Melissa Huston’s Story
We had an amazing time meeting the wonderful Melissa Huston from Huston & Krauss Financial Services. Melissa is a licensed Health Insurance Specialist and financial planner based out of Victoria, BC.
Following into her father’s and father-in-law’s footsteps, Melissa started working in the financial industry in 2007. Working towards her dream of opening her own business one day, she got her BC insurance license in 2010. After about 5 years of working in insurance, Melissa realized that health insurance was the niche she wanted to pursue. In January of 2019, she made her dream come true and launched her business Huston & Krauss Financial Services full-time.
Before I dive into telling you more about Melissa and her business, I would like to tell you what Melissa told me during the interview. After I told her that I felt silly asking her certain questions, which I felt I should know, but didn’t.
“I know finances can be really intimidating but I don’t want people to feel too intimidated to ask me questions. There really are no silly questions!”
Health Insurance
So now that we know this is a safe place and there is no judgement if you have no idea what health plan option you should go for or what any of this is about, let me give you a little more information so you can feel a little more confident about your health insurance knowledge.
So, what does a health insurance broker do? A health insurance broker is there to advise you and guide you through the process of finding the right insurance for you, your family or your employees. A crucial part of Melissa’s process is to customize each and every plan to her clients’ needs, which is why I find it very important to note that she is contracted with all the major insurance companies, allowing her to shop around and find the best product to match her clients’ interest and needs.
Melissa deals with everything from everyday medical expenses (e.g. prescriptions, dental, going to the chiropractor or massage therapist), as well as the more serious things like if you get cancer, a heart attack or need to be on disability.
She mentioned to us that: “A lot of people don’t realize that our largest asset is actually ourselves and our ability to work. If anything happens to that, it doesn’t take long before your life can really change in a lot of ways you may not want it to. Having protection for those types of situations is really important.”
Melissa said: “I really think it is worth while looking at getting something in place that works for you and your cash flow. This way you’ll know how much it costs every month and if something does come up, there won’t be any surprises and you’ll know you’ll be fine. That’s the peace of mind factor that this service provides.”
Let’s talk a bit more about things you might not know about in the health insurance world.
For instance, nowadays you can get a critical illness or disability plan with some return of premium options. With the critical illness for example, if you are healthy and don’t get any serious illness within say, 15 years, you could get some of your premiums paid back to you if you wanted to. (It’s usually 50-75%.) Melissa mentioned that some of her clients use this money as another way of saving for retirement, for example.
Long Term Care Insurance
Another insurance type Melissa talked about, that is probably not well known, is long term care insurance.
It helps people who eventually might need to go into care homes or are looking for in-home care by paying a daily benefit amount. As the baby boomer generation is getting closer to retirement, they are expecting that there will be a big influx of people needing long term care, and we all know that it’s already challenging to get into certain facilities, with wait lists and having to meet certain criteria, etc. So, not having to worry about the financial side of things could be an enormous help. Melissa said: “It helps with the affordability factor to get into the facilities you want/need to go to and anyone who has had to help a family member who isn’t fully mobile or able to do things on their own anymore, knows that it can be a big strain on a family. So, if they can afford to pay someone to help out, even just occasionally, it could really be helpful, not only for the person who needs the care, but for the family also.”
Picture by Vintage Chic
Group Benefit Plans
Melissa also has a Group Benefits Associate (GBA) designation. This designation means she is better able to help employers find the right group benefit plan for their company/employees.
She is acts as the go-between for the business client with the insurance company, acting in the best interests of the client, and negotiates rates when plans renew. This also means that your employees could give Melissa a call if they are having issues with a claim or if anything with their plan isn’t working the way they need it to.
She said: “Price isn’t always everything. You don’t want to be banging your head against the wall and not getting claims approved. It doesn’t have to be that way. I love to connect all the dots and get people what they need, making it as simple and easy as possible.”
The first step to find out if there is anything that Melissa can do to help you, is to chat with her about getting a quote. Getting a quote is the easiest way to start, because then you have a frame of reference to work with. There is no obligation in any of the initial consultations until you make the decision to go with a plan. Also, there is no charge for a quote and to look into it. If you want the coverage, there might be a plan that will work for you and that will be affordable to you.
