​NY Mag comes out with headline “the Criel Kids Party” but gets in trouble for cropping out African Americans and others of color that were in the picture
 
Medical plane crashes outside of Philadelphia killing 6.
 
Trump announces tariffs on Canada Mexico and China.  Focusing on leverage on the border.  Canadians boo during the national anthem at sporting events after announcement.
 
Blockbuster trades announced in NBA moving major stars to teams that have strong brands.  Luka Donkic will now play with Lebron James and the lakers.  De Aaron Fox will now play with Wenbe and the spurs ensuring long term stability for both teams.
 
Secretary Rubio makes a big splash in first trip abroad getting agreement in Panama.
 
Dem crash Department of Education demanding entry to empty building.
 
USAID shut down courts pause it.  Dems freak out over shuttering if programs.  Rubio says he’ll asses good programs and start funding 
 
Trump creates wh faith office.
 
Trump says he’ll develop Gaza Strip make it the Riveria of Middle East.
 
DOGE staffers are doxed and threatened for their work.
 
RFK jr and Tulsi Gabbard confirmed.

​Trump announce Susie wiles as Chief of staff.  Wiles, football fans will know her father Pat summeralk, seen as wise choice
 
Stephen miller named deputy chief of staff of policy
Tom human named border czar
 
Lee Zeldan named EPA head signifying the potential end of the EPA
 
Bill self passes Fog Allen for most wins at Kansas
 
Vivek R and Elon musk named to fix government 
 
Trump picks matt gaetz to be attorney general
 
Pete hegseth nominated Secretary of Defense
 
John thune elected as Senate majority leader.
 
 

Southwest flight hit by Bullets at Dallas love field
 
Jake Paul wins in unanimous decision against Mike Tyson
 
Tulsi Gabbie’s nominated for Director of National Intelligence and is being attacked by former democrat colleagues.
 
Whoopi Goldberg faces backlash for defamatory comments against a bakery.
 
Spirit airlines files for bankruptcy 
 
Left turns on media hosts for sitting down for 90 minute interview with Trump.
 
Right goes nuts because Biden stands in back the of APAC conference.  President XI of China tells Biden he will only negotiate with Trump.
 
Bee Gees star dies
 
Gaetz withdraws nomination after resigning from house ​

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​Photo via Pexels

Guest Article by Nicola Reid
​
Embarking on adulthood brings exciting opportunities and new challenges, particularly when it comes to personal and financial security. As young adults navigate this transition, the importance of safeguarding both digital and financial realms cannot be overstated. In this article, courtesy of Solve Ur Puzzles, we’ll go over several things to keep in mind as you begin this part of your life.
Strengthen Your Online SecuritySafeguarding your online identity begins with crafting strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts, incorporating a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols to deter hackers. Enhance your security by activating two-factor authentication (2FA) on all critical accounts, ensuring that even if your password is compromised, the additional verification step remains a formidable barrier. This extra measure significantly bolsters your defense, offering a robust layer of protection.
Protect Your Personal InformationIn our digital world, vigilance is key when sharing personal information online—details like your Social Security number, birthday, or home address should be shared sparingly and only on secure, encrypted platforms. Be extremely cautious of where you share sensitive data, as identity thieves can exploit this information for fraudulent activities like opening fake accounts or securing loans in your name. Protecting your personal data from unauthorized access is crucial in preventing identity theft.
Stay Safe on Public WiFiPublic WiFi, while convenient, poses significant security risks, as unsecured networks can be prime targets for hackers looking to intercept personal information. Refrain from accessing sensitive accounts or making purchases on public WiFi; instead, use a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your online activity. A VPN provides a secure connection by creating a protected pathway for your data, shielding it from potential cyber threats.
Invest in Your Future Through Online EducationPursuing an online degree provides a flexible path to enhance your career and financial stability, enabling you to study while managing work commitments. An online computer science degree, for instance, equips you with crucial skills in IT, programming, and foundational computer science theory. With this qualification, you're better positioned to secure higher-paying positions and ensure long-term job security. This approach not only broadens your expertise but also aligns with a future of steady progress in your professional life.
Build an Emergency FundEstablishing an emergency fund is critical for managing life’s unforeseen expenses, such as health emergencies or sudden job loss. Begin by consistently allocating a portion of each paycheck into a savings account, aiming to cover at least three to six months of living expenses. Although it may accumulate slowly, having this financial buffer can prevent reliance on debt during emergencies. Persistent saving is crucial for maintaining financial stability in the face of unexpected events.
Stay Away from High-Interest Credit CardsUsing credit cards wisely involves selecting those with low interest rates to avoid the pitfalls of accumulating debt. High-interest cards can lead to a debt cycle if not managed properly, especially if you carry a balance that accrues significant interest over time. Opt for credit cards with minimal fees and ensure you pay off balances fully each month to avoid interest charges and boost your credit score. Prudent use of credit is essential for financial health and building a positive credit history.
Keep an Eye on Your Credit with Monitoring ServicesRegular monitoring of your credit score is vital for detecting unauthorized activities and maintaining your financial health. Subscribe to a credit monitoring service to stay informed of any new inquiries or accounts in your name, which can be early indicators of identity theft. These services provide alerts to suspicious activities, allowing you to act swiftly to mitigate potential damage. Monitoring your credit is a proactive measure that helps secure your financial reputation and assists in managing your overall financial wellness.
As young adults step forward into independence, the strategies they adopt for security and financial management can significantly influence their future stability. Embracing proactive measures and continuous learning are key to thriving in an increasingly digital and economically fluctuating environment. Ultimately, the efforts made today lay the groundwork for a resilient and prosperous journey ahead.

