Imagine opening your mail and finding a check for $1,985 with the offer to get paid to be a mystery shopper. How many of your employees would be tempted to moonlight and make a little extra money by being paid to hit the mall? Well, my husband was sure tempted when he got an offer that sounded too good to be true from American Consumer Opinion in Ontario, Canada. Continue reading “Mystery Shopper Scam Alert”
Does your company’s voluntary benefits menu include pet insurance? Believe it or not, 4% of employers in 2011 did indeed offer pet insurance, according to SHRM’s 2011 Employee Benefits Study. Employees who have pets may welcome this benefit, since the ASPCA estimates that “pet parents” spend over $13 billion in veterinary care to keep their pets happy and healthy. Continue reading “Pet Parents Need Insurance Too!”
The IRS has given us 2 extra days to file this year due to April 15th falling on a Sunday and the recognition of Emancipation Day on April 16th. This also provides a few extra days to consider contributing to an IRA. Your employees are probably aware that any changes they make to their 401(k) contributions can’t impact last year’s tax picture but do they know about the ability to make a prior year contribution to an IRA and how an IRA contribution can increase their overall tax refund with a Saver’s Credit? Continue reading “1 Week to Go – Remind Your Employees of the IRA Deadline”
Last week, I wrote about the importance of running a retirement calculator or a retirement preparedness assessment. With National Retirement Planning Week coming up April 9 -13, 2012, there’s no better time to highlight the necessity of your employees knowing where they stand regarding their own retirement readiness. This year’s theme is “Retire On Your Terms” and is sponsored by the National Retirement Planning Coalition. The NRPC was formed by a group of prominent financial industry and advocacy organizations to raise public awareness of the need for comprehensive retirement planning and to recognize that the need to educate Americans on retirement planning is an ongoing effort and is committed to making this a national priority. Members of the NRPC include the Jumpstart Coalition, the American College, EBRI, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, and the American Savings Education Council, along with many others. Continue reading “Mark Your Calendars: National Retirement Planning Week is April 9-13, 2012”
The resident financial planners at Financial Finesse handle a variety of difficult questions from employees representing many different walks of life and unique backgrounds. One common area of concern these days is retirement. In fact, nearly 31% of all employees indicate that retirement is their number one financial planning priority. A recent helpline caller represented a perfect example of how a seemingly complex retirement planning scenario can be simplified using some quick and easy to use retirement planning tools. Continue reading “Does Calculating Your Retirement Needs Even Matter?”
I’m so glad that April 1st will be falling on a Sunday this year since that means only my family at home can try to trick me with April Fool’s jokes. What I can look forward to is that the first workday of April, Monday the 2nd, is National Employee Benefits Day. This event is a celebration recognized each year by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) to recognize trustees, administrators, corporate benefits practitioners and professional advisors for their hard work and dedication in providing quality employee benefits and this year, its focus is on the International Foundation’s two newest initiatives: retirement security and value-based health care. The IFEBP has actually been celebrating National Employee Benefits day since 2004 and offers a website which has numerous resources for helping employers learn more about this year’s theme of retirement security and value-based health care, including government resources, recent news and survey updates and information that can be shared with employees. The site also has suggestions on how to celebrate and offers Benefits Day premium items, including a National Employee Benefits Day mug and T-shirts. Continue reading “No Fooling – Prepare to Celebrate National Employee Benefits Day on the First Workday of April”
Last week, Prudential, the 2nd largest life insurance company in the U.S., announced they were getting out of the individual long term care insurance market. Prudential isn’t the first to exit the marketplace since both Guardian Life Insurance and MetLife also recently abandoned sales of LTC insurance. Although Prudential will no longer be selling any new policies to individuals, they will honor existing contracts and will now be focusing entirely on the group LTC market. With the marketplace for individual policies shrinking, now may be a good time to add group LTC insurance to your benefits menu. Continue reading “The Safety Net of a Group LTC Plan”
Dental implants are becoming a common solution to missing teeth and an alternative to bridge and crown work. However, according to WebMD.com, many dental insurance plans do not cover implants. My husband, Dave, learned this the hard way when our dentist convinced him to replace a worn-out bridge with 2 dental implants. Dave has employer-provided dental coverage through a nationally known insurance carrier so our dentist submitted a pre-certification form before he began the work on the dental implants. The insurance carrier denied the coverage but DID provide the lower negotiated rate for the procedure on the rejection letter. Our dentist wanted to charge $3,600 but the discounted PPO rate was actually only $2,800. Continue reading “Don’t Let the Tooth Fairy Take Back Cash From Your Employees”
The Oscar awards were on TV this past Sunday but since there were no actors I was rooting for, my husband decided we were going to rent a movie so he picked Tower Heist, which after watching it I can say is definitely not worthy of an Oscar. So what does Tower Heist have to do with benefits communication? Continue reading “Making Your Benefits Communications Oscar-Worthy”
