If you are a member of a prop trading firm, you should be able to take advantage of some kind of group insurance plan. Echotrade is offering this to all their traders.
It's not the firms it's the insurance companies we should strike against. But we don't have much of a choice here. They're all expenisve. And if we strike we're not big enough to make an impact. Plus we then have to go w/o insurance, and got forbid you end up in the hospital during the strike, it's the insurance companies that will be laughing at you, at the cost of your bill. We also have to remember, prop traders are really employing the prop firm, not the other way around. Your self employed and they're providing you with equipment, software, and leverage you need to run your own business. The fee's you pay, are your expenses to run a business. Traders at Goldman, Lehman, Morgan, etc.., they're employees of the company and get paid what the company wants to pay them, that's why they have the better benefits. But to break into one of them is difficult for most of us. Plus if the markets get bad, they cut employees.
I would love to start a trader's union or association. Imagine how big an organization that would be. We could get group discounts on health, dental and life insurance. Start our own travel agency. And we could effectively lobby for changes in the SEC rules.
A good topic. I looked up links provided in this topic trader2trader and daytradersusa and found nothing on association insurance plans. Anyone know if one such exists. I work in the health insurance industry and interested in trading fulltime one day but the way laws are set up you have little protection as a self-insured individual.. You can be turned and your insurance can be cancelled and you have to worry about pre-existing condition clauses and outrageous rate for family coverage. As an employee of a large coorporation you are fully covered by federal laws if employer provide group health insurance coverage.. You are even protected under COBRA which gaurantees coverage for 18 months if you continue to pay for your insurance if you were to be terminated.. Idendent Traders should band together to take advantage of some type of group coverage. Otherwise your biggest drawdown can happen if God forbid you or some family member get sick If anyone know of such group let me know. I would be interested.
I have a terrible time with health insurance. I have had 4 different companies in 6 years because of the county I live in Florida. Between my hubby and I, we pay over $20,000 a year in premiums and deductibles.......each time it is worse because of pre-existing conditions. Bob has had 22 operations and we can't go without.....I keep a small business in operation just so I can GET small group insurance. Really stinks.
Thanks. How about work out a group insurance policy with several dynamically adjusted brackets. If you are top profitable trader, you pay the least premium in the time frame. If you are top loser, you pay the most expensive premium until you improve. Like drivers insurance, you pay more after you have accidents and more points.
What me and my partner did to get lower insurance was setup an LLC, and get the insurance through that as a small business. I believe in NJ, the rule for insurers is companies under 40 employees, get one rate, and companies over 40, get an adjusted rate based on the medical history of those employees. So if you have a couple of employees that get really sick, god forbid, your rates will be adjusted for everyone across the board higher. It saved us quite a bit of money compared to going out solo, or taking what the clearing firm offers. Maintaining heath benefits requires a full time employee to do the paperwork. So most small companies don't want to deal with the headache. You also have to remember that insurers are businesses that need to stay profitable. If their premiums aren't adjusted higher to compensate for what they payout, then they can't exist. Just like the government, it can only spend what they get in, if they run a deficit, they're assuming future revenues to cover those deficits. If those revenues don't materialize at some point, they go bankrupt. And yes, even governments can go bankrupt. We're in a pickle here people. Even if we unionized and forced insurers to lower rates to the point they're losing money, they'll have to turn to the government for help in subsidizing the shortfalls. The government gets money from us in the form of taxes. So we'd still be paying the full premium, just in an indirect way. Alot of us worked for big companies and got used to the cheap insurance cause those companies subsidized a large portion of the premiums. But if anyone has ever gone on COBRA, they've seen what the real amount those companies pay for premiums. And it's not cheap even for them.