Slaughter’s bill provides safeguards against misuse of genetic information 

The truth is supposed to set you free. But, without years of work by Western New York’s Rep. Louise Slaughter, learning the truth about your own genetic makeup could leave you free of a job, or of your health insurance.

After a 95-0 approval in the Senate Thursday, Slaughter’s Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act is heading back to another quick House vote. Then it will go on to President Bush, who has said he will sign it.

It has taken 13 years for Slaughter, a Fairport Democrat trained as a microbiologist, to get this part of the law to catch up to that part of science. The problem at first was ignorance, as few people even knew what genetic screening was. Then it was fear, as business interests worried about being saddled with genetically suspect workers or patients.

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Around 13 per cent of people who take out reverse mortgages do so to repay other debt.

This is one of the findings of a study into the reverse mortgage market commissioned by Sherpa, the industry body representing home equity release product providers in this country.

The paper, written by actuarial practice Trowbridge Deloitte, found the most popular use for equity release was to fund home improvements – with 28 per cent of people taking out reverse mortgages for this reason.

Repaying debt, such as clearing mortgages as people head into retirement, was the second most popular reason.

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Mike Melvin remembers the thrill of moving into his Atascadero home. Three years ago, he and his then-girlfriend had fallen in love with the cozy three-bedroom and its wood-burning stove and weatherbeaten white picket fence.

“It was our first home purchase,” said Melvin, who bought the house with no money down on an interest-only, fixed-rate mortgage that switched to a variable rate two months ago. “It’s like my life suddenly had meaning. It wasn’t the answer to all of my dreams, but it was a step in the right direction.”

Today, Melvin is behind on his loan payments and on the brink of losing the house. He said he’s contacted his lender for help, but so far the efforts have not been
fruitful.

“They’ve sent me a notice in the mail saying they’ve started the foreclosure process,” he said.

Melvin is one of many San Luis Obispo County residents who are struggling to hold onto their homes. While the number of foreclosures in the county is much lower than other California communities – including the counties of Riverside and San Bernardino (where just last month there were 1,750 and 1,337 foreclosures, respectively) – the sting is still being felt by homeowners from Paso Robles to Nipomo.

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An East Syracuse company is in trouble with the state attorney general tonight for sending out hundreds of thousands of misleading advertisements. Both sides reached a settlement today on the case.

The Attorney General says Upstate Capital, a reverse mortgage lender, targeted senior citizens by pretending to be a local non-profit organization.

In an ad sent out to over 625,000 senior New Yorkers, Upstate Capital says there’s a government program that can provide eligible seniors with monthly tax free income.

What the ad doesn’t say is that they’d be signing up for a reverse mortgage, a loan that will have to be paid back. Another problem with the ad according to the AG is that it appears to come from a non-profit organization when in fact they’re mortgage brokers.

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Two health insurance-related bills moved forward in the Colorado House of Representatives on Wednesday.

Only hours after it was approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday morning, House Bill 1389, sponsored by Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, got quick, preliminary approval from the full House.

Dubbed the Fair and Affordable Insurance Rates (FAIR) Act, HB 1389 would require health insurers to justify rate increases to Colorado’s Insurance Commissioner before the hikes take effect. The commissioner could deny the requests if profits, denied claims and reserves are deemed unnecessarily excessive or discriminatory.

Carroll has said the bill is intended to hold insurers accountable for their rate hikes and keep a lid on rising premiums. She has pointed out that 38 other states give regulatory agencies prior approval of insurance hikes.

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Q: We recently sold our home (in Maryland), and had a ratified contract. The homeowners association documents were delivered and received by the buyer, and the inspection was completed.

One week before closing, the buyer backed out, deciding he simply did not want our home. At this point, we have packed, scheduled movers and bought a new home. The deposit we received is only $5,000; in a different market we could have probably requested more. Can we sue for breach of contract? – Darryl

A: It is too late for your situation, but your first mistake was to take such a low earnest money deposit. If I am representing a seller, I want the seller to give my real estate agent (or the settlement agent) a minimum of 5 percent of the purchase price. You want the buyer to put up enough money so that he or she will think twice about walking away.

I will assume from your question that the buyer is in default. In many states, when a buyer enters into a contract to buy a condominium or a house in a homeowners association, the buyer has a fixed number of days in which to review the association’s legal documents and back out of the contract.

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Colorado consumers ripped off by unscrupulous insurance companies or agents can collect money that’s due them under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Bill Ritter.

The law, which takes effect in August, allows the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies and its Division of Insurance to demand repayment to consumers wronged by unlawful business practices. Previously, the state could only discipline a provider for misdeeds.

Repayments can be as little as $500. Consumer insurance information and complaint forms can be obtained at www.dora.state.co.us/insurance/consumer/consumer.htm.

Found here.

Plan may be solution for older borrowers whose assets are dwindling, but experts say beware 

Jane DelSordo has been so happy with her reverse mortgage from WSFS Bank that she agreed to appear in the bank’s newspaper ads.

The 73-year-old, who paid cash for her Chadds Ford, Pa., town home in 1987 after selling property from a divorce, said she did her homework before signing the papers about a year ago.

The loan would eliminate her payments of about $1,000 a month on outstanding debts, and still give her enough to renovate the entire house — including new windows, a new heater, and a hot tub downstairs.

“Basically, I’m spending my house, instead of spending my savings — which are limited,” DelSordo says. She still has more than $100,000 in home equity to tap as long as she lives in her home, she says. And the balance she owes will never grow beyond the value of her house.

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Even as home prices jumped earlier in the decade, conservative lenders in Vermont resisted high-cost, exotic loans. Today, as a massive U.S. housing bubble bursts, the state’s mortgage delinquency rate is less than 3%, while values are still stable.

In Nevada over the same period, home buyers gorged on unconventional loans, with 30% of Las Vegas borrowers taking out higher-cost subprime products in 2006. The state’s delinquency rate is above 7%, home prices have plummeted, and in some areas, a majority of borrowers owe more than their homes are worth.

Should taxpayers in Vermont be asked to bail out home buyers in Nevada? The answer now taking shape in Washington appears to be, “Yes.”

“That’s a tough one for most people living up in Vermont to wrap their arms around,” admits Ken Libby, owner of Stowe Realty in Stowe, Vt. “The majority of folks probably would say, ‘Why should Congress be bailing them out?’ ”

With housing prices plunging in some areas, housing starts at the lowest level since 1991 and foreclosures reaching the highest level since the Great Depression, the Democratic-led Congress, with some reluctance, is crafting legislation to provide $300 billion or more in loan guarantees to help distressed borrowers refinance into lower-cost, government-insured mortgages. In return for aid, lenders would have to reduce the loan principal, and homeowners would share with the government any profit when the house is sold.

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As the Colorado legislature races toward a hoped-for May 2 adjournment, a quartet of bills affecting the insurance industry are just now getting their initial hearings.

Three of the measures are rival versions of what we’d call “son of no-fault auto insurance.” In our view, all three should be tabled because it is too late to give such complicated issues the full public debate they need.

The fourth measure, House Bill 1389 by Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, is different. It’s a bad idea that we would oppose whenever it was introduced.

Carroll’s bill would give the state insurance commissioner the power to reject rate increases for health and automobile insurance. Substituting the pricing judgments of government bureaucrats for free-market competition is almost always a bad idea.

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