Leta Blank, head of the Montgomery County Senior Health Insurance Program, typed the names of the four drugs that Shammas takes regularly into Medicare's Web site and quickly found several plans that would save her several hundred dollars next year.

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This loose-leaf book, the work of a retired estate planner, has fill-in-the-blank pages for everything from bank and stock accounts, to life insurance policies, to family medical history and funeral preferences.

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Launched in 2007 as a "blank check" operation to make acquisitions, Gerova has gobbled up loans and insurance assets.

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