Beyond Your Benefits Package: Why Open Enrollment is a Great Time to Focus on Your Financial Wellness

November 1, 2022
By Alexandra Ginieres Disability Insurance, Employee Benefits, Insurance, Protect Your Income, Rock Enroll, Uncategorized

Alexandra Ginieres Head of Disability Marketing, Individual Markets Guardian Life Insurance Company of America® Editor’s Note: It’s that time of year when many employees are reviewing their employee benefits, renewing their previous choices or selecting new options, and considering financial products they can (or .. more »

Alexandra Ginieres

Head of Disability Marketing, Individual Markets
Guardian Life Insurance Company of America^®

Editor’s Note: It’s that time of year when many employees are reviewing their employee benefits, renewing their previous choices or selecting new options, and considering financial products they can (or did) buy on their own such as disability and life insurance.

The pandemic taught many Americans several things about financial wellness, including the importance of paid leave, retirement planning, and coverages such as disability and life insurance – whether it’s secured through your employer or you add coverage that stays with you as an individual no matter where you work.

If you’re like many Americans, your employer offers key benefits that provide valuable protection for you and your family. And you’re probably familiar with open enrollment season – that time each year when you may be able to choose your health insurance provider, explore tax-advantaged accounts like Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts, review and update retirement plan contributions, and elect employer-offered protection products, like disability and life insurance.

These “worksite benefits” are offered by your employer typically at a discounted group cost, with the option to further supplement those benefits with voluntary benefits (usually paid by you) that provide additional coverage for health and income. What many employees don’t realize, however, is that Open Enrollment season also offers them the perfect opportunity to look beyond their employer-sponsored benefits — to consider their entire protection strategy and financial picture.

Your financial wellness depends on a strong holistic plan that covers all aspects of your financial picture. While employer-provided benefits are a great start, it’s important to keep in mind that those benefit options are not ordinarily designed to protect all aspects of your financial well-being. Fortunately, you can also purchase individual products, such as disability insurance, life insurance and annuities, typically sold through a financial professional, that complement the benefits available through your workplace. Doing so can help to give you more complete financial protection and reduce the risks you or your loved ones could face without them.

Some risks to look out for

It’s important to concentrate on at least three risks to your financial well-being:

- - - - The risk of losing your income
        
        The risk of losing your life
        
        The risk of outliving your retirement savings

There are steps you can take to address each of these three risks. Doing so can help to protect both you and those you care the most about.

Protecting your income during your working years

If there is anything that we learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that anything can happen to anyone at any time and being prepared is key. Making smart choices about your benefits now can set you up for better protection in the future should something go wrong. While we can’t predict the unexpected, we can better prepare for it. Regardless of whether you are just beginning your career or are a seasoned professional, disability insurance is a necessary tool to help protect your income.

The ability to earn a living is one of the most important things in life. Income is essential to your livelihood and closely linked to your overall financial well-being. But when it comes to protecting your income, many working Americans may not realize the need to make it a priority.

According to The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America^® (Guardian), roughly 50 percent of people who leave work because of an illness or injury have trouble paying their bills.¹ Not surprisingly, workers who struggled financially during and after a leave from work had lower financial wellness scores and were more likely to report that the experience had a major or devastating effect on their household.

Even if your employer offers disability income insurance, there may be an income gap. One in 5 workers who made a disability insurance claim were surprised to learn that their employer-sponsored disability plans replaced only a portion of their salary, not 100 percent, based on Guardian’s research. Higher-income employees were also dismayed to learn that bonuses and/or commissions were not included in the calculation of their disability income benefit payments.

While no disability insurance plan will ever replace 100 percent of your income, purchasing individual disability income insurance from a financial professional will boost the amount of your money you will receive if you can’t work. If this is important to you, you’ll be able to “weather the storm” a little better if you become ill or are injured.

Protecting your loved ones if something should happen to you

If you have family or others who depend on you for financial support, purchasing life insurance from a life insurance professional is among the most important steps you can take for the financial wellness of your loved ones. Even if your employer provides you with this important coverage, it may not provide enough to financially protect those you care most about. And, in many instances, you will lose that coverage when you leave your employer. That’s why purchasing your own individual life insurance policy to supplement any workplace coverage you may have is a smart move, depending on the type of policy you buy.

Keep in mind the valuable protection role that life insurance plays: If something should happen to you, your policy’s death benefit will help ensure that your survivors can maintain their lifestyle, avoid financial hardship or bankruptcy, and continue to pay essential bills such as their rent or mortgage, health insurance, college tuition and car loans. Simply put, life insurance is one of easiest and most affordable ways to protect your loved ones should they lose your salary.