With the yearly chore of tax filing upon us, all those year-end retirement account statements can become quite confusing for your group of employees who have chosen to remain in the workforce into their seventies. Which accounts can they still contribute to? Which accounts do they need to take a withdrawal from? Continue reading “Educating Older Workers on the ABCs of RMDs”
According to a recent study by LIMRA, over 30% of U.S. households have no life insurance coverage, and this includes close to 11 million households that have a child under age 18 who SHOULD have coverage as part of their financial plan. “Well, that’s not my employees”, you may be thinking since your company benefits probably include employer-sponsored life insurance. On average, most companies provide a company paid benefit of 1 x the annual salary of their employees. But with 1 x their salary, that leaves many workers severely under-insured, since the common rule of thumb is that you need at least 6 to 10 times your annual income if you have loved ones at home that rely on your income. Continue reading “Valentine’s Alert: Educate Your Workforce on Providing for Their Loved Ones”
For many lower income employees, their yearly tax return provides more than just a refund of their tax withholding – it can include refundable tax credits that can add thousands of additional dollars to their bank account. The Earned Income Credit http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=150513,00.html (EIC) can add up to $5,751 for a working parent with 3 or more children making a yearly income of less than $43,998 and if the kids are under age 17 there could be up to an additional $1,000 child tax credit for each. Because of these large refunds, many tax preparation services aggressively go after these taxpayers with the temptation of getting their refund immediately, instead of waiting the average 2 weeks it takes to get their tax refund directly deposited by the IRS. Continue reading “Employee Tax Education: Are Prep Fees Too Taxing on Your Lower Income Workforce?”
Last week’s mail started the avalanche of end of year statements and one of the first to arrive was my HSA statement. I am lucky to be in pretty good health so I don’t mind having a high-deductible health plan. As a result, I also get to watch my HSA continue to build up year after year so this is one statement I usually look forward to opening. Continue reading “Re-Evaluating Your HSA for Your Workforce”
My favorite gift from this past Christmas has to be my new Kindle Fire. I would have never bought one for myself, however, because I swore that the reading experience from turning the pages of an actual book could not be duplicated. But now, I am a Kindle convert. Not only because it gives the look and feel of a real page in a book; I now have access to hundreds of books for FREE in the Amazon bookstore. Continue reading “Sparking the Interest of Retirement Readiness with Your Employees”
Flying home last week from the wintry northwest, I heard lots of sneezing and sniffles from my fellow travelers. Although we’ve been lucky to have such a mild winter so far, cold January weather usually brings with it the onslaught of cold and flu season. In a typical year, 5 to 20% of the population in the U.S. will get the flu, according to www.flufacts.com , and some of your employees may end up with flu complications that may require a trip to the doctor or even hospitalization. Continue reading “Helping Employees Cope with Medical Bills”
As we enter the New Year, the job market is finally starting to pick up the pace. According to Career Builder’s annual job forecast, 23% of the employers who participated in the survey plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in 2012. The study was conducted by Harris Interactive, and included more than 3,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes. With nearly 1 in 4 hiring managers planning to hire, this requires screening of the huge pool of potential job applicants to fill these positions. Continue reading “You’re Hired! But Not With That Credit Score”
I met with Lauren recently, a mid-career employee in her thirties who wanted to know if she was on track for retirement. I asked her how much she was contributing and she told me 6%, which is the minimum to capture the full match from her employer, and the default deferral that she was auto enrolled with when she got hired two years ago. However, when she handed me her latest retirement account statement, her actual salary deferral was at 8%. Continue reading “Workforce Retirement Readiness: “Stepping Up” to the Challenge”
In case you missed it, two Sunday’s ago was designated as Balance Transfer Day, based on a Facebook-led protest against big banks that encouraged consumers to switch their high interest credit cards for cards with lower rates or 0% teaser rates. The December 11th protest was meant to “beat the banks at their own game and demand the same 0% interest rate that they receive from the federal government,” the protest’s organizers said. Hopefully, this put the spotlight on the high cost of finance charges that some consumers are facing with their credit card debt. So where can you shine your own spotlight? Continue reading “A Workplace Twist on Balance Transfer Day”
Will you be in a higher or lower tax bracket when you retire? This is the typical question asked of employees when they are faced with the decision to choose between a pre-tax or Roth 401(k) option, sponsored by their employer.
For a younger worker just starting their career, Continue reading “The Roth 401(k) – Where’s a Crystal Ball When You Need One?”
Stress is a part of life and isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing. Personally, I prefer less stress. But, in small doses stress can help us perform better under pressure and provide the necessary motivation to perform important tasks at home and at work. As a busy financial planner with countless deadlines, assignments, travel requirements, and client service related demands, my work-life balance is always a challenge. Thankfully, I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to help others improve their relationship with money and admit that I do indeed enjoy the sometimes chaotic life of multitasking. Continue reading “The Impact of Financial Stress on Job Productivity”