Georgia judge requires election workers to certify election results.


Media comes out stating their polls are not accurate now that Kamala Harris down trying to set up an explanation for a potential loss.


Pelosi said that she got Biden removed from ticket to secure his legacy


Barack Obama calls Black males insecure and sexist if they don’t vote for Kamala Harris


Kama calls for a national committee on reparations.


Boeing strike continues

Space x launches rescue mission for stranded astronauts 
 
Helene destroys parts of Florida Georgia North Carolina 
 
Ice releases numbers that in the last year over 425,678 convicted criminals from foreign countries were released into US after crossing the border.
 
IDF takes out Hezbollah leader and 20+ commanders and in subsequent attack took out the second in command putting a huge hole in leadership.  Houthi rebels fire missiles at Israel taken out by Iron dome
 
Kris Kristofferson dies at 88
 
Dikembe mutumbo dues at 58 of brain cancer.  Mutumbo the first African born player in the NVA known for his blocking and finger no no
 
Maggie Smith , famed actress, known by many as headmistress in Harry Potter dies at 93
 
Pete Rose dies at 83
 
California will allow eating drinking and smoking at Amsterdam style cannabis cafes
 
Dockworkers launch massive strike 
 
John Amos of good times fame dies at 84
 
Helene death total reaches 200
 
Dockworkers agree to suspend strike till January 15th
 ​

96% of union workers at Boeing goes on strike over not getting a 40% pay increase.  Thus can hurt Boeing and airline industry
 
Arizonas 19th century abortion law officially repealed
 
Another assassination attempt on Trump at Mar a lago
 
Sean combs arrested for sex trafficking 7 months after the raid on his houses
 
In a local interview Kamala Harris rambles  on and on about policy without saying anything.  This has been the fear of her campaign 
 
Teamster union passes on endorsing candidate due to their rank and file survey being leaning heavily towards Former President Trump and because they did not get sufficient promises from candidates, per their president. 59.6% for Trump 37.65 for Harris
 
Dow hits record after rate cut
 ​

Job report released only showed 142,000 below expectation, although unemployment dropped to 4.2%, the lowest since 2019.
 
X wins appeal to block CA social media law which was requiring semi annual reporting to attorney general how they are moderating content.
 
Kendrick Lamar will headline Super Bowl in. Ew Orleans halftime show 
 
Harvey Weinstein moved to riders island hospital for emergency heart surgery
 
James earl Jones, Darth Vader, dies at 93
 
Presidential debate occurred amidst different reactions.  Independent focus groups showed Trump won over independents 30-60 at a rate of 7 out of 10 per CSPAN but Kamala Harris won over younger voters at a rate of 8.5 out of 10 per cspan
 
Space X completes first successful commercial space walk.  
 
Top Dems advise Harrison not to do interviews to avoid being pressed on issues.  Bernie Sanders tried to ease worries of liberals by saying don’t worry Harrison is more liberal than me she just saying this to get elected.
 