Protecting your income in retirement

The risk of outliving your retirement savings is a real one. While people who qualify for Social Security benefits in retirement can expect to receive a monthly benefit for the rest of their life, 80 percent of those participating in the 2019 Retirement Confidence Survey reported they would also rely on money from an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan, such as a 401(k), for income in retirement.²

One problem with that approach is these individuals risk running out of money in retirement, since the retirement income generated from a retirement savings account depends entirely on the individual’s account balance, the performance of the account’s investments and the withdrawal strategy used.

Eighty percent of survey respondents plan to work during retirement to supplement their income, yet only 28 percent are ultimately able to do this.

As with disability income and life insurance, there are steps you can take to help protect your income in retirement. In addition to contributing as much as possible to your employer-sponsored retirement savings plan, you may wish to consider purchasing other products from a financial professional, such as bonds and CDs, which can provide somewhat predictable returns, with possible tax advantages, and can help round out your investment portfolio.

Another option to consider is an annuity. By paying an insurance company a specified amount of money, you receive regular payments for a set amount of time, or for life. There are many different types of annuities that can provide you with cash flow right away (immediate annuities) or at some point in the future (deferred annuities).

Make the right moves for your financial future today

During open enrollment, it’s a good idea to consider your overall financial wellness, and address not only the benefits your employer provides, but protection products that can supplement those valuable benefits. Doing so will help you to address the risks to your financial well-being head-on. You have the power to make the decision to go with what you truly need based on your goals or concerns. Go through your options and be sure you can explain what you are buying. It all has to be clear and valuable for you.

If you need assistance in addressing any of these risks, a qualified financial professional can help you understand your options — and put you on the path to enhanced financial wellness.

Material discussed is meant for general informational purposes only and is not to be construed as tax, legal, or investment advice. Although the information has been gathered from sources believed to be reliable, please note that individual situations can vary. Therefore, the information should be relied upon only when coordinated with individual professional advice. This material contains the opinions of the author but not necessarily those of PAS or Guardian. Guardian, its subsidiaries, agents, and employees do not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Consult your tax, legal, or accounting professional regarding your individual situation.

Individual disability income products underwritten and issued by Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America (BLICOA), Pittsfield, MA or provided by Guardian. BLICOA is a wholly owned stock subsidiary of and administrator for the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), New York, NY. Product provisions and availability may vary by state. Optional riders are available for an additional premium.

GUARDIAN® and the Guardian Logo® are registered trademarks of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America.

©Copyright 2022 The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, N.Y. Full permission given to The Council for Disability Awareness to reproduce this material.

2022-145121 (exp: 10/2024)

¹ Income Protection: The Role of Disability Insurance in Financial Wellness, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY, May 2019 https://www.guardiananytime.com/gafd/wps/portal/fdhome/insights-perspectives/emerging-trends/income-protection

²2019 Retirement Confidence Survey Report conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald & Associates, April 23, 2019 https://www.ebri.org/docs/default-source/rcs/2019-rcs/2019-rcs-short-report.pdf

Open Enrollment 2022: Professional woman working from home

Important Employee Benefits in a Hybrid Workplace

October 20, 2022
By Amy Fontinelle Employee Benefits, HR, Mental Health, Rock Enroll, Uncategorized, Workplace

By Amy Fontinelle Editor’s Note: The pandemic changed how we work and how employers must prioritize benefits to support their workforce. Pre-pandemic, employee benefits like health insurance and retirement funds were always top of mind. These cornerstone benefits remain important, but the widespread shift to .. more »

By Amy Fontinelle

Editor’s Note: The pandemic changed how we work and how employers must prioritize benefits to support their workforce. Pre-pandemic, employee benefits like health insurance and retirement funds were always top of mind. These cornerstone benefits remain important, but the widespread shift to remote and hybrid work, combined with the unique challenges brought on by COVID-19, caused companies to reevaluate the desirability of various benefits.

As employees get ready for open enrollment (or a new job offer), they probably should take an extra-close look at their employee benefits package and not default to their usual selections.

For example: “Opting into a discount on a gym membership may not hold the allure it once did, but getting money to offset the cost of virtual training is highly valued,” said Edie Goldberg, president of E. L. Goldberg & Associates in Menlo Park, California.

Home office allowance

Even if you’ve been working remotely since March 2020, you (and your employer) may have assumed the arrangement was temporary. Now that more employers are employing hybrid setups that will have workers in the office half time or less, it’s smart to invest in a home office setup that will be effective for the long term.

