Family Protection Plan

The most comprehensive discount legal product available.

Did you know that every year 1 in 2 families will require the services of an attorney? in many instances, legal issues are precipitated by other personal and professional challenges in one's life. Mounting debt, tax season, identity theft, stress on the job or a personal crisis may be the catalyst for legal assistance. To help address these multiple needs, Legal Club created the Family Protection Plan. The Plan provides members with access to a network of pre-qualified professionals in each of these major areas:

• Legal Care
• Tax Preparation & Advice
• Identity Theft Solutions
• LifeEvents™ Counseling
• Financial Education & Credit Counseling

The following benefit components make up the most comprehensive package of professional services available to individuals and their families. Distributors can sell the Family Protection Plan as is, or elect to mix and match its individual components to augment an existing benefit package they may already be marketing.

Free & Discounted Legal Care

Legal Club of America's® Family Legal Plan anchors the Family Protection Plan. Legal Club is a discount legal referral service with a nationwide network of plan attorneys who provide free and discounted legal care for over 1 million families. Membership includes the member, member's spouse or domestic partner, dependent children who are under the age of 25 and any dependent individuals living in the plan member's home such as a parent or grandparent.

Legal Benefits Include

Free Legal Services:*

• Initial phone consultation for each new legal matter (No time limit).
• Initial face-to-face consultation for each new legal matter (no time limit).
• Review of independent legal documents (6 pages maximum per document, no limit to the number of new independent documents).
• Plan attorneys will prepare a free Simple Will for you and your family, as well as update the Will annually for free.
• A state specific, web based, free Living Will form is available to members. This form can be notarized by a Notary Public.
• Plan attorneys will help members represent themselves in small claims court.
• Assistance in solving problems with government programs, such as INS and Welfare.
• When deemed appropriate by your plan attorney, he or she will write letters on your behalf (one letter per legal matter, with no limit on the number of new legal matters).
• When deemed appropriate by your plan attorney, he or she will make phone calls on your behalf (one phone call per legal matter, with no limit on the number of new legal matters).

Contingency Fee Discount

• Members will receive a 10% discount on all contingency fee based cases.

Discount Fee Schedule**

Capped Hourly Rate

• Plan attorneys have contracted to either charge $125.00 per hour, or when appropriate, give members a 40%discount off their usual and customary hourly rate.

Retainer

• In the case of extended legal care, plan attorneys may ask members for a retainer. Any retainer sought, will be computed by multiplying the number of hours a plan attorney believes a case will take, by the appropriate discounted hourly plan rate. For instance; 10 hours x $125.00 = a retainer of $1,250.00.

* In many states Attorney liability may require Plan Attorneys to obtain a retainer from the member prior to providing some of the free member benefits. (see definition above)

** The fees listed above do not include additional filing fees, costs, or administrative expenses. They are only for legal services rendered.

Tax Preparation & Advice

The Family Protection Plan provides comprehensive tax benefits including free tax return preparation and unlimited, toll-free, tax related advice during normal business hours. Additionally, members will have access to deep discounts on most tax schedules.

A panel of Certified Public Accountants will provide the following services to you at no charge:

• Unlimited advice on federal taxation via toll-free phone call/fax/e-mail
• Free tax return preparation (includes 1040EZ, 1040A, and 1040)*
• Discounted preparation of numerous tax schedules that accompany the form 1040
• Discount on tax return preparation at all H & R Block® locations**
• Unlimited advice on federal taxation for small business owners (sole proprietors)
• IRS audit assistance
• IRS notification assistance
• Tax planning
• Review of prior year's tax return
• Member portal with:

   

  • Tax tips
  • Tax law changes
  • Tax organization area
  • IRS audit area
  • IRS notification area
  • Member advice on-line

All tax and financial assistance is provided by tax attorneys, financial analysts, CPA’s, former auditors and/or Enrolled Agents certified by the IRS. This team of professionals is ready to answer your tax questions in a confidential and secure environment.

Additionally, all tax and financial advice is backed by a $1 million liability policy!

