Pam Allman

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

The regular monthly meeting of the Santa Barbara Bookkeepers' Association was held on Tuesday, September 21, 2004 at 11:30 a.m. at Mulligan's Cafe.   President Jennifer Loren opened the meeting and welcomed everyone.

New members and guests were introduced and new member, Alejandra Diaz, was the winner of the free lunch next time. Karen Mora announced job opportunities.

Vicki St. Martin asked for the names of additional CPA firms who would be interested in receiving the SBBA Listing.

Roxanne Russell made the following Nomination’s for Office for the coming year:

President:  Jennifer Loren

Director’s:  Roxanne Russell, Sue Starlin, Patti Karr, Maureen Turk

Vice-President:  Karen Mora 

Treasurer:  Vicki St. Martin   

Secretary:  Paula Mauro 

Founder: Pam Allman

The officers were all elected by a unanimous vote.

Gail H. Anikouchine, CPA, a partner at MacFarlane Faletti & Co., was introduced as the speaker for the September  meeting. Her topic was "The Role of a Bookkeeper in an Audit".

Printed information was distributed among the participants.

Vicki St. Martin announced that dues are due in October and may be paid by email. The new roster will also be sent by email.

Paula A. Mauro Secretary SBBA

I heard through the “grapevine” that there will be a ‘Ventura County Bookkeepers Assn.’ starting the first of the new year.

Disability Insurance - Submitted By: Mark Schneiderman Insurance

I have a client who was considering buying a disability insurance policy. After hearing about the coverage options, he said, "Wait a minute. How disabled do I have to be before this insurance kicks in?"

Disabilities carry adjectives such as "total and permanent," "partial" and "temporary." Frankly, most disabilities are "partial" and "temporary." As such, if you are considering the purchase of a disability policy that covers "total and permanent" disability only, you are probably wasting your money.

Disability policies also have definitions relating to your occupation. The best, and most expensive, coverage kicks in when you are unable to perform your specific job. Say a neurosurgeon loses his or her hand in an accident. The person could still be a physician, but probably could no longer perform the duties of a neurosurgeon. By the definition of so-called "own occupation" policies, this person is disabled.

In contrast to "own occupation," there is the cheaper "any occupation" coverage. In this policy, if the person can perform a job that requires the same skills and training, he or she would not be disabled. In the case of the neurosurgeon, if he or she could continue to serve as, say, a general practitioner, that person would not be disabled.

However, there are disability policies that will pay some of the difference in salary resulting from having to change job duties. Some disability policies define "any occupation" to be truly that -- any occupation, regardless of the amount of skill and training required.

Some policies define disability in terms of income lost. Say you are hurt and have to take a job that pays 50% less than the one you had before the injury. A disability policy based on income would replace some, but not all, of the income lost because of the job change.

A common threshold is the policy will start paying after you've lost 20% of your income. In the previous example, such a policy would replace 80% of the income you lost.
I hope this gives you a little "education" on a very complicated subject.