the process is smooth or maddening is the…