5 Dental Coverage Pitfalls for Wisdom Teeth Removal

What kind of common coverage pitfalls for wisdom teeth removal should you be concerned about? Sifting through all of the different plans offered by the major companies can be a daunting task. There are Guaranteed Acceptance Plans, Different Levels of Coverage, Different Benefits, and more. What sorts of things can you expect from your Wisdom Teeth Dental Coverage?

1. A lot of the major corporations have no dental coverage for the most basic plans. This means you may want to look at having more coverage if your family includes children who may need to get their wisdom teeth out. If you haven't had your wisdom teeth removed, you may also want to go with more wisdom teeth dental coverage.

2. Most plans offer between 50-80% coverage for wisdom teeth removal. The amount of wisdom teeth dental coverage varies typically with the comprehensiveness of the plan.

3. There are often waiting periods involved in the plans. Some plans have three month no claims waiting periods (Great West Life Sonata Plan), while other companies have a standard 6 month no claims waiting period (Blue Cross).

4. Plans frequently offer greater maximum dental coverage after several years into the program. Initially you can expect lower coverage, and as time goes on from years one, to years two, and often into year three you can often receive more coverage in cash value. If your current health plan isn't very good, you can switch easily and be back at maximum coverage within three years. However, be wary of switching often, as your overall coverage over the long haul will suffer.

5. Accidental Dental coverage varies between different dental service providers. Some offer 100% coverage on all plans except their Guaranteed Acceptance Plan. Other providers only offer accidental dental coverage on their more comprehensive coverage policies.

Remember that getting adequate dental coverage in your health plan is important. Typical dental expenses that are often covered in a dental plan include:

Checkup $128
Fillings $50-$217
Root Canals $390 - $806
Denture Relines $149 - $361
Removal of four impacted wisdom teeth $423 - $1318

Be sure to consult an agent who is familiar with the different health plans available to you. The plans are quite comprehensive, and it takes a lot of time to get up to speed on what all the different major providers offer. Insurance brokers shop around to all the different providers, and find the plan that offers the best benefits for you and/or your family.

Life happens and it can foul up your RRSP for you

Mr. X just collapsed an RRSP for nearly $50,000. I explained the deep tax consequences he would experience, suggested alternatives, but still he insisted, so we got him his money. Why was he drawing this cash from his RRSP?

His wife had gotten a better job offer to improve her career, and this involved relocating. Since his RRSP was a spousal RRSP the last three years of her contributions were taxed back at her higher tax rate when they withdrew that money. Also the extra income in his name will bump him up into a higher tax rate. The good news is they had about $35,000 left to use for their relocation moving expenses.

On the broader picture why do so many people raid their RRSPs before retirement?

Some take advantage of the Homebuyer Plan or the LifeLong Learning Plan; these have been introduced in recent years. Excluding these two programs how much money comes out?

StatsCan reports that nearly 39% of RRSPs are raided and about half of these people make several withdrawals before retirement. Many times these withdrawals bump people into higher tax brackets so they actually pay more in taxes than the tax deduction they got in the first place.

This is only one reason why I suggest that people who are not over age 35 and don't have over $35,000 saved outside an RRSP shouldn't start an RRSP program. Another reason is that careers frequently lead to higher incomes in later years so wouldn't it be smarter to tax advantage of the higher taxes associated with those incomes involved with career advancement?

Using up RRSP room in early years may not be so smart. Invest outside the RRSP first. Always check with a financial planner, but remember many financial advisers do buy into the large company advertising which is geared to making money for their shareholders and is not always a good deal for the client.

If you are in business there are only five ways out.

You sell your business, you retire, you die, you go bankrupt or your become disabled. Are you prepared?

Entrepreneurs are optimists in general. They believe they can achieve their dreams and move ahead into ventures where many people who fancy themselves to be realists would not dare to attempt. The problem with this optimism is when we discuss disability. They tend to realize they are doing what many would not, so they believe they can do what others cannot. Many of them under value their contribution to their business. So here are a few questions to answer honestly for yourself:

Could your business operate profitably without you if you were sick or injured for six months?

If you said yes, and you believe that is true, then why don’t you take six months vacation each year? Honestly, if you are not needed why do you show up each day?

Could your spouse take over your responsibilities while you are sick?

Really? Can your spouse do what they do now, and in addition to that take care of you plus run your business for you?

Do you believe you will be able to run your business from a wheelchair or bed?

Have you given proper value to your sharp decision making ability? What if your disability or your medication or treatment lessen your alertness or altar your thinking? What if you feel ill and aren’t up to decision making? What happens to the business? What happens to your employees? Your family?

There are several solutions and many variations of these which can be adapted to suit your particular situation. Consider a buy sell agreement in the event of illness. Many people get it all set up in the event of death, but fewer business have a proper buy sell that deals with disability. Another option is disability insurance for your personal income protection, so your business doesn’t get drained paying you when you are not helping out at work. Another form of disability insurance for business owners is business overhead insurance. Business overhead Insurance will pay your routine business expenses such as phone, hydro, office expenses and in some cases even office staff usually up to one year or at the most two years while you recuperate or arrange a sale of the business.

If there are partners or several executives there is an income replacement agreement which can reduce after tax expenses that can range into thousands of dollars annually when compared to individual disability insurance policies. The Tax Planning and Financial Planning pay off. Make sure you have a life insurance and disability insurance specialist as part of your adviser team. Accountants and lawyers are necessary but they are not the whole team.

By Gordon Hughes CFP who can be reached at www.SmartChoiceLife.com or call 1-800-471-0411