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Exerpt from Supreme Knights Address on INSURANCE AND INVESTMENTS If you’ve read the pope’s new encyclical on Charity in Truth, the pope identified the behavior that led directly to the current recession. He blamed “speculative use of financial resources that leads to the temptation of seeking only short-term profit, without regard for the long-term sustainability of the enterprise.” And sure enough, over the past several years, many firms - some of which now no longer exist - sought high returns from high risk investments that few people really understood. We, on the other hand, have always been guided by the principle that “investment always has moral, as well as economic significance.” Our goal has never been just short-term profit. Instead, our goal is to put the long-term interests of our members first. And that is why we have kept to what Standard & Poor’s describes intheir just-issued report on us as a “very conservative financial strategy.” According to S&P, our “capital adequacy” - a measure of the huge safety cushion that we maintain - “is among the strongest in the industry.” Knights of Columbus management, they reported, “has a very low risk tolerance and places a very high value on the society’s reputation.” That’s certainly true as far as it goes. But we would put it another way: we place the highest value on your safety and your security. When we make vital business decisions, our first consideration is the welfare of our brother Knights and their families. That is what we mean when we say insurance by brother Knights for brother Knights. The bottom line for Standard & Poor’s in this year’s report is that we are “achieving [our] primary objective of providing members and their families with high quality, low-cost insurance benefits.” Citing our “extremely strong capital,” our “strong profitability,” and our “extremely strong liquidity,” S&P gave us their highest rating:“AAA - Extremely Strong” for the 17th consecutive year. Moreover, they declared our outlook to be “stable,” meaning that they believe that our sound management and careful investment strategy - “even after applying stress factors” - will keep us at the top! Time to Take Control by Thomas P. Smith, Jr., Executive Vice President of Agencies and Marketing A statistic I find frightening is this - about 50% of households in the United States and Canada have no individually owned life insurance. We will discuss this number over the next few months as I try to convince you to get out of that group if you are in it. If you aren’t among the 50%, maybe I can enlist your help in your council as a spokesman for the value of life insurance. Note that I said “individually owned life insurance.” While the number for those with absolutely no life insurance is just as – if not more – frightening, the 50% does not include those who have some form of group life insurance, usually provided by their employer. This group life issue, which our agents see and discuss every day, is an interesting security blanket. Most times, the amount offered is far from what you need, and the only way to determine what you need is with a comprehensive needs analysis. Your company’s human resources or benefits department doesn’t do needs analysis. Instead, they apply a formula: you make X amount in salary and the group life is either a flat amount ($15,000 seems popular) or a multiple of your salary (somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 seems popular). Either way, it has nothing to do with the number of children you have, the mortgage balance you carry, or the amount of money your wife would need if you die. It’s a completely random number. It can also disappear at any time. All of us know people – friends, family members, neighbors – who have lost their jobs. When the job is lost, so is the group life insurance coverage. If the company experiences difficulty and budgets need to be cut, group life can be reduced or eliminated. And that decision could be made at the worst possible time for you. Most group life insurance coverage reduces or disappears when you retire. Many times it can be converted, but at a very expensive premium (remember, you’re no kid anymore when you retire, and premiums do rise as you get older). Just because you turn 65 doesn’t mean you no longer need life insurance or need less coverage. Actually, the opposite is true. Group life insurance is a great benefit and certainly does help, but it must be supplemented with a personally owned portfolio. We can tell you exactly how to blend your group benefit with your K of C life insurance so things can be in your control. Don’t let the feeling of security that group life provides distract you from the real issue: taking control of your family’s financial future!     ISN’T IT TIME TO GET TOGETHER WITH YOUR KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS AGENT!     Contact Brother Garry Beausoleil, Field Agent Email: Garry.Beausoleil@kofc.org   Telephone: (860) 617- 6082