THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM (09/03/06)

THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM

INSURANCE MATTERS
by Joseph Hawryluk

More on the Coverdell ESA

Last Friday evening, one of my Ukrainian National Association life insurance customers called me to complain about my Coverdell article.

While doing weekly banking at her local Buffalo bank, she inquired about what I had written. The bank worker told her that while she hadn't seen my article, all college savings plans were alike. So, this Ukrainian mother deposited $1,000 into her bank's College Savings Plan. She didn't look at her receipt until she got home.

She called me because she was only getting 5 percent interest. She had been charged a $25 account fee. She had been charged an 8.85 percent sales charge ($87.50).

All of a sudden that $1,000 for her 12-year-old daughter's college account was worth only $887.50! She said that I was irresponsible for recommending this kind of account.

So dear readers, here is the explanation.

All college savings plans are not alike. The UNA Coverdell is an Education Savings Account. You do not need $1,000 to open it ($100 will do). You will receive 5.5 percent interest. There is no account fee. There is no sales charge.

Had this Ukrainian mother read my article more carefully, her daughter would still have all of her $1,000. She would be getting 5.5 percent interest on $1,000 (not 5 percent interest on $887.50). In addition, her daughter would be receiving UNA scholarships through all four years of college. Her daughter could also visit Soyuzivka at a discount, order The Ukrainian Weekly and Svoboda at a discount, and receive other perks.

So, you have a choice! The UNA looks out for you, and investments in the Ukrainian community. The bank looks out for its profits.

UNA branch secretaries will have the blue Coverdell forms and instructions this week. Or, you may call the Home Office toll-free at 1-800-253-9862.

Osyp (Joe) Hawryluk is a licensed professional sales agent for the UNA. You may reach him at [email protected].

OBITUARY: Paul Fuga, former employee of UNA Home Office, branch secretary

PARSIPPANY, N.J. - Paul Fuga, a longtime employee of the Ukrainian National Association's Home Office and a veteran of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), died on August 9. He was 79.

Mr. Fuga hailed from the ethnically Ukrainian Lemkivschyna region of Poland. He was born on January 27, 1927, in the village of Veremin, Lisko county. As a young man he joined the UPA; his pseudonym was Koshel. He endured arrest and imprisonment by the Communist Polish authorities.

Upon his release Mr. Fuga married and started a family. In 1967 he and his family emigrated from Poland to the United States, where his brothers lived, and the family settled in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Fuga began working at the UNA Home Office's financial department in 1970, where he was in charge of keeping track of members' dues payments to UNA branches. He retired in 1999.

Mr. Fuga was remembered by his colleagues at the UNA as a gentle soul, a person who tried to solve problems with a smile and a joke. UNA branch officers did not hesitate to turn to him for assistance, as he was patient and devoted in working with them.

In addition, he was a UNA organizer who enrolled many members into the fraternal organization, having gained much experience in the realm of life insurance. He was elected secretary of UNA Branch 269, serving in that post for many years and attending the UNA's quadrennial conventions as a delegate from that branch. He was a delegate to the UNA's most recent convention, its 36th, held this past May at Soyuzivka, the UNA's estate in Kerhonkson, N.Y.

Mr. Fuga loved to sing and he was active in the Haidamaky ensemble.

Surviving are his wife, Maria; daughter Christine Gerbehy, with her husband, Donald, and their children, Andrew and Peter; daughter Irene Diakun, with her husband, Chester, and their children Natalie and Melanie; and son Robert with his wife, Jean. Also bereaved are other family members in the United States, Ukraine and Poland.

Funeral services were held on August 12 at St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church in Manville, N.J., with burial at St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery in South Bound Brook, N.J.

Bidding a final farewell to Mr. Fuga were many of his co-workers at the UNA, as well as National Secretary Christine E. Kozak and former President Ulana Diachuk. Mrs. Diachuk spoke at the funeral on behalf of the UNA.

His comrades in arms, UPA veterans, also attended the funeral, and a eulogy was delivered by Ivan Kushnir. All present sang the melancholy song "Chuyesh, Brate Mii" (Do You Hear, My Brother).

UNA's Coverdell ESA is promoted at Buffalo's Ukrainian American Day

BUFFALO - Judie Hawryluk, Buffalo District chairwoman and Branch 360 secretary, explains the benefits of the Ukrainian National Association's latest product, the UNA Coverdell Education Savings Account, to a visitor at Ukrainian American Day on Sunday, August 20, on the grounds of the Ukrainian Cultural Center Dnipro.

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