Financial thoughts

If federal regulators get their way, you may soon be warned before you receive another unexpectedly high bill from your cell phone company.

The Federal Communications Commission said Tuesday it is seeking public comment on proposed regulations that would require wireless phone companies to notify customers of any charges that exceed their monthly plans.

Customers would therefore be alerted before being charged additional fees for extra data usage, roaming or text messaging, the FCC said in a statement.

The FCC said it has received hundreds of complaints from customers who received surprisingly high phone bills. The new rule would aim to help wireless users avoid "bill shock."

"We are hearing from consumers about unpleasant surprises on their bills," Joel Gurin, chief of the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, said in a statement. "There can be many causes of bill shock, including unclear or misunderstood advertising, unanticipated roaming or data charges, and other problems. All can lead to charges that people don’t expect to get."

The FCC has therefore decided to begin gathering information from the public about whether or not alerting customers about these unanticipated charges would be beneficial.

The plan would be similar to a rule in the European Union that requires cell phone companies to notify customers via text message if they are running up extra charges.

The CTIA, a wireless industry association, released a statement after the FCC’s announcement saying that carriers already keeps customers well informed when they reach their monthly cell phone usage limits.

"We look forward to educating the Commission on all of the carriers’ activities and offerings so that customers can stay informed," CTIA President and CEO Steve Largent said in a statement. 

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AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, once the world’s largest carrier by traffic, may pursue alliances to win more passengers as rivals’ mergers erase its advantage, analysts said.

Possible alliance partners include US Airways Group Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp., the sixth- and seventh-largest U.S. airlines, said Jeff Straebler, a fixed-income strategist at RBS Securities Inc.

Alliances such as AMR’s Oneworld let members sell seats on each other’s jets, a benefit in an industry where the breadth of airlines’ networks attracts corporate fliers. American, now the second-largest U.S. carrier, would be No. 3 under the United-Continental merger, and said Monday that it is studying a "range of alternatives."

"American helped originate the whole idea of alliances and partnerships," said George Van Horn, an analyst at IBISWorld Inc. "If somebody should be good at it, you could make the argument they should be."

Straebler and Van Horn said an alliance might appeal to AMR by providing many of the benefits of a merger, such as adding passenger revenue and avoiding flight duplication, without the risks and expense of meshing fleets and unions. Ties to US Airways or JetBlue might help American in New York, the world’s busiest travel market, they said.

AMR was under pressure even before the United-Continental deal emerged. The company is the only major U.S. airline that may lose money in 2010, and has the lowest margins and highest costs among its peers, according to Jamie Baker, a JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst. American and unions representing about 77 percent of its work force are in contract talks, with the pilots’ negotiations dating to 2006.

American’s last merger came in 2001, when it bought Trans World Airlines for $2.8 billion.

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In a move aimed at combating the spread of diabetes, insurer UnitedHealth Group is launching a new program that will pay for lifestyle coaching at YMCA facilities.

Under the proposal announced Wednesday, the insurer will cover 16-week programs at the YMCA that discuss changes in eating, exercise and other lifestyle habits.

As part of the program, UnitedHealth will also pay incentives to Walgreens’ pharmacists to teach people how to better manage the disease.

Insurers such as UnitedHealth may start rolling out more such preventative care programs as the government’s health care overhaul forces insurers to cover patients regardless of medical condition.

UnitedHealth said it will pay YMCA lifestyle coaches based on performance, so coaches get paid more for recruiting more participants into the program, and for helping those participants achieve greater weight loss.

The company said studies funded by the government show that pre-diabetes patients can prevent or delay the disease by 58% simply by meeting in group coaching sessions, changing eating and exercise habits, and losing about 5% of their body weight faxless pay day loans.

UnitedHealth claims its program marks the first time a health insurer will cover "evidence-based" preventative diabetes care.

"The pilot data showed that paying for these services works — people get and stay healthier, leading to dramatically lower health care costs for employers and the health care system," Tom Beauregard, executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group, said in a statement.

UnitedHealth will first roll out the program in 7 cities, including 3 in Ohio: Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton. The other cities are Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.