Employer-subsidized internet service may help offset your home internet bill or allow you to upgrade to higher-speed service. A wireless hotspot plan can keep you connected and secure during power outages and work away from home. Your employer may reimburse you for a better router or a mesh network to improve internet performance in your home office.

Employees who work remotely should understand that their employer still has the same obligations to them as it does when they are in the office, said Chris Acker, CLU, ChFC. He recommends that employees negotiate for a high-quality desk chair and an ergonomic work setup — and, ideally, a professional ergonomic assessment to prevent neck, back, shoulder, and repetitive strain injuries.

While employers are not required to provide their employees with ergonomically correct furniture, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration mandates that employers keep the workplace free from ergonomic hazards. It’s also in their best interest because it can reduce workers’ compensation costs, absenteeism, and turnover. Also, proper ergonomics help workers get more done. State laws can offer additional protection.

Portable insurance

Many people rely on their employers for health, life, and disability insurance. As a result, changing jobs and risking the loss of those benefits can be a challenge. Yet, the pandemic caused many workers to reevaluate whether their current job is the best choice to support their other priorities in life, spurring a phenomenon over the last year that the media has dubbed the Great Resignation.

COBRA and the Affordable Care Act offer options to maintain health insurance whether you quit or leave your job. When it comes to life and disability insurance, you should learn if your policies are portable, meaning you can keep the same coverage you had through work as long as you pay the premiums.

“You would need to ask for the group certificate of coverage to make this determination,” Acker said. “Your HR department should know this, but I find many do not, and they will refer you to the insurance broker for this information.”

It’s also a good idea to know how much you’d pay to take your policies with you. If the premiums would be unaffordable and you are healthy and can pass a medical exam, individual policies can be an excellent supplement to or substitute for your group coverage. For example, you may be able to purchase a larger life insurance policy that will better help your survivors receive the financial support they will need in your absence. And with an individual policy, you gain the security of knowing you are covered no matter where you work.

“It’s always essential that you become familiar with how your existing group life and disability insurance fill the gaps in your personal financial plan,” Acker said.

Telemedicine

While you may be able to access telemedicine on your own through services like Teladoc and Amwell, a visit can cost as little as $0 if your employer provides a telemedicine benefit. Familiarize yourself with the service before you need to use it and learn what conditions its doctors can treat.

The range of options now available may surprise you: They include dermatology, nutrition, talk therapy, psychiatry, and second opinions on existing conditions. Still, an ongoing relationship with a primary care provider who can see you in person and who understands your history and the broader picture of your overall health is important. The convenience and affordability of a telemedicine benefit can help when they’re not available or if you don’t have that relationship right now.

With telemedicine, you may be able to see a provider sooner, save money by avoiding in-person urgent care, and get appointments during hours that don’t cause your kids to miss school or you to miss work. Some services are available 24/7, and you also won’t lose time to traveling to the doctor’s office.

Other telemedicine advantages include not spreading or catching germs at a physical doctor’s office, access to providers with expertise otherwise not available in your area, and a more pleasant experience for anyone who dreads in-person doctor visits. A virtual visit can also provide guidance on when an in-person visit is necessary.

Mental health benefits

If mental health benefits are important to you — and amid the ongoing pandemic, they are for many people — look not only at your employer’s health insurance policy but also at supplemental coverage they may provide through separate services. Whether you already have a clinical diagnosis or need support with depression, anxiety, burnout, relationships, or grief, employers have gotten better about recognizing that people can’t do their best professionally when they’re struggling personally.

“Employers are being encouraged to pay closer, better, more intentional, more informed attention to mental health, and they appear to be taking heed,” said Ruhal Dooley, HR knowledge advisor for the Society for Human Resource Management. “This is improving EAPs [employee assistance programs] and their clinical and therapy services. [And] is causing HR departments to scrutinize their benefits packages and shop for more robust services inclusive of mental health considerations,” Dooley said. “In other words, employers want to make sure their benefits include taking care of employees’ mental health.”

Add-on mental health services that some employers now offer through their employee assistance programs can make it easier to find the right provider than starting your search from scratch or even from your health insurer’s directory of in-network providers. Based on your answers to a short questionnaire, services such as Lyra and BetterHelp will match your needs and preferences with practitioners who are available. Furthermore, employers can choose to cover 100 percent of the cost of a certain number of sessions each year with no need for you to meet your health insurance deductible first, and coverage may extend to any spouse, partner, or child on your plan.

