Formal Sick Pay Plan

Many small companies do not have a formal sick pay plan.  At the same time, they do their best to try and take care of their employees that become get injured or become sick off the the job.  In other words, they are not covered by Workers Compensation. 

What happens when an employer in good faith continues to pay an employee who can not work due to a non-work related sickness or injury?  They have created a precedence for future employees that become sick or disabled to expect the same treatment.  If they do not received the same compensation, the employer who was trying to help his or her employees has just created a big problem for themselves.

When a company establish a formal Short-term and/or Long-term Disability, they have created a formal sick pay plan and taken this potential problem out of their hands.   It is up the insurance company to process all claims and make the approproiate payments. 

Many smaller companies only provide health insurnace, which is a huge expense and great benefits but not enought small companies offer short-term disability plans.  They are not overly expensive and provide huge benefits for the employers and employees. 

Group Life and Short-term disability

We deal with alot of smaller companies, under 20 employees.  Most of these companies only offer health insurance and always have their employees asking about dental insurance.  Many times we get quotes, present them and the plans are never implemented due to cost and lack of participation.

On the other hand, we counter with $10,000 of group life and $250 per week of disability insurance starting on the 1st day of accidents, 8th days of sickness extending for 26 weeks costiing anywhere from 6-8 per week, our results are outstanding.     The employer especially loves it since now it 1) takes pressure of the workers compensation claims (some people may claim a disability off the job happened on the job) and 2) it creates a formal sick pay plan.

If you do not have any Group Life or Short-term Disability Insurance, send us an e-mail today.

Group Life Savings

Last week we had a company paying $1,500 per month for their Group Life Insurance.      On Monday they send us a census and a description of their benefits which had four seperate classes, all with different amounts and a 50% reduction at age70.   On Wednesday, we were able to return a quote of $1,300 guaranteed for two years.  

Not a million dollars, but $4,800 in savings over the next 24 months is hard to turn down?  Next week they will send back the signed group application since we can just refere to their current beneficiary cards on hand in the event of a claim.

4,800 over the next 24 months

Unlike health insurance, where employees are very concerned about their doctors and hospitals employees really do not care who underwrites their Group Life Insurance.   They are only concerned about the amount.  Why not let us see if we can save you 13% on your Group Life Insurance too?

Disability Awareness Month

In light of the fact it is Disability Awareness Month, we thought it would be a good idea to see the leading causes of both long-term and short-term disability claims recently released by UNUM.  

In 2011, Unum’s leading causes of long term disability claims were:

• Cancer (15%)
• Back disorders (excluding injury) (14.6%)
• Injuries (10.4%)
• Behavioral health issues (10.1%)
• Circulatory system disorders (9.3%)
• Joint disorders (8.5%)

The leading causes of short term disability were:

• Normal pregnancy (18.9%)
• Injuries (10.9%)
• Complications from pregnancy (8.8%)
• Digestive disorders (8%)
• Back disorders (7%)
• Cancer (6.6%)

Group Life Insurance for Uninsurable

We recently had an owner of a company tell us that he was unable to get any additional insurance due to pre-existing medical conditions.   Our next question was if he had any Group Life Insurance through his company?

He did a very small amount (10,000) that was just a throw in for the existing short-term disability insurance.   We got him a quote for Group Life Insurance for one times annual salary to a maximum of 150K, since that was the maximum GI (guarantee issue), we could get him. 

On the first of May, for a total cost of $450 for his 24 employee company all his employees have one times annual salary for life insurance.  Since he was actively at work on May 1st, he now has 150,000 of additional life insurance.