The program is free to people enrolled in UnitedHealth care plans through their employers. 

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Devereux Kids has been awarded $200,000 in federal funds for its community-based education, support and reunification program aimed at increasing the safety and well-being of children.

The funds will be used to expand the organization’s child abuse and neglect prevention programs in Marion County, but may be expanded to other areas, according to a Devereux release.

Devereux Kids, established in 1999, is a program of Orlando-based Devereux Florida. Devereux Kids works in 10 counties in Florida and reached more than 1,100 children in 563 families in the 2009 fiscal year. The foundation supporting the organization was founded in 1912 in Pennsylvania and created Devereux Florida in 1987. Devereux Florida helps more than 13,000 children annually.

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Three of every four chief financial officers are willing to offer pay raises, improve benefits or even approve bonuses to keep high-performing and much-coveted employees – when the economy recovers, according to a just-released report.

Almost half of CFOs say they would approve pay raises and promote top performers when the economy is humming. About three of five would enhance benefits – such as health care insurance or retirement plans – and one of every four would offer bonuses, according to Accountemps, a division of Robert Half International.

About 1,400 CFOs participated in the survey. Many business experts and economists say companies need to address compensation-related issues with top employees now, otherwise those workers will leave when the economy improves.

“Indispensable workers who helped businesses stay afloat during tough times will have new career options as conditions improve,” said Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps and author of “Motivating Employees for Dummies, 2nd Edition fast payday loan.” “Employers need to make retention of top performers a high priority or risk losing these key players and, possibly, their competitive advantage. Let your top performers know they have a clear path within the organization and re-evaluate compensation levels to make sure they’re in line with what other firms in your industry are paying for similar positions.”

Of course, when the economy improves remains uncertain. Currently, about 125,000-plus Sacramento-area residents are looking for work. And the four-county region’s jobless rate is a modern-day record 13.1 percent, with about six available employees for each open position.

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BankUnited wants to seize two stalled residential projects in southern Miami-Dade County.

The Miami-based bank filed a foreclosure action March 9 against Lucky Start at Lake Frances, NewSouth LLC and managing members Antonio Balestena and Jorge Fernandez, according to Miami-Dade County Circuit Court records. It concerns a mortgage last modified at $19.2 million in October 2008.

The failed BankUnited FSB issued the loan, so most of the losses would be shouldered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. under its loss-sharing agreement with the new BankUnited.

Lucky Start was building the Lake Frances single-family home project near Homestead Air Force Base. It owns 135 lakefront home sites at the southeast corner of Southwest 280th Street and Southwest 132nd Avenue. Only eight homes have been sold.

NewSouth owns 20.3 acres of industrial and agricultural property at 13700 S.W. 248th St., in the Princeton area. The developer received approval to build 126 townhouse units, 268 apartment units and 8,523 square feet of retail space, but construction never began.

Miami attorney Andrew C. Hall, who represents BankUnited in the lawsuit, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

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The Philippine central bank cut the amount of money available for loans to lenders through its so- called rediscounting facility to reduce cash in the economy, even as it kept interest rates at a record low.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reduced the budget for the facility to 40 billion pesos ($875 million) from 60 billion pesos, effective March 15, it said in a statement in Manila today. Policy makers kept the benchmark interest rate at 4 percent for a sixth straight meeting, as expected by all 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Asian nations from China to Malaysia have started withdrawing monetary stimulus as growth accelerates and inflation returns amid the global economic recovery. Philippine exports, which account for about a third of the nation’s $167 billion economy, rose at the fastest pace in more than 14 years in January, a report showed yesterday.

“Upbeat export readings would nudge policy makers’ priority away from downside risks to growth, and more into emerging inflation risks,” Jun Trinidad, an economist at Citigroup Inc. in Manila, said in a report yesterday. It “would support the phase out of accommodative liquidity measures.”

Philippine economic growth accelerated to a one-year high of 1.8 percent last quarter from a decade-low 0.4 percent in the previous three months, lifting prospects for the country’s property and food companies. Jollibee Foods Corp., the fast-food chain that outsells McDonald’s Corp. in the Philippines, is looking forward “to a more robust growth in 2010,” the company said last month.

