Just Got Word

Watch the video . (thanks Tim)

For a number of reasons, both good and bad, companies, unions and benefit funds are faced with difficult business results that lead to reductions in employee benefit 'entitlements.' Examples would include measures like reduced monthly pension amounts and increased participant cost sharing in medical benefit plans. But there is no need to stick your head in the sand, and, in so doing, keep participants (ne: recipients) in the dark. What is needed is a communications plan to create an actionable strategy to keep everyone informed and up-to-date. Too often, communications is an afterthought to lengthy and painful financial strategy sessions.  It doesn't have to be. At Just Got Word, we specialize in putting together participatory communication action plans that get everyone on the same page.  We find this to be very supportive of employee recruiting and retention goals.

Just Got Word LLC has been retained by Factuarial, a New York-based actuarial services firm, to design and execute a social media strategy to help fuel Factuarial's ongoing growth.  Just Got Word will redesign Factuarial's website, and create a vibrant network of social media outlets to ramp up their expanding presence. We do social media, and we do it well.  Let us do it for your firm.  We are creative, fast and reasonably priced.  Let us help you wake up and energize your world.

For those of you wondering what the future holds for union pension plans, here's a quick glimpse of what the future will bring.  This just in from the Duluth News Tribune: "An estimated 700 people packed Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday to oppose major pension cuts proposed by the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Plan. One by one the Teamsters, many of them retired, stepped to the microphone to ask the U.S. Treasury to reject the cuts and find a different solution to the sea of red ink threatening to swallow the giant retirement fund. “We worked hard for our money,” said Teamster Dennis Henderson of North St. Paul. Others angrily described the proposed cuts as unfair and devastating. Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury appointee who hosted the session, said he was determined to make sure retirees were heard. It’s the seventh feedback session on the cuts he’s held around the country. There was a similar turnout for a session in Detroit on Monday. ...

Kudos to Amy Howe of ScotusBlog for a well written 3/4/15 piece on the oral arguments presented to the Supreme Court on the merits of continuing the "state-based" Obamacare subsidy (King v. Burwell). If you don't have the time or the interest in reading the article, but you are interested in knowing if the subsidies will be killed off and spawn an insurance "death spiral," then let me sum it up as per Amy's interpretation of the questions and answers between counsels and judges. The judges tipped their hands by the questions they asked and the concerns that they raised. They are very much behind keeping things exactly the way they are now. As Amy puts it: "Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg all seemed like solid votes for the federal government, defending the subsidies, while the challengers could clearly count on the votes of Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito." I wasn't a math major, ...

Just Got Word LLC was recently awarded a custom website development contract by a major construction company based in Colorado.  Just thought we should get the word out that we can help your organization design and post custom websites.  If you need your old website replaced by something imaginable and creative, please contact us.

It's tough for financial writers to come up with new material so they have to be creative.  Unfortunately, the following attempt at saying something new demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the current bond market, which affords no opportunities for the small investor.  In fact, it's safe to say that with the current benchmark bond interest rates in play, the bond market is dead. This is one of the main reasons the Dow has surpassed the 17,000 mark -- money that would otherwise go into a vibrant bond market is instead finding its way into equities markets, and driving up stock values along the way. In the article, "Retirement Investing, Are You Doing It All Wrong?" the writer refers to an expert economist who argues investors should own more stocks the older they grow, not fewer, which also means those approaching retirement should cut back their participation in the bond market. What bond market is this author referring to? There is currently no bo...