Harvey Weinstein re inducted after conviction overturned 
 
Two more accounts against Trump in  GA case have been tossed
 ​

Biden administration keeping up ties with. Gina to see if they can finalize some actions beneficial for each country.
 
Trump campaign gets in trouble for filming while recognizing the 13 fallen from Abbey Gate attack at Arlington
 
Utah releases its first homeless mortality report, finding homeless in Utah die at a much faster rate and at a 35% younger age than the rest of their population.  Utah is estimated to have the fifth highest homeless population behind Oregon California, New York and Washington.  Nevada is inn6th.  Only California has published a similar report, and Utahs statistics puts them just behind them by a tenth of a point.
 
Kamala Harrison does her first interview since announcing her presidential run.  In a 18 minute interview she failed to impress and admitted she hasn’t switched her positions stating her values have not changed.  The optics of the interview were also off with her running mate towering over as she answered questions l.
 
California legislators close the loophole from their 2014 plastic bag ban in new bill clearly banning all plastic
 
Small town in Oklahoma rallies behind young student after the local public school bans him from flying the US flag on his truck, clogging up the streets with a flag parade.  
 
On ESPN Gameday, a texas A&M student wins 50,000 on the Pat McAfee kick challenge.
 
60 year old woman dies at her desk at her Wells Fargo office and is found 4 days later only after a foul order is detected.  
 
Far right party AFD is about to win two states in Germany the first for the far right since the end of WWII.
 
Angel Reese part of the best rookie class in the WNBA history breaks rebound record with 407.
 
Caitlin Clark adds to her record year breaking Tameka Catchings rookie record of most points scored.  WNBA has tripled their average attendance and has sold out almost 85% of their games due to the crop of rookies Angel Reese, Clark, Cameron Brink, Kelsey Martin and more.  All of these rookies were widely popular in college and had strong Social media presence along with NIL deals, bringing rise to strengthening players images before they go pro.
 
6 Israeli hostages, one of them a dual citizen with the US, in Gaza, were found executed in a tunnel.
 
Kamala Harris did not get a convention bump actually losing 3 points and is turning to Joe Biden for help joint campaigning through PA.  The only thing that increased was the number of positive Covid tests as almost 40% of attendees have tested positive
 
10 states have put abortion rights as part of constitutions, most are fair bills making it to viability instead of the ridiculous 6 week bans but these could affect election results favoring democrats as this is a major rights issue and can bring out vote
 
US seizes Venezuelan President Maduro’s plane for violating sanctions room’s and being illegally smuggled from us.
 
Jane’s Darren “Gidget” teen idol dies at 86
 
Russian missile strike kills 41 in Ukraine
 
Hunter Biden agrees to surprise guilty plea in tax case.
 ​

Volcanoes in Iceland dormant for over 800 years has erupted for the 6th time in 8 months.
 
Secret service puts 5 agents involved in Trump security detail on date of assasination attempt on admin leave
 
RFK jr suspends campaign and endorses Donald Trump
 
AZ man accused and arrested for threatening Donald Trumps life
 
Strong winds send trampoline flying into houses in Alabama 
 
Dodger player Shohei Otani becomes fastest player and only the 6th player in history to enter the 40-40 club (40 steals and 40 home runs in a single season) with a grand slam.  
 
Deadly knife attack occurs in Germany, Islamic state claims responsibility 
 
5 people arrested in the overdose death of Matthew Perry.
 
Israeli jets attack targets in Lebanon 
 
Kennedy family denounces RFK jr and calls him a traitor to family values
 
Tulsi Gabbard endorses Donald Trump
 
Telegram boss arrested in France for not providing French government and the US access to their encrypted network
 
NASA decides Boeing spaceliner not safe to ferry astronauts back so they are stranding them on the ISS until February when a space x plane can ferry them back.
 
Trump is reindicted with a more narrow focus on the charges to try to fit within the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year.  Essentially separating his comments from being presidential to that of a campaigner.  
 
Mexico suspends embassy relations with the US over us anbassador Samazar criticism over Mexico’s intention to change constitution before their recent election.  Salazar said it would destroy democracy in Mexico
 
Aurora Colorado is under siege by a migrant Venezuelan gang pending asylum claims.  They are taking over apartment buildings by force having them pay their rent to them.
 
