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April 2015 Bulletin

News from The Benefit Specialists Corp.

From: The Benefit Specialists Corp. <sean.murray@beneco.ca>
Subject: News from The Benefit Specialists Corp.
Reply: sean.murray@beneco.ca

Dear sean,

 

We hope you enjoy the April 2015 edition of our bulletin.  Please feel free to contact us if you ever have any questions or concerns, we are here to help!


 The Benefit Specialists Corp. Newsletter

 


    

                                                                         April 2015

In This Issue
 
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The Benefit Specialists Corp. is more than willing to answer any questions you or anyone you know may have had.  If you know someone who has questions regarding the insurance industry or anyone who wants to join our mailing list please contact me, or forward this email to them and get them to click the join our mailing list button below. 

Thanks!

BeneCo  

A Health Spending Account (HSA)  is an innovative way

 to complement your group benefit plan. HSAs provide the

 ultimate blend of flexibility and cost containment, while enabling

 your employees to pay for medical and dental expenses not

 otherwise covered by your plan-with non-taxable dollars. Offering

an HSA to your employees not only helps maintain a healthy,

 productive workforce, but gives you an edge for attracting

 and retaining high-calibre employees.


 

 For .62 cents a day, your employees can prepare their wills, obtain unlimited phone consultations, 3 letters or phone calls per quarter, 5 (10) page documents reviewed, emergency access if arrested or detained and preferred member discount for complex issues.


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Critical Illness Insurance or Long-term Disability Insurance?

Ted Rechtshaffen - The Canadian Financial Planner


 

Long-term disability insurance and critical illness (CI) insurance are both types of living benefits  insurance Canadians set up to protect themselves, their families and their financial assets in case of physical hardship. The two are easy to confuse, but they address different needs and hardly overlap. Here are some of the frequently asked questions about the two types of Living Benefits:

 

What exactly is Long-term Disability insurance?

Long-term disability insurance is designed to replace your income from employment or self-employment. It pays out a monthly benefit, typically a percentage of what you earned before becoming disabled. The benefits may last for a few years - and possibly until you're ready to retire, if you can't go back to your own job or any job.

 

What is Critical Illness insurance?

Critical Illness insurance is a product that pays out a tax free lump sum in the event that someone acquires a critical illness like cancer, heart attack or stroke, to name a few. The money can be used to travel to the U.S. or elsewhere for treatments, cut back at work, pay off debts, take a sabbatical, fund home care. It is flexible. If you stay healthy and have the right product, you can even get back every premium dollar.

 

What is the difference between Long Term Disability (LTD) Insurance vs. Critical Illness (CI) Insurance?

 

 

 

 

Which one is better for me: Long Term Disability Insurance or Critical Illness Insurance?

The answer is dependent on your personal life circumstances; statistics show that since more people are likely to get cancer, heart attacks or strokes - the major illnesses covered by CI - than to become and remain disabled for more than six months, CI tends to be a more popular product choice. If a Critical Illness occurs prematurely, the insurance benefit will be significant considering it was not funded for a long period of time - which is what this coverage is essentially for.  If you live a full life, the option to have all premium dollars returned is there and can be incorporated into your retirement years.

Changing Benefits Advisors
Bob Carter - www.benefitscanada.com

 

Today's plan sponsors and administrators are being pursued more aggressively than ever. Some might feel as if they've been painted with some sort of target, given the number of phone calls they receive every day from brokers and telemarketing firms. The offers sound too good to ignore, and, in many cases, one might be tempted to give in. But what happens when a plan administrator or sponsor says yes?

 

The question is, What, exactly, have you approved?

 

Perhaps you have agreed to grant a sales representative permission to review your plan and make recommendations? Perhaps you granted authority to take over your plan by issuing an agent of record (AOR) letter? Based on the amount of confusion surrounding these two very different letters of engagement, it seems likely many plan sponsors are not aware of the difference and the actions set in motion once either of these letters has been penned.

 

Plan sponsors must be aware that an AOR letter, if granted, will start the process of moving responsibility to manage the plan to a new advisor. This may eventually lead to additional changes being recommended that were not first anticipated. Permission to review a plan only grants access to the plan's carriers who will be asked to provide plan design and claims data on receipt of authorization directing them to co-operate. The new broker will make recommendations to the sponsor based on their review in order to establish themselves as a better option than the incumbent broker.

 

Often, a carrier will contact the incumbent advisor to give them adequate notice that their position as the plan's advisor is being challenged, offering them the chance to find out what the sponsor's true intentions are. Their first action will be to contact the sponsor to ask if there are any unresolved issues and make sure the sponsor understands the nature of the letter they signed.