Capital Flows

The government forecasts the economy will expand 2.6 percent to 3.6 percent in 2010, as President Gloria Arroyo, whose term ends this June, increases outlays on airports, bridges and state programs to a record 1.54 trillion pesos ($34 billion) this year to bolster growth.

Low interest rates in the U.S. and Europe and faster growth in Asia are spurring capital flows into the region, prompting China to start draining excess cash from the economy to prevent asset bubbles free online credit report. Australia and Vietnam have raised borrowing costs as inflation accelerates, and Malaysia last week increased its overnight policy rate, saying it wants to avoid “financial imbalances”.

Bangko Sentral in January announced the year’s first increase in the interest rate that it charges lenders for borrowing money from the central bank through the rediscounting facility. The rediscounting window allows lenders to borrow using loans as collateral.

Inflation Forecast

Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said yesterday the unwinding of liquidity measures is “always on the table” and will happen in “a matter of time.” Still, “the policy rates can be maintained at this point as our inflation outlook remains positive and benign,” he said March 8.

Benchmark four-year bond yields dropped to a three-month low yesterday on optimism borrowing costs will remain low. The Philippine peso traded near an eight-week high today as Asia’s rebound attracts funds to the region’s assets.

Bangko Sentral forecasts inflation may slow to a range of 3.4 percent to 3.5 percent in 2011 from an estimated 4 percent this year, Guinigundo said this week. Consumer-price gains in the Philippines eased for a second month in February to 4.2 percent.

The Philippines’ benchmark interest rate is at the lowest level since central bank data started in 1990. Easing inflation last year allowed Bangko Sentral to slash the overnight borrowing rate by 2 percentage points from December 2008 to July 2009 to support economic growth as exports collapsed.

Policy makers also reduced the proportion of cash banks need to set aside as reserves and raised the amount of money available for the rediscounting facility in late 2008.

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A new Illinois non-traded real investment estate trust (REIT) bought the Pleasant Hill Commons shopping center in Kissimmee for $12.4 million in cash.

Inland Diversified Kissimmee LLC, a related entity to Oakbrook, Ill.-based Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust Inc., bought the 70,642-square-foot Publix-anchored shopping center from Winter Park-based MCP Retail LLC on Feb. 18, said a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. MCP Retail LLC is an entity related to developer Michael Collard Properties Inc.

Lou Quilici of Inland Real Estate Acquisitions Inc. handled the transaction, said a news release.

The property is 100 percent leased, the SEC filing said, and has tenants including Tijuana Flats, Subway, Jackson Hewitt, Metro PCS, Pizza Hut, BonWorth and Fantastic Sams.

Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust filed its prospectus in August 2009 to be taxed as a REIT beginning with the tax year ended Dec flexcheck cash advance. 31. This was the firm’s second purchase and was funded by proceeds from its initial public offering, the SEC filing said. The REIT focuses on the acquisition and development of a diversified portfolio of commercial real estate assets.

The REIT is related to The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies Inc., a fast-growing buyer of retail property in the United States and one of the largest shopping center owners in North America. Inland-sponsored firms own and manage more than 113 million square feet of commercial real estate in 46 states and manage properties valued at more than $25.3 billion.

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American taxpayers, if you believe in stereotypes, are scurrying around this time of year, rummaging shoeboxes for receipts and other paperwork to support itemized tax-deduction claims.

In reality, most taxpayers, including me, don’t bother itemizing deductions, which must be reported on a tax form called "Schedule A" and require proof in case of an audit. We don’t bother because the basic standard deduction, which is free for the taking, is higher than all the itemized deductions most of us can legitimately claim. The basic standard deduction requires no documentation and is entered on the main 1040 tax form.

For 2009 returns, thanks to what Congress enacted as temporary measures, the standard deduction will be even higher for many Americans who meet qualifications. The higher the standard deduction is, the lower the taxable income and tax bill are.

The downside is increased complexity, including a new tax form to fill out called Schedule L.