Group of Migrants near Jamul California have tried to board a school bus with children on board, they were removed by parents two days in a row
 
Caitlin Clark breaks 3 point record for rookies in WNBA adding to her records this year including assists.
 
 
 ​

Kamala Harris released her economic plan.  Overall the plan followed the Trump Tax cut agenda:  higher child care credits, home buyer credits, higher credits for health insurance.  But she also pushed federal government price controls on all items as her counter to inflation, highlighted she wants to end what she calls price gouging and agreed with AOC on increasing tax rates up to 70%
 
A 13 year old girl dies in Christine Texas after an unknown accident caused life threatening injuries that her mom and step dad tried to treat with smoothies and vitamins for 4 days before finally calling 911
 
US confirms Trump Campaign was breached by Iran and that Iran is trying to keep Trump from being elected.
 
RFK jr. weighs supporting Donald Trump and backing out race.
 
Bill pastel, long term New Jersey congressman dies at 87.
 
Phil Murphy replaces Bob Menendez with Murphy’s former chief of staff.  George Hrlmy will serve out the year as Menendez term ends in December and there is currently two candidates running for his seat.  Murphy followed Gavin Newsom example of appointing someone not interested in running but will focus on interim needs of state.
 
Department of Labor releases a job correction stating they overstated job creation by 800,000.  The administration says it’s a Donald Trump lie although it came from their own administration 
 
California trying to pass a bill making it easier with government dollars for illegals to buy homes.
 ​

Susan Wojicki a significant leader in the rise of google and also CEO of you tube dies at 56


Us men’s basketball wins 5th straight gold under lights out shooting by Steph Curry


Women’s water polo chokes and loses to Netherlands making it first time us women don’t make podium


Men’s water polo wins bronze.  


Is team dominates at the Track


Tim Walz, vice president candidate, under attack by his former unit for stolen valor, desertion and misstatement of rank


In 2023, it is estimated over 65,000 rape related pregnancies occurred in states with complete abortion bans and no rape or incest exclusions including Texas and Oklahoma


US approved 20 billion weapons package including jets for Israel, creating a divide between Muslims and the Harris Campaign after she promised it won’t happen over the weekend.


UAW files workforce intimidation claim with Department of Labor on Elon Musk and Donald Trump.


Backlash from Small Business Owners over Tim Walz and how he shutdown businesses during Covid pandemic and put people in jail and took their businesses. 


Ilhan Omar wins very narrow primary avoiding being the third squad member to lose.


University of Columbia president after almost a year of turmoil and missteps and having her campus taken over has resigned


Vance and Walz agree to a debate in October.  Why do all the debates. Happen so late?  Primaries are later in the year, at least this year.
​

Trump blows up his campaign questioning Kamala Harrison race origins, and race issues in general at the NABJ, and saying he’s the victim of racism causing republicans running for office to run from him.  
 
IOC defends its admittance of two boxers in the female category whom have failed gender  tests in the past and then put beatings on competitors who withdrew from competition causing an uproar.
 
Grant Fisher runs an amazing race holding off race favorites for podium spot I n the men’s 10,000 meter track event.  Fisher claims Bronze and is only the 4th American make to medal in this event ever.
 
After historic plea deal with the architect of 9/11 attacks, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revokes plea deal and fires defense official who signed off.
 
Katie Ledecky closes out her Olympics with a record 9 golds most of any individual woman 
 
Us swim team wins most medals but loses to Australia in Golds.  US 4x100 mixed medley relay team closes program with gold and a world record
 
Ryan Crouser makes history winning 3rd straight gold medal in shoutout. Joe Kovacs takes Silver giving US 1-2
 
President Meduro of Venezuela claims he won the election although voting records show opposition leaders won and sending the opposition leaders into exile.  Government hit squads are rounding up opposition to repress this.  The US Spain and over 45 countries have acknowledged opposition leader Gonzalez and President Javier Mile of Argentina is leading the charge to have him removed 
 
Scottie Scheffler comes back from 5 strokes down to win Olympic Gold becoming the first world number one to win gold and bringing home gold for the US.
 
Ellison takes fifth medal in Archery losing by a millimeter on a sudden death arrow
 
Kristin Faulkner, who did not qualify for Olympics was given a spot by someone who decided to other events, wins the Olympic women’s cycling road race with an amazing breakaway bringing back gold to the US for the first time since 1984 Olympics
 
Novak Djokovic, The Joker, becomes only the fifth person to win the golden slam, bringing home Olympic gold in tennis.
 