“The pandemic and rise of remote and hybrid work have resulted in unprecedented levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and workplace burnout,” Goldberg said. “Companies examining the big picture are the ones who will come out ahead during these trying times.”

Dependent care benefits

Without adequate childcare, both workers and employers lose out on billions of dollars annually, according to the Harvard Business Review. And children aren’t the only group that needs care.

About 48 million Americans provide care to an adult relative or friend, according to a spring 2021 study by AARP. Not only is this work unpaid, but it’s also costly: eight in 10 of those caregivers spend more than $7,000 a year out of pocket. The most common expenses are rent or mortgage payments, home modifications, and health care.

Providing adult care can also reduce a caregiver’s income. AARP’s survey found that about one-third of respondents lost income because they had to take leave or change their schedule, at an average annual cost of more than $10,000.

“Employers that can afford it do seem to be offering more in adult dependent care,” Dooley said.

In fact, employers were catching on to this need even before the pandemic. In 2020, 31 percent of human resource professionals surveyed by SHRM said their company offered paid family leave, up from 24 percent in 2019 and 18 percent in 2016. This benefit is important because although the federal Family and Medical Leave Act protects an employee’s job by providing up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave over 12 months, it does not protect an employee’s income.

In addition to paid family leave, caretakers should keep an eye out for workplace benefits like:

- - - - Decision support tools that connect caregivers with credentialed experts (e.g., Torchlight, Care@Work)
        
        Dependent care flexible spending accounts
        
        Backup childcare (including in-home child care)

Conclusion

Whether it’s open enrollment at your current job or you’re evaluating a new opportunity, it’s extra important to study your benefits package if you’re working in a hybrid – or full-time work-from-home – arrangement. Look for offerings that provide the support you need to do your best work whether you’re in office or remote, starting with reliable technology and an ergonomic workstation, and extending to child and dependent care benefits, telemedicine, and mental health support.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic reminded us all how important life and disability insurance can be. Revisit your insurance coverage, learn whether your benefits are portable, and consider purchasing individual policies to avoid being underinsured or losing coverage.

Open Enrollment 2022: Meeting about disability insurance offered through work

Understanding Disability Income Insurance Offered Through Work

October 18, 2022
By Tara Mallaley Disability Insurance, Employee Benefits, Facts, Financial Planning, Long Term Disability, Protect Your Income, Rock Enroll, Short Term Disability, Uncategorized

By Tara Mallaley Editor’s Note: If there’s one lesson we took away from the pandemic is our salaries may not be replaced when we leave work with an illness. About 50 percent of employees have some form of income protection coverage available to them through .. more »

By Tara Mallaley

Editor’s Note: If there’s one lesson we took away from the pandemic is our salaries may not be replaced when we leave work with an illness. About 50 percent of employees have some form of income protection coverage available to them through their employers.

Typically, employers who provide disability insurance offer both short-term and long-term benefits. Understanding the importance of insuring your income is critical to helping you navigate your employer’s open enrollment for benefits, which usually takes place during the autumn.

Disability income insurance is an essential tool in any financial strategy because it helps protect you from financial loss that can accompany an illness or injury by replacing a portion of the income you earn.

Disability coverage offered through work is a good benefit and a great start to helping protect the income you work hard for. It’s important to understand what is available through work, what it covers, and if it adequately protects your income.

Long-term disability plan options include:

1. 1. 1. 1. Group long-term disability coverage
        
        Individual disability insurance

Group long-term disability plans

- - - - Typically replaces a percentage of an employee’s base salary.
        
        Commonly offers one plan design for all employees with a cap on the benefit amount. (People who work at your company who earned larger base salaries may receive a smaller amount of income replacement based on the “cap” the employer establishes.)
        
        Employers tend to pay the premiums for this type of coverage. This means employees are required to pay the taxes on any benefit paid, resulting in less money received.
        
        Coverage generally terminates when employment ends.

Individual disability income insurance plans

- - - - Replaces a percentage of an employee’s complete salary (there is an option to cover variable compensation such as bonuses or commission) minus other existing disability income insurance you may carry.
        
        Offers design flexibility for classes of employees, including built-in policy features and riders that further enhance protection.
        
        Insurance premiums can be paid by the employer, employee or both. Policy benefits are tax free when employees pay the insurance premium with after-tax dollars.
        
        Coverage is typically portable (meaning you can take the coverage with you if you leave your current employer) with no changes to the premium or benefit amounts.
        
        Can supplement existing group long-term disability plans or can be offered as stand-alone protection if there is no employer disability plan in place.