"The standard deduction isn’t so standard anymore," said Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst for tax publisher CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business. "For some people, filling out this schedule will probably entail as much figuring as taking a few itemized deductions on Schedule A."

For a little bit of work, though, the tax savings can be significant.

For the 2009 tax year, the basic standard deduction is $5,700 for singles and $11,400 for joint filers. Blind people and those 65 years old or older as of Jan. 1, 2010, can claim an additional $1,100 standard deduction for 2009. (Therefore, a couple filing jointly, both 65 or older and blind, would take an additional $4,400 deduction). Higher deductions for seniors and the blind have been part of the tax code for years and are not likely to be discontinued, Luscombe said.

In addition, in what are supposed to be temporary measures to boost housing and the economy:

— Non-itemizers can claim an additional standard deduction for state and local property taxes paid in 2009, up to $500 for single taxpayers and $1,000 for joint filers.

This extra deduction, first available for 2008 returns and later extended for 2009, was part of a legislative package aimed at boosting a sagging real estate market. "Much of the package rewarded people for buying homes," Luscombe said, and the extra deduction benefits people who have no mortgage (like me) or don’t pay enough interest on it to be able to itemize. The deduction expired at the end of 2009 but is likely to be extended to 2010, Luscombe believes.

— Another provision effective since 2008 allows taxpayers who have experienced casualty losses in areas the U.S. president has declared disaster areas to take those losses as an additional standard deduction.

"This is especially valuable to people who may experience a few thousand dollars in losses that they can ill afford, but whose losses are not large enough" to itemize (because the basic standard deduction would be larger), Luscombe said.

This deduction is not available to taxpayers in the Midwest Disaster Area of 2008, for whom different rules apply.

— Subject to income limits, non-itemizers who bought a new car in 2009 on or after Feb. 17 can add to their standard deduction the state and local sales and excise taxes they paid for the vehicle. Eligibility for this tax break phases out for single filers with modified adjusted gross income between $125,000 and $135,000 (joint filers, $250,000 to $260,000), and the deduction is limited to taxes paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price.

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The nation’s two largest hospital chains signaled today that they are actively seeking acquisitions in the year ahead. Prime targets: Nonprofit hospitals whose investments were hit hard by the sour economy.

In back-to-back earnings calls with analysts, Nashville-based HCA Inc. and Franklin-based Community Health Systems Inc. both said they are well-positioned to take advantage of favorable pricing in the U.S. hospital market.

CHS, which operates 122 hospitals in 29 states, said it plans to make at least two acquisitions in 2010. In December, CHS closed on a deal to purchase Rockwood Clinic, P.S., a multi-speciality clinic with 32 locations in Washington State and Idaho. The buy helped lift CHS’ fourth-quarter profits 8.7 percent to $65.1 million for the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31.

“There are a number of opportunities out there. We always like to keep our pipeline relatively full,” CHS Chairman Wayne Smith said during the call. “I think two in 2010 is a good number, but as usual it could be more than that.”

Smith said pricing for hospitals has been “very good,” at 50 to 60 cents on the dollar of net revenues compared to 80 cents to 100 cents on the dollar a few years ago.

Such low pricing will likely drive up the competition for hospitals, creating what CHS Chief Financial Officer Larry Cash called a “competitive window over the next 12 to 18 months.”

The window is open. In one of the first deals of 2010, HCA announced on Wednesday an agreement to acquire the Heart Hospital of Austin through its existing joint venture with Texas-based St. David’s HealthCare. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the deal is valued at $83.6 million.

“We needed additional cardiac capacity, and it made more sense than building a heart tower at one of our other facilities,” HCA Chairman and CEO Richard Bracken said when asked by an analyst about the acquisition. “There’s a lot of synergies there, and we’re excited about it.”

HCA’s fourth-quarter earnings results released today confirmed preliminary results announced three weeks ago that showed revenue of $7.61 billion, a 4.7 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.

The privately held operator of 163 hospitals and 105 freestanding surgery centers said today its same-facility admissions increased 2.6 percent on an adjusted basis during the fourth-quarter, boosted by a 9.1 percent increase in emergency-room visits.

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