Bobby Finke becomes the lone US men’s swimmer to win gold at Paris Olympics with an amazing 1500 meter race and breaks the world record held by one of the Chinese athletes who were caught doping in Tokyo, repeating his Tokyo title and becoming only second man in history to repeat 1500 golds 
 
Noah Lyle’s wins 100m run first American in 20 years in a photo finish won by .005 seconds
 
Bangladesh prime minister resigns after weeks of protest
 
Ukrainian high jumper wins gold for her countrymen 
 
Algeria Kaylia Nemour wins gold in inventory bars, become first gymnast from African nation to win a medal
 
Federal judge rules Google is a monopoly
 
Harris picks Minnesota Gov tim walz as running mate
 
Cole shocker shocks world and wins 1500m track with us taking gold and bronze
 
Cori Bush, becomes second “squad” member to lose primary this season as democrats show support over Israel
 
USA wins first ever gold in women’s Team Pursuit
 
Sydney Mclaughlin lerone becomes first woman to win gold in 400m hurdles twice ​

Japanese Olympic Gymnast captain dismissed for underage drinking and smoking


Houston politician and African American trailblazer for human rights and current Congressional representative for the Houston area, Sheila Jackson Lee, dies after battle with cancer.


Woman dies in a gym pool near Las Vegas after struggling for over 20 minutes. Video shows multiple people walking by her on the pool deck as she struggled in the water to survive and as multiple people were swimming next to her.


President Biden steps aside from the campaign saying he isn’t well.  This is driving additional comments about him stepping down as president.  This also leads to a potential open convention.  No knowledge of who will take over.  At First Joe Biden did not endorse Kamala Harris  for president but came out an hour later and endorsed his vice president. Behind the scenes it is reported that Nancy Pelosi was instrumental in getting President Biden to drop out to save down ballot races.  He is officially now a lame duck president


Podaj Togescar wins 3rd in a row Tour de France


Michelin announces they are bringing their Michelin Guide to Texas elevating texas restaurants 


Crowdstrike which secures most of the world’s companies and governments was affected by a Microsoft outage that crippled the globe across industries halting commerce for over 28 hours.


After Biden withdraws from race, stock market jumps up 500 points immediately afterwards.


Paris is hosting the Summer Olympics.  The water events, non indoor swimming, are under danger of being held due to the Seines’ environmental condition bringing back memories of Rio where hundreds of athletes got sick.  France’s measure is the ability bathe, 8 years ago you could not bathe in the Siene now you can bathe 4 out of 7 days with goal to be 6 out of 7.  Brings up additional concerns about Los Angeles water quality as well, however their levels are already lower than Rio and Paris.


Le Bron James will be flag bearer for US in Paris


Israel bombs Yeomen in retaliation for Houthi missiles hutting Tel Aviv.


Secret Service Director tells Congress they failed to protect former President Trump.


Secret Service Director resigns after a tough grilling on Capital hill


Israeli Prime Minister addresses Joint Session of Congress, but multiple democrats are boycotting including Vice President Harris so that they do not appear showing support for Israel so they don’t lose the Islamic vote.


Many democratic groups including BLM are calling on DBC to have an open process and are very upset she was coronated as the presidential candidate putting some major concerns that she will shore up much needed constituencies.  Making claims that the party is hypocritical and a party of oligarchs not democracy.


Anti Israel protesters vandalize DC during Netanyahu visit and speech destroying monuments and blocking traffic.


In a huge win for the Gig economy companies, Uber Lyft and others win case in California to treat their providers as contractors dealing a huge blow to unions.

Shark attacks have moved from Florida to Texas waters.   Us Coast guard  warns people not go in water off South Padre Island and Brownsville  after multiple shark attacks


In a historic vote in the UK the Labour Party trounced the Conservative Party ending a 14 year 5 prime minister run and countering the right wing movement in the rest of the European area where conservatives are trouncing the left in multiple countries.  The Labour Party won over 400 of the 650 seats forcing a major power shift, and running on hiring more teachers and cutting wait times at NHS by hiring more professionals amidst a wave of higher inflation.


The US added 206,000 jobs in June


Kansas Supreme Court rules the state constitution protects Abortion rights cementing Kansas as an abortion haven amidst a conservative region.