* Limit one per member

** For new H&R Block® clients only. A new client is a person who did not use H&R Block offices services to prepare their prior year return. Not valid on federal form 1040EZ and related forms. Valid only at participating US offices. Void if sold, purchased or transferred, and where prohibited. Offer must be presented prior to completion of initial tax office interview and may not be combined with any other offer, discount or special promotion or pricing program. Valid only for tax prep fees for an original personal income tax return. © 2009 HRB Tax Group, Inc.

The Voice Behind the Software

With today’s tax software programs, users need more than help screens. Tax Rite steps in with tax advice tailored specifically to an individual’s unique situation. Live, one-on-one, direct answers to members’ tax questions over the phone. When pop-up screens just aren’t popping up with the right answer, experts are a phone call away with reliable advice.

IRSspeak Interpretation

Our team of professionals will review any notice or letter issued by the IRS and provide professional advice on how to understand and solve the matter. Our experts assist and advise members who get audited. They review the IRS audit notification and help sort out the facts. Members also have access to a web-based IRS audit tutorial, as well as an IRS notification tutorial that helps take the terror out of those ominous-looking IRS letters.

Tax Advisor for People in all Income Brackets

According to Thomas J. Stanley in his book The Millionaire Mind, “The number one activity for millionaires is consulting with a tax expert.” For most of us, tax consultation isn’t that high on our list of things to do, but it’s still vitally important for nearly everyone at one time or another. Members can seek and receive advice on the tax implications of all these everyday financial matters:

• Individual Retirement Accounts, Roth IRAs, 401k plans, SEPs
• Healthcare spending accounts
• Investment timing and strategies
• Capital gains
• Real estate timing and strategies
• The tax advantages of home ownership
• Divorce
• Inheritance
• Retirement planning

Our team of professionals will also review a member's prior year's tax return. This review can reveal costly errors and generate a source of extra tax savings.

Identity Theft Solutions

Keylogging Defense System™

Keyloggers are self propagating viruses that steal your keystrokes, and the information contained, as you navigate the internet. Our Keylogging Defense System™ helps to proactively prevent online identity theft by encrypting every keystroke at the keyboard level and then reroutes those encrypted keystrokes directly to your browser. Our Keylogging Defense System bypasses the multiple communication areas that are normally vulnerable to keylogging attacks that could compromise your vital information.

With our defense system, members can now E-mail, access critical business applications, browse, shop and bank with confidence knowing that each and every keystroke is encrypted and not being transmitted to an awaiting Identity Thief.

Identity Monitoring*

Identity Monitoring searches and monitors for past history as well as real time identity frauds or threats. This service includes:

• Secure, hassle-free identity monitoring
• Actionable identity alerts
• Monthly email updates (optional)

Our Identity Monitoring does much more than monitor credit, offering a solution as robust as the ones used by the nation’s leading financial institutions to prevent theft. Identity Monitoring uses innovative technology to detect misuse or even an elevated likelihood for misuse of an individual’s Social Security number, name, address, phone, and date of birth. By creating a SNAPD identity blueprint, this program monitors billions of data on a daily basis from sources such as:

• New Credit Cards
• Wireless Carrier Applications
• Retail Credit Card Accounts
• Auto/Mortgage/Payday Loans
• Checking Accounts and Check Reorders
• Utility Accounts
• DMV Records
• Government Databases
• Court Records
• Criminal Records
• Social Security Records

As identity fraud usually precedes identity theft, this type of proactive system is critical to mitigating the extensive and expensive damage perpetrated after an identity is stolen and manipulated.

Identity Theft Restoration

Upon notification of an identity theft incident, Privacy Advocates will act on behalf of our members as a dedicated case manager to:

• Investigate and confirm the fraudulent activity, including known, unknown and potentially complicated additional sources of identity theft.
• Complete and mail customized, pre-populated, state specific “Fraud Packet” via certified mail with pre-paid return instructions.
• Place phone calls, send electronic notifications, and prepare appropriate documentation on the member’s behalf, including dispute letters for defensible complaints to any and all appropriate state agencies and financial institutions.
• Issue fraud alerts and victim statements when necessary, with the three consumer credit reporting agencies, the FTC, SSA, and U.S. Postal Service.
• Submit Special Limited Power of Attorney and ID Theft Affidavit to involved creditors for card cancellation and new card issuance.
• Contact, follow up and escalate issues with affected agencies, creditors, financial institutions, to reinforce member’s rights.
• Assist the member in notifying local law enforcement authorities to file the appropriate official reports.
• Utilize real time access to public records reports including DMV, criminal, address changes, liens, and judgments for further investigation where applicable.
• Provide peace of mind and resolution of key issues from start to finish as swiftly as possible.
• Provide members with a “Case Completion Kit” including copies of documentation, correspondence, forms and letters for their personal records.

