As a business owner, Dan's experience with traditional group benefits was pretty standard. He often questioned their value and found himself wondering if there was a better option for his company.
Dan found a better option with Blendable! With us, he was able to customize his group benefits and control costs for his organization.
Let's explain...
Stuck on the merry-go-round
Dan's company has been around for several years, and they now have about 20 employees. Six years ago, Dan decided to offer a benefits plan to his team. Since then, his experience was less than stellar. The traditional group benefits model meant Dan:
- Had to choose from cookie-cutter plans with no flexibility.
- Dealt with an endless merry-go-round of Advisors pitching new and improved options.
- Was faced with expensive premium increases at every renewal.
Dan was frustrated. Over 5 years, he had 4 different Advisors and 3 plans from 3 different insurance companies.
Not only did he have to review an entirely new plan every few years, but each time he changed insurers, his employees had to:
- Re-enroll and jump through administrative hoops.
- Figure out what the new rules were.
- Learn how to submit claims.
It was exhausting and a constant headache for his whole team.
When his most recent renewal came around, Dan was advised of yet another premium increase. That was the last straw. He went looking for another option that would provide value to his team and help him budget his benefit expenses.
Dan's A-HA Moment was when he learned about our blended benefits options.
We showed Dan that instead of throwing health insurance premiums into a black hole he could contribute every dollar to his employees’ wellbeing with a Health Spending Account (HSA).
The traditional group benefits Dan had were "use-it-or-lose-it." Dan paid the annual premiums but if employees didn’t make any claims, they didn’t see the benefit. If employees did make claims, the insurance company would increase Dan’s premiums when his plan came up for renewal. Check out our article to see if you might be in the same situation Dan was in.
When we told Dan he could give his team the full value of his contributions without any unexpected premium increases, he was intrigued.
Building Dan’s blended benefits solution
Dan met with a Blendable Advisor who listened as Dan outlined his objectives:
- Increase employee happiness and retention.
- Control his costs.
- Be able to budget based on predictable benefit expenses.
- Allow more flexibility in the expenses employees could claim.
- Maintain coverage for Life, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, and Long Term Disability that would give his employees peace of mind
- Ensure Every. Single. Dollar invested in group benefits would provide value for his team.
Dan was OK with what he was currently paying, but the increase his previous Advisor had presented on renewal was NOT an option. That gave his Blendable Advisor a baseline budget.
His Blendable Advisor recommended a special kind of Health Spending Account as part of his blended benefits plan; we call it our HSA Rollover.
With our HSA Rollover, contributions to an HSA are available for employees to use for eligible medical expenses. At the end of the benefit period, any unused funds get invested into a Group RRSP.
The HSA Rollover is actually two plans in one; an HSA and a Group RRSP, and we make it easy.
We do the heavy lifting. We take care of setting up the Group RRSP then manage the housekeeping needed to invest any unused HSA funds.
The HSA Rollover is a great option to meet the needs of a diverse team including:
- The young family who wants to cover immediate or expected medical costs.
- Healthy individuals who prefer to use the funds to save for retirement.
No matter who the employees are and how their lives change, the funds invested in an HSA Rollover are there to support them.
A big win for Dan AND his employees
Dan went ahead with our recommendation and set up an HSA Rollover. His team gets $200 a month (tax-free!) to spend on healthcare. If they don't use it, it gets invested in their future through a Group RRSP.
We also worked with our insurance partners to get lower premiums on the Peace of Mind benefits Dan wanted to continue providing. We packaged Life Insurance, Long Term Disability, Accidental Death & Dismemberment, and Emergency Travel features into his custom-blended group benefits plan.
Dan's Blendable Advisor took the time to understand what he was looking for. Thanks to our blended solution:
- Dan’s company is saving money.
- Costs are controlled and predictable.
- Employees have a flexible healthcare solution and Peace of Mind benefits if they need them.
- Every dollar Dan contributes provides value to his employees, either through healthcare or as retirement savings.
Dan's happy because his employees are happy.
Want to learn how you can get off the merry-go-round of advisors pitching cookie-cutter plans? Get in touch!