China through an agreement with the Biden administration starts to crack on fentanyl suppliers in china


Alec Baldwin starts his criminal Trial on accidental death on a movie set.


In the second round of French parliamentary elections the moderate and far left parties coordinated to beat the far right by removing their place candidates creating a hung parliament 


Rescued Israeli hostage suing US non profit for supporting hamas and leading to his capture

​

​There is a long running anecdote about what is worse: Used car Salespeople or Insurance People.  Other industries might be able to be thrown in there as well, but for the purpose of this article we will focus on insurance. 
There are many memes out there of the sketchy things that insurance people use, and how they communicate.  There is one group that uses the types of cars they drive as the reason why you should buy insurance from them.
Essentially, Insurance has a bad reputation, and because of that there is distrust about insurance. Enter Financial Advisers who might be the defensive line between consumers and insurance.  Now there are many ethical and above-board insurance agents out there, the few examples of bad actors we know of similar to any industry there are people who are driven for reasons that are not about the client.
Focusing on the client’s needs, read fiduciary although that is a term that divides the industry, rather than the commission or revenue is taking a stronger hold in the insurance industry.  However, fiduciary, in the sense it is applied, does not mean that commission is bad, or you should find the lowest possible price on insurance policies.  Pricing, commission, and client’s best interest do go hand in hand, and may differ from product line to product line. 
This is why advisers need to improve their relationship with insurance.  The drive for the lowest price and that high price means people are sold” rather than helped needs to be changed, and that change comes from Financial Advisers.
First, the importance of insurance needs to be addressed and established for the client.  Insurance can take a portion of their cash flow (let’s say 7% for all types of insurance: Life, Disability, LTC (if appropriate) Auto, and Home) and offload the greater risk.  The offloading of risk is what advisers look at and because of that they want the lowest cost products to minimize what is spent in offloading that risk.  When focusing on pricing though there may be some things that might be missed.
Auto and Home Insurance is an excellent example of this price to benefit picture.  Auto and Home also share a distinction, unlike most insurance, where there are specific laws or forces requiring individuals to have these types of insurance.  Homeowners or Property Insurance is usually required by the bank or a HOA or a lease, and auto insurance is required in all 50 states at some level.  Because they are required, we go ahead and get the insurance, but we want to make sure we pay the lowest, thus we shop constantly for that lower price.  When we get that lower price though, we are not aware of what we might be giving up to get that lower price, and because of the distrust of insurance agents inherent in society we may not fully listen to them explaining the differences and just push for lower pricing, and unfortunately find this out when we go to claim.  But having insurance is a requirement so we meet the minimum requirements to do that and feel we covered as pricing does not always compute with consumers to value received.
Disability insurance is a splendid example of that.  Many consumers obtain their disability insurance through work and obtain coverage at an extremely low cost and thus think they are properly covered.  However, a lot of times that lower price has some sacrifices, benefit period, definitions, etc.  Thus, an adviser may recommend a supplemental individual policy, but both the adviser and the client tend to be shocked by the pricing.  Pricing for individual disability insurance pricing is more expensive for a few reasons: 1. You are paying the full premium, not being subsidized by your company, 2. It is calculated based on your age and your situation not in a general sense of your company, and your gender can affect it as well and 3. You are getting better definitions and value for what you are paying, thus you will pay more for that policy.  If you do not have Disability Insurance through your employer, or you are the employer, and you try to obtain insurance on your own sometimes the price may be shocking.  There are no legal requirements to own Disability Insurance, unless in some rare situations a bank requires you to have a policy, so this would be a luxury purchase by definition (not needed but a nice have).  Thus, pricing is even more important with this product line, but if the only focus is price, then the client may not be serving their best interests.
The three types of policies I just mentioned here are all what are called definitional policies.  This means that the definitions of the policies matter and will affect pricing but more important claims. Thus, they may become more expensive than what you originally thought, you pay less in premiums but do not cover what you were expecting and thus you pay more out of pocket on the claim and become more expensive for you.
