Insurance Insights: The Cleary Insurance Blog
The Cleary Insurance blog covers insurance, risk management, and financial planning for New England businesses and individuals. Our team of licensed advisors and specialists publishes regular articles on commercial and personal coverage, employee benefits, life and financial planning, and insurance compliance. Browse recent articles below, or use the category filters to find topics relevant to your business or personal situation.
Disability Insurance
According to a recent survey, 4 in 10 American workers live paycheck to paycheck. This means that an unexpected illness or injury that takes an employee off the job for more than a few days can have devastating consequences for those who depend on their wages to survive. Disability insurance – sometimes called disability income insurance – helps protect workers’ incomes against the possibility of loss of work from illness or injury.
What it Covers
In a nutshell, disability insurance helps replace a portion of a worker’s income if that worker loses his or her income due to an injury or illness. Typically, disability insurance policies will replace between 50% and 65% of a worker’s income – a percentage low enough that most people would prefer to return to the workforce as soon as possible, but high enough that most workers could keep a roof over their heads, the lights on in their homes, and some food on the table for themselves and their families until they recover. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of disability insurance policies:
Short-term disability – for events that disrupt income for less than 90 days
Long-term disability – covering benefits for a longer period of time
- Advantages of Group Coverage
- Group disability coverage has advantages for both the employer and the workforce. Advantages to the employer include:
- Reduced costs compared to offering individually underwritten policies to everyone
- Increased employee loyalty – especially after someone in the workforce has a claim and word gets out that these valuable benefits kicked in
- Tax deductible premiums
- Easy, streamlined administration
- List billing
Advantages of group disability insurance to the worker include:
- Affordability – the employer subsidy makes it possible for workers to get coverage they would be unable to get on their own
- Pre-existing conditions that would make it impossible for employees to get coverage as individuals may be waived in a group plan
- Streamlined application process with no medical exam required
- No prior year tax returns or income verification are required; employer reports income information to the disability insurance carrier
In addition, some policies are portable. If the employee leaves the company, he can sometimes keep the policy, though he loses the employer subsidy. Portability is an important feature, because disability insurance can be difficult to qualify for on the individual market.
Disadvantages of Group Disability Insurance
All coverages have both advantages and disadvantages. Some of the disadvantages include:
- Less flexibility – managers and supervisors may have different needs and risk profiles compared to rank and file employees
- Less coverage – some workers may be able to get more robust plans on the individual market than carriers offer via group plans
- Benefits are taxable to the recipient
- More restrictive definitions – with disability insurance policies, the definition of the word “disability” in the contract itself is of paramount importance. For example some policies, known as “Own Occupation” policies, pay benefits if you cannot work in your own profession. Other policies will not pay benefits if the worker can work in any occupation.
- All things being equal, “Own Occupation” policies are preferable – but they tend to have higher premiums, and are less prevalent in the group disability insurance market.
Taxation of Disability Insurance
Group term premiums are generally deductible to the business as a business expense, just like any other wage expense. The value of the premiums, however, is not usually taxable as income to the worker. Disability insurance benefits may or may not be taxable, depending on the circumstances. Generally, if the recipient didn’t pay taxes on the premiums, then the benefits are taxable as ordinary income. This is true for most employer-paid group health insurance plans. If the employee paid part of the premiums, then a similar percentage of benefits will be tax-free.
At Cleary, we know how important a comprehensive benefits package can be to your continued success. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700 and we will work with you to create a plan that meets your business objectives, takes into account state and federal laws, and capitalizes on incentives and innovative solutions now being offered.
DOL Compliance Audits
In the last several months, many of our clients with Service Contract Act (SCA) contracts have been audited by DOL Investigators from the Wage and Hour Division. These auditors are part of the expanded enforcement that occurred as a result of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act.
They usually begin with auditing employee and contractor records, before moving on to personal interviews with employees. They are looking for Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act irregularities as well as FLSA and Service Contract Act violations. It is critical that companies pay the minimum wage rates and fringe benefits as listed in their respective wage determinations. In addition, record keeping should be up to date and verify the aforementioned, including your health and welfare reconciliations.
It is important to remember that employee wages and fringe benefits should not be combined. This is especially true when fringe benefits are paid in cash. Your records should verify the wages and fringe benefits are distinct, in the event an investigator asks for them.
Surprising as it may seem, some contractors are not aware they have a SCA contract until an audit takes place. At that point, fines are assessed and payments of back wages become due. In some instances, the Contracting Officer can ask to withhold funds that were destined for payments to the contractor, if there is a potential risk of default.
The best remedy to handle these audits is to have your appropriate personnel properly trained in the fundamentals of the SCA and how to handle DOL audits. In many cases we can assist a contractor with these audits, but it is imperative that we have good facts to build a prima facie case.
At Cleary, we know how important a comprehensive benefits package can be to your continued success. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700 and we will work with you to create a plan that meets your fringe benefit obligations and provides your employees with valuable benefits.
An Invaluable App
A recent article in the Boston Globe, entitled “Boston’s Brightest Pick their Top Apps”, peaked our curiosity. While we all have read countless articles and downloaded oodles of apps, there might be one more you should consider. It’s called MyHome Scr.APP.book.
After reading that Joseph Murphy, the state’s Commissioner of Insurance recommended the app, we not only downloaded it but began using it. We found it to be one of the best and easiest ways to take inventory of household possessions. It even includes a preparedness section with various insurance tips.
MyHome Scr.APP.book is great for determining how much insurance you really need and cataloging your possessions in the event you need to file a claim. If you’re like us, you don’t think about taking a picture of your washing machine or jotting down the serial number until something happens and your homeowner’s insurance company is looking for the information. With MyHome Scr.APP.book, you simply walk through your home and enter names, purchase dates, prices, and serial numbers of your most valuable possessions.
Developed for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the software links to your smartphone camera so you can easily attach a snapshot of each item. Once your list is complete, you can email or export the list to a safe location on the internet.
Cataloguing the contents of your home can be tedious and time consuming. It always seems to be on the list of things to do next week, though next week never seems to come. While no one wants to think about filing a claim, especially those that aren’t prepared, you can get prepared and organized with the help of MyHome Scr.APP.book. Best of all, it’s free and easy to use.
Concerned about your personal insurance coverage? At Cleary, our experienced Personal Lines departement will work with you to evaluate your insurance needs, identify exposures and create a customized insurance portfolio. Give us a call today at 617-723-0700.