Why Should I Offer Ancillary Benefits?

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Ancillary benefits are health benefits offered by employers in addition to a standard health plan. Examples include dental, vision and accident/injury benefits, as well as non-insurance products such as retirement plans.

Over the past few years, many employers have been working toward decreasing costs and limiting spending, so you may be wondering why you should offer your employees additional benefits on top of their standard health insurance plan.

Here are just a few reasons:

  • Offering a health plan is not enough to keep employees healthy. An all-encompassing plan promotes a healthy and productive working environment.
  • Rich benefits packages also help attract and retain top talent.
  • Research shows that ancillary benefits (especially dental and vision) are helpful in the early detection of diseases and/or conditions and therefore support lower medical claims in the long run.
  • Ancillary benefits are AFFORDABLE! Purchasing at a group level is much less than purchasing an individual policy. With group ancillary insurance products, the risk is spread out amongst your company, which keeps premiums reasonably priced.
  • Many premiums are paid with pre-tax dollars.

The cost of ancillary benefits doesn’t necessarily need to be picked up by the employer either. It can of course be completely covered by the employer, but it can also be shared with the employees by arranging an employer/employee split.

To learn more about ancillary benefits and what will work best to complement your standard health plans in 2013, contact Employer Solutions Plus.

Benefits: How Small Franchise Locations Gain Large-Company Purchasing Power

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Franchising is an attractive way of doing business, there’s no doubt about it. Rather than relying on a new brand or concept to “take off,” franchisees utilize corporate image and power as a tool to expand their market share more rapidly and less expensively.

With a brand that’s already recognized, franchise owners reap many benefits when it comes to hiring and marketing services and sometimes even an overall business model and/or growth plan. It’s already been established, and that certainly beats starting from scratch!

However, franchisees could face some challenges when it comes to: employee benefits. While you may be part of a very large “corporate image,” you may not be part of a corporate policy for vendor services such as health insurance. Large companies tend to get more attractive (and cost-effective) health insurance options because there are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of employees on their policy. You may only be a small employer but realize the importance of offering health insurance benefits to attract and retain quality employees.

So, where does this leave you? A great solution is a Professional Employer Organization (PEO). PEOs present purchasing power for health insurance due to the overall population size of their employee base. They pool employees from numerous client companies on to a single company policy (the PEO’s policy) through the co-employment relationship.

Employer Solutions Plus has established partnerships with many national PEOs who understand the unique needs of a franchise owner. With a PEO, clients gain better service, better pricing, and more options – beyond health insurance and into payroll processing, employee administration and more!

If you are with corporate… Providing health insurance options (such as master group health) to new franchisees makes your business model and franchising set-up much more attractive. You help new locations get off to the right start by keeping their vendor expenses as low as possible. Suddenly, “corporate benefits” is added alongside the value of a franchisee’s corporate image … further ensuring their success!

If you are an individual franchisee… If corporate doesn’t currently offer PEO or health insurance options, give Employer Solutions Plus a call to discuss your employee benefits. We work with many PEOs interested in providing you with economical options for health insurance!

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Small Business Knowledge: What is ERISA?

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What is ERISA?

ERISA stands for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and is enforced by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. It is a federal law that sets minimum standards for pension plans in the private sector.

As a Business Owner, Why Should I Care About ERISA?

While ERISA does not require any employer to establish a pension plan, it does require those that do to meet certain minimum standards including:

  • Providing participants with information about plan features and funding
  • Establishing minimum standards for participation, benefit accrual, and funding
  • Accountability of plan fiduciaries (trustees)

Is your company in compliance? You should be. In addition to penalties business owners may face for violating compliance, ERISA also gives participants the right to sue for benefits and breaches of fiduciary duty. But, before compliance issues scare you aware from offering attractive benefits that will help your employees (and future employees) set aside money for retirement, contact a professional. Compliance is sometimes scary, but it doesn’t need to be.

A Happy Medium?

For businesses engaged in a PEO relationship, expert help with risk management and compliance protects the client from costly fines and lawsuits. PEOs also assume much of a business’s risk through the co-employment relationship.

For businesses that are not engaged in a PEO relationship, Employer Solutions Plus provides benefits and human resource management services such as wage and hour compliance, ERISA, FMLA, COBRA, HIPAA and ADA options. As it relates to pension plans, we provide business owners with all the necessary information they need to make better employee benefits decisions, and most importantly, stay in compliance.

To learn more about PEO options, or employee pension plans and ERISA compliance, contact us today.

New Year, New Options …. It’s Time to Review Your Vendors

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It’s that time again – time to reflect on the past year and plan for the future. Whether you’re searching for an all-inclusive approach to managing your organization’s vendors in 2013, or just looking for a more cost-effective employee benefits plan, Employer Solutions Plus has you covered!

Do you currently have a vendor budget? Establishing an itemized budget for vendor services such as payroll administration, employee benefits and more provides you with projected expenses for the coming year, and is a simple tool for evaluating and monitoring your performance. Where are your current weaknesses? Where is there too much risk? Is your workers’ compensation policy the very best coverage you can afford?

Even if you are currently satisfied with your organization’s vendors, there may be more competitive options out there for you; such as authorizing a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) to manage all employee management services and set up a more economical, streamlined approach. It certainly does not hurt to shop, especially if you have a valued partner to do it for you.

At Employer Solutions Plus, we review your existing vendors and provide recommended alternatives at no cost to you, which not only saves you money, but time as well.

Our New Year’s Review covers:

  1. Payroll Administration
  2. Employee Benefits
  3. Human Resource Management/Administration
  4. Risk Management (Including Workers’ Compensation Insurance)
  5. PEO Options

What will you do in 2013 with the money you save on vendor expenses? Hire someone and expand your team? Invest a few more dollars into marketing initiatives? Lease a larger space?

At Employer Solutions Plus, we represent multiple providers in each product category listed above. This allows us the flexibility to customize a cost effective solution to meet the individual needs of our clients. Contact us today for your New Year’s Review.