Identity Theft Insurance*

Each member will also receive up to $25,000 worth of identity theft insurance coverage* to help offset some of the costs of restoring their identity to its pre-theft state, including:

• Lost wages: $500.00 per week, for 4 weeks maximum
  
• Re-filing of loans
• Eligible defense costs for civil & criminal lawsuits
• Reimbursement of fees: Re-filing applications for loans, grants or other credit instruments that are rejected solely as a result of a stolen identity event
• And more...

Lost or Stolen Credit Card Assistance /
Document Recovery Services

In the event their credit cards are misplaced or stolen Privacy Advocates will provide members with assistance including:

• Consult with member to determine the severity of the event
• Obtain credit reports from each of the three major credit
• Contact each credit card company or other financial institution with the member via teleconference
• Cancel members affected credit cards
• Request new replacement cards
• Place fraud alerts with all three major credit bureaus
• Assist members with interpreting their credit reports
• Provide daily ID monitoring for six months to help proactively prevent any additional identity fraud
• Provide credit dispute assistance
• Assist with additional lost items including driver’s license, library, and other membership cards

Unlimited Legal Care at Discounted Rates

Beyond the reimbursement of eligible defense costs, this identity theft program provides access to unlimited discounted legal care, at capped hourly rates, enabling members to both defend themselves and prosecute thieves. Identity theft victims have access to a proprietary attorney network that will represent them at the low hourly rate of $125.00, or when appropriate, a 40% discount off the plan attorney’s usual and customary hourly rate, for all extended legal care related to an identity theft incident. Members may use our program to prosecute identity theft thieves.

*Identity Theft insurance is not available in NY. Identity theft insurance is underwritten by a nationally recognized Insurance Carrier with an “A” or better AM Best Rating. Contact Legal Club of America for more details. Identity Theft Restoration and Lost or Stolen Credit Card Services are available to members and their eligible dependents. Insurance coverage and Identity Monitoring is limited only to the member.

LifeEvents™

LifeEvents™ Counseling

This program is designed to meet the needs of Legal Club’s members and their families. LifeEvents™ members have toll-free, 24/7, 365 day access to Advocates who will provide them with personal consultation services. Our Advocates are masters-level clinicians who have specialized training in phone-based assessment and consultation.

We offer the following comprehensive services, which have proven to be effective in managing personal issues with various levels of care:

• 24-hour member advocate line
• Crisis and urgent needs management
• Goal and success planning consultation
• Resource materials
• Follow-up

Financial Education & Credit Counseling

This program provides personalized financial education and counseling (24/7/365) through a variety of delivery methods including telephone, live chat sessions, and web based courses and tools.

Free Consultations

• 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Credit & Debt Counseling by Certified Credit Counselors

• Assist in creating a livable budget to balance income and expenses
• Provide specific advice on how to deal with creditors
• Offer money management and budgeting techniques to help gain control of finances
• Develop a comprehensive spending plan and action plan to become debt free

Housing Advisory Services

• Advice covering first time home ownership, affordable mortgages and refinancing
• Post purchase counseling
• Reverse mortgages - what are they and how do they work

Online Tools & Articles

• Access online articles designed to inform, assist, educate and alert consumers in all areas of credit, money management and how to get help
• Hotlinks to a wide variety of consumer resources on topics such as lending, credit reports, credit cards and vehicle purchasing and financing
• Online calculators to help with budgeting, vehicle and home financing

Money Choices

• Five private self-paced courses, presented by Visa, that teach the skills needed for smart money management.