You’re a great employer! You’ve set up a benefits plan for your employees, but you may be exposed to unrealized liability. Many companies set up a benefits plan to protect their employees but is your employee benefits plan creating a liability for your company? Here are some potential situations that we come across that can potentially come back and blow … Read More
How Do You Ensure the Most Used Part of your Employee Benefit Plan Will Never Increase Again?
Employee Benefit Plans for small businesses are notorious for double-digit inflation. The threat of the unsustainable benefit plan is a fact that many small business owners face every year at renewal. Here’s a way to stop having that awkward renewal conversation with your benefits provider; make the most used portion of your benefit plan a fixed and predictable cost. This … Read More
Why is it Good to be Disruptive in the Employee Benefits Industry?
By definition, Disruptive means “causing or tending to cause disruption”, but in business, it generally refers to “innovative or groundbreaking”. My 15-year son being disruptive in his classroom is not encouraged, but it takes guts to be a trailblazer in the business world. Also, if you’re successful, then the masses will follow. Who Said a Tiger Can’t Change Its Stripes? … Read More
Why Marketing Your Group Benefits Plan Every Couple of Years is a Bad Idea
The traditional approach taken by most benefits consultants is to take your benefit plan out to the insurance marketplace for pricing. This, however, is a short term solution and not a sustainable practice. This is at best, a knee-jerk response to costs that are climbing out of control and doesn’t address the real issue of getting claims in hand. It also … Read More
Want to Learn About the 9 Biggest Mistakes Made on Benefit Plans?
If you think the benefits industry is child’s play, you’re mistaken. I’ve listened to a number of benefits brokers “pitches” and if I find their approach confusing then chances are you will too! It’s not difficult to see that the biggest mistakes made on benefit plans are due to misinformation and the self-serving needs of the benefits consultant. Get … Read More
10 Reasons Why Benefit Advisors Miss The Mark with Small Business Benefit Plans
If you don’t know by now, I’m in the group benefits marketplace. I’ve grown my business by being transparent, accountable and acting as an advocate for small and medium-sized companies. I coach clients and their staff on the shared responsibility of having a group benefits plan and giving instruction on how to create a sustainable plan for years to … Read More
What are the 9 Obvious Signs You Should Be Firing Your Benefits Advisor?
It ceases to amaze me that in this day and age that some benefit advisors still have clients or are holding onto their clients using the same approach that they’ve used for the past decade or longer. So when is it that you should look at changing benefit advisors? A case in point. I had a meeting with a new … Read More
How Can Your Benefits Plan Benefit From a Third Party Administrator?
A prospective client asked me recently ‘why use a Third Party Administrator?’ I thought this was a blog-worthy item of interest and write about it this week as this is not the first time I’ve been asked this question. First of all, it’s important to understand what a TPA is all about and what role do they fulfil within the … Read More
Why You Deserve to Know How Much You’re Paying Your Benefits Consultant
Let’s be clear about this; transparency and disclosure of compensation is a sign of the times. Some industries work on this premise. It helps to earn trust with clients and ensure that you’re making recommendations because it is in your clients’ best interests and not your own. So how much do benefit consultants get paid? I’m not going to … Read More
Which of the 4 Benefits Plan Funding Models is Right For Your Company?
Today, the stakes are high when setting up an employee benefit plan for your company. Trying to find common ground on risk adversity, cost certainty, employee security, plan sustainability, and affordability all begin with your plan funding model. Arguably, your plan funding model can represent one of your most important decisions when setting up your plan. Arbitrarily deciding one or … Read More
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