Now, the policies I have not mentioned are what usually cause a lot of issues.  Permanent policies.  There are three permanent policies that are based on a term chase, Universal/Guaranteed Universal Life, Variable Universal Life, and Indexed Universal Life, and there is one true policy that is whole life, Whole Life.  The UL policies all have good fits for an insurance portfolio.  The Guaranteed UL is a permanent death benefit, does not build cash value for very long, and provides a long-term death benefit.  Usually, these policies are used for estate planning or to provide a pure death benefit.  The current Assumption ULs are outdated and used more for conservative options; Whole Life is a better fit for that (explain later). The Indexed and Variable Universal Life Policies are where some controversy occurs.  They are market adjacent or dependent, and VUL’s can have fees that may make them more expensive than other options.  However, IUL’s especially have a good fit in the industry and for solutions. 
The problem with IUL’s is they are often implemented underfunded or funded at simply the target level (read commission) and may not perform the way they are designed.  Although sometimes they do perform, usually they are shown as a cheaper option, but because of how they are being designed, and may not be getting the maximum value out of them.
Whole Life Policies also get a bad rap.  They are the most expensive cash value policies, but they do provide true guarantees.  Because of the minimum guarantees, whole life policies can be a great addition to the portfolios of clients.  Business owners and several cultures like the guaranteed columns on the illustrations and look at everything else as extra.
Term, though, can cover most of the needs a client has for insurance.  Cash Value policies should not be used to cover an insurance need completely, but to provide for the permanent needs a client has for insurance.  If a client has a 2MM need, I personally feel a majority of that need can be covered by term, but maybe a 100 or 250,000 should be with a cash value policy.  This will provide a death benefit for the client’s life, but also can provide some supplemental needs if appropriate.  Determining the permanent need is easy.  Most financial advisers make the decision or have the opinion that as assets grow the insurance need decreases.  While this is true for the overall need, liquidity of those assets], although large, may be hard to free things up, so I always advocate what would be needed if there is all the net worth in the world and someone dies for 3-6 months.  That is the permanent need, so that fire sales do not need to be done.
There are scenarios where large death benefits on a cash value policy do make sense though.  Usually when you are doing a shorter pay strategy, you need to put more money in, thus, to provide for a non-modified endowment contract, the death benefits need to be larger.  These shorter pay strategies are generally when you have robust portfolios elsewhere and you are transferring some value into a different structure.  These are common but they are not a 40-year payment commitment, usually a 10-20 year.  I know there are many out there that will counter this in different arguments, but this is simply my opinion.
Changing the relationship advisers have with insurance, and subsequently consumers have with insurance, form simply a commodity to offload risk, but to a tool to where it can minimize exposure but we need to identify what that exposure is, becomes vital to making sure we are not under or over exposed. 
Advisers that look at insurance products as a tool rather than a competition to their advice or as a bad thing, help clients protect their risk, minimizing their cost, but having the most accurate exposure identified.  This is why advisers need to change their relationship with insurance.  Instead of it being a negative or a cost, how can we make insurance be a part of the planning process and be part of the solution?
I am not advocating selling the most expensive products here, instead, trying to find a balance.  We know that Home and Auto is usually required.  Life, Disability and in most states LTC is not required, consequences of not having these though can be pretty severe if they are not held.  The advocation here is to focus on the definitions of the policies and embrace what these insurances do for the client and look at their best interest beyond just the cost, but what value are they getting for it.  

Supreme Court ruled that federal agencies cannot interpret the law written if it was vague, restricting the agencies from creating their own interpretations of laws.


They also ruled that cities and states can use anti camping rules to deter homeless.


In a 6-3 ruling the court also ruled that the obstruction clause that was used to charge Jan 6 defendants giving them out to get cases dropped.


Texas Supreme Court upheld gender affirming care ban for children


Another huge ruling from the Supreme Court puts the power of lawsuits back into the plaintiffs hands ruling that bankruptcy settlements need to be adequate and not benefit the company.  This was in conjunction with thePurduePharma lawsuit.


Reformist enters runoff in Iranian presidential election with the lowest turnout in Iranian history 


Hurricane Beryl becomes first major hurricane in the Atlantic, setting all types of records, including earliest cat 3 stirm, earliest cat 4 storm in the season.  This is bringing worries that the season will be worse in severity than expected and also in storms


Trump immunity case is ruled on in 6-3 extending presidential immunity to all formal acts while in office but informal acts are not included.  They then sent the case back to the lower court for them to interpret how the ruling affects the case


After dismal debate performance Biden says he will not be pushed out amidst major dems calling for him to resign