2027 plan pitches start October 1. Cold calls stay banned
In This Issue
- What changed: From October 1, 2026, 2027 plans may pitch you by mail and email, never by cold call.
- Today's habit: Check your 2026 RMD progress.
- Ignore This Week: 2027 COLA forecasts before the October 14 data.
- On the calendar: Medicare Open Enrollment, October 15 to December 7, 2026.
What Changed
From October 1, 2026, Medicare Advantage and drug plans may start pitching you their 2027 coverage, and the only uninvited routes they may use are your mailbox and your inbox. Federal marketing rules set October 1 each year as the first day plans may market the next year.
The contact rules bar Medicare Advantage plans and their agents from cold calls, robocalls, texts, voicemails and unannounced visits to your door. A call you return, or a reply card you mail back, counts as consent.
Once you agree to a sales appointment, the agent must record its scope beforehand. At that meeting, the agent may not sell you annuities or other non-health products.
The point: Mail and email are the only uninvited ways a 2027 plan pitch may reach you. Unless you invite more, nothing here requires action.
If you filed an extension this spring, your 2025 federal return is due October 15, 2026, and missing it costs ten times what paying late does. The IRS reminded extension filers on August 26, 2026 that an extension gives more time to file but no more time to pay.
Per IRS Tax Topic 653, the late-filing penalty is 5% of unpaid tax per month, up to 25%. The late-payment penalty is 0.5% a month.
Ten times.
Past 60 days late, a minimum applies: the lesser of $525 or all the tax owed, for returns due in 2026. File on time and set up an installment agreement, and the late-payment rate drops to 0.25% a month.
The point: On $10,000 of unpaid 2025 tax, the late-filing penalty alone can reach $2,500. Filing by October 15, 2026 keeps it at $0.
A Medicare plan to pay labs less in 2027 doesn't touch the $0 you usually pay for a covered test under Original Medicare. CMS released preliminary 2027 lab rates on September 21, 2026, after finding Medicare paid about 16% more than private insurers.
By law, no test's payment may fall more than 15% a year through 2029. Comments close 30 days after release, on October 21, 2026, and CMS expects final rates in November 2026.
Medicare.gov states that you usually pay nothing for covered diagnostic lab tests, which is why the rate change lands on the labs.
The point: In a Medicare Advantage plan, the lab copay in your 2027 plan letter is the figure to read. Under Original Medicare, nothing here requires action.
Today's Habit
Check how much of your 2026 required minimum distribution you've already taken.
Your 2026 RMD is your December 31, 2025 balance divided by a factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, and it's due by December 31, 2026. The IRS RMD page sets the rule and links the table. Your custodian processes the withdrawal, but the excise tax on any shortfall is yours, reported on Form 5329.
Automatic withdrawals can fall short when a balance jumped in 2025 or an account was left off the schedule. Checking in September leaves you two months to close a gap without the year-end rush.
Miss part of it and you owe a 25% excise tax on the amount not taken, cut to 10% if you fix it within 2 years. On a $6,000 shortfall in 2026, that's $1,500.
- Pull the December 2025 statement for each traditional IRA and workplace plan, and write down each December 31, 2025 balance.
- Divide each balance by your distribution period in the Uniform Lifetime Table, or copy the 2026 RMD figure if your custodian prints one.
- On your latest statement, find 2026 distributions to date, including any qualified charitable distributions, which IRS Employee Plans guidance says may count toward the RMD.
- Add your IRAs together, since one withdrawal can satisfy all of them, but check each 401(k) or 403(b) on its own.
- If anything's left, book the withdrawal for a date in November 2026, not December 31.
When it's done, you have one line per account: required, taken, left, date. Tape it inside your 2026 tax folder.
Ignore This Week
The 2027 COLA forecasts. Since the August inflation report on September 11, 2026, coverage has put next year's Social Security raise at 3.5% or 3.6%, and forecasters have argued over the tenth of a point.
Why it looks urgent: most of the data is already in, and a bigger check sounds like something to plan around.
Why it isn't: the raise waits on September's CPI, which the BLS schedule sets for October 14, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. ET, and nothing you do changes it. The tenth of a point dividing the forecasters is worth $2 a month on a $2,000 monthly benefit, or $24 over 2027. The 2027 Part B premium hasn't been published either.
Budget your 2027 income after October 14, 2026, with the official figure in hand. Until then, nothing here requires action.
On the Calendar
October 15, 2026: Medicare Open Enrollment opens.
December 7, 2026: it closes, and your plan must receive any change by that day.
January 1, 2027: whatever you chose takes effect.
General information, not personalised advice. Every figure here comes from the SSA, the IRS, the CMS or the plan document, and carries the year it applies to. Corrections run at the top of the next issue.
— Robert Kessler