Next steps

Find out if your employer offers one or both insurance plan options. Then get additional information about the coverage to identify how much protection you qualify for. This amount will determine if you have adequate coverage through work or if you need additional insurance to help supplement what is available through your employer.

To help get you started, find the answers to the questions below. Material is likely provided during in-person benefit meetings, online benefit webinars, or through your employer’s intranet site.

- - - - What percentage of your income is protected (does it replace 60%, 50% etc.)?
        
        Is the employer paying the premiums? If so, remember benefits at claim time can be taxable, which means you receive less money.
        
        What is the cap amount? This will identify if any portion of your income is not included, leaving it unprotected.
        
        Is variable compensation (bonuses, commissions, etc.) covered?

Once your research is complete, decide if you need additional coverage to add to the coverage available through your employer. If so, you’ll want to connect with your financial professional for help on getting the additional coverage you may need.

Ready for Open Enrollment? Three Steps To Getting In Shape for a Great Season

September 22, 2022
By The Council for Disability Awareness Disability Insurance, Employee Benefits, HR, Uncategorized, Workplace

For HR folks, the fall is sort of like their own version of the retail holiday season or the big football final…that’s because it’s open enrollment, the time when employees are able to make major changes to their benefits plans without penalties. And just like .. more »

And just like retailers start planning their holiday promotions early, so should the HR team begin planning how they will communicate both the existence of open enrollment and what it means to their team.

Here’s how to make the open enrollment period smooth for you and beneficial for your employees.

1. Finalize your options

Chances are good that you have already been working on determining what benefits you will be offering and the rate at which you will cover them. For example, maybe this is the year you add a wellness benefit or pet insurance. You also want to make sure you have a robust slate of health choices that might include dental, vision, and alternative medicine; as well as insurance, such as life and short-term and long-term disability.

With employment rates continuing to be high, benefits are just one additional way that you can strengthen your position in attracting and retaining employees.

2. Create your communications material

Even if you have the most admirable benefits plan in the world, it won’t help if your employees don’t know or understand what’s available to them—and one survey found that one-third of them do not!

From co-pays to premiums, the insurance world can be full of unfamiliar terms. Take health insurance—many employees can’t explain how a high-deductible plan might improve their financial situation. And many employees might never take the time to recognize what benefits are available to them. That’s why communication is vital during this time. Here are some pieces you should create:

A cheat sheet for common insurance terms: This would be an at-a-glance explanation of what all the terms mean, with examples of how they work in the real world. So, you could give a couple of explanations of how a high-deductible plan would play out for someone who uses little healthcare, compared to someone who has an ongoing health condition.

A summary of new insurance offerings: Finally offering massage therapy or financial wellness counseling? This is the time to tout the new benefits you’ll be offering to get employees excited about the package your workplace provides.

An explanation of existing offerings: During onboarding, most HR teams make a point to cover the benefit packages. But when employees are being bombarded with so much new information, they might not take the time to really dig in and find out what’s being offered and how they can take advantage of it. Open enrollment is the ideal time to refresh their memory on specifics. They might just end up with a renewed sense of satisfaction, just because you’re more thoroughly communicating what already exists.

A summary of total compensation (benefits + salary): Many employees don’t realize the value of their benefits package—estimated at 30% as most HR professionals know—but that disconnect means that they might feel underpaid if they don’t include these perks in their total compensation scenario. So depending on your bandwidth, it can be incredibly powerful to show exactly how much the company is kicking in, in terms of premium cost sharing, retirement program matches, disability insurance, and other programs you offer.

3. Use multiple communication vehicles

Gone are the days when HR could send out a big fat packet and hope/expect that everyone would read it. Today’s employees are used to getting their information in multiple ways. But the good news is that it doesn’t necessarily mean a ton more work for you; it just means thinking of creative ways to repackage the existing elements. The best way to make sure your communications vehicles hit their target market is through a strategy you can call COPE: Create once, publish everywhere. Some suggestions for broadcasting the materials you’ve created include:

Emails that drive them to your intranet, where materials reside online
A video campaign where you cover one type of benefit at a time and send the links to employees to watch at their leisure
A webinar where you present the information and they can send in real-time questions, with the option to replay later
A town hall style meeting where you can present and answer questions (done virtually if needed, depending on if you have a distributed workforce)
A drip campaign that supplements each of these by “teasing” what’s coming and meeting the need for “snackable” content that employees can consume quickly, then come back for more

As open enrollment season approaches, now is the time to prepare for your busy period. The great news is that it will wrap up just in time for you to enjoy the holidays.

Disability insurance

Disability insurance

Category: Employee Benefits