 

The process may be pre-empted at this point.

 

The responsibility to manage the client advisor relationship rests principally with the advisor. Advisors must deliver value, but sponsors must communicate their needs and provide feedback. This finely tuned communications balance is what maintains strong and long-lasting business relationships.

 

But things go wrong and sometimes a change of advisor is warranted.

 

Plan sponsors need to develop a strategy for finding their new advisor and a game plan for the future of their plan. Sponsors need to check references and make sure of the fit between them and the new advisor being considered. A meeting of the minds is vital in both strategy and expectations of service.

 

A sponsor that demands ongoing contact and the highest levels of service must recognize the costs associated with meeting those expectations. Advisors who willingly accept business on these terms must be prepared to honour their end of the bargain. Advisors should communicate openly whether or not they support only a handful of carriers or if they represent a broader entire market in order to find the right fit. Both marketing approaches may work well for the sponsor, but full disclosure is of key importance and only fair to everyone.

 

Sponsors must do this work up front and select their champion, much the same way we all select only one real estate agent with whom we list our house for sale. Insurance carriers and benefits providers deal with only one broker to be sure they are dealing with the advisor empowered to act on the sponsor's behalf. While carriers will support advisors by preparing proposals and quotes to help them win business, the costs are too great to support more than one proposal per sponsor. Only one AOR will be recognized. Only one broker's quote response should be prepared.

 

On approval, a new AOR letter will be granted the newly appointed agent. At this time it will be presented to the carrier. Carriers will honour the existing advisor relationship and notify the incumbent broker that responsibility for the plan (and any associated compensation) is about to be moved and provide the incumbent with a period of up to 10 business days to provide them with the chance to retain the business.

 

Incumbent advisors may elect to waive their rights and simply bid their former clients well in their new relationship. If the business cannot be retained by the incumbent, then the carrier will usually assign responsibilities to the newly appointed agent.

 

Advisors must bring something of value to the table, beyond promising to save a certain percentage of the billed premium. Business won on deep discounted pricing alone may be more prone to dramatic increases in rates on renewal as carriers move to recoup their losses. Sponsors must be aware of this and be prepared to either accept the premium increases to come or seek yet another move.

 

Most advisors will not be in a hurry to move any plan unless there is a valid reason. The incumbent carrier will no doubt express willingness to solve any service issues in order to retain the business and seek to forge a working alliance with the new agent hoping to secure any additional new growth opportunities they may bring.

 

Change is the only guaranteed constant in the universe, along with death and taxes. Ill-considered change is fraught with risk and likely downside. When facing the prospect of change, sponsors should slow down, ask questions and understand their options before granting any written directions they may later regret.

For young people, debt might come before RRSPs

Melissa Leong - National Post


  

Resolving to "get healthy" is a decent plan. However, setting a goal of biking to work and cutting out your afternoon peppermint mocha and chocolate cookie is an even more effective plan.

 

This is why telling twenty-somethings simply to save for retirement can be futile. Retirement. It's this big, amorphous, far away thing and Millennials have so many other competing priorities (debt repayment, saving for a home) and pressing challenges (low pay, tough job market). Sixty-one percent of working Millennials have no idea of the costs needed for retirement, an ING Direct survey reported.

 

What does retirement even look like and how much do I need to put away now?

 

Some experts say that if you start in your early twenties, you only have to put away three to five percent of your income. Wait until you're in your forties and you'll have to sock away 15% to 20%. Meanwhile others say that these numbers are useless because the figures differ depending on the person.

 

"It's not about the number. You can use a rule of thumb to take a guess but the further you are away from retirement, the further your estimate is going to be from reality," says Investor Education Fund's Perry Quinton. "Save as much as you can and you'll be able to open up enough opportunities."

 

Everyone agrees that the earlier you start, the better off you will be and the less you will need to scramble when you are older.

 

Investor Education Fund uses the example of two sisters. One starts putting $1,000 a year into her RRSP from age 20 to 34, for a total of $15,000. The second starts saving at 30-years-old. She puts $1,000 every year into her RRSP until she's 64, for a total of $35,000.


 

The information contained in this bulletin is for general information purposes only. The articles published in this bulletin have been collected by The Benefit Specialists Corp. (TBSC) and we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability or availability with respect to the information, products, services, or related graphics contained.  Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.  In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits out of, or in connection with, the use of the information contained in this bulletin.  Through this bulletin you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TBSC.  We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Sean Murray
The Benefit Specialists Corp.
sean.murray@beneco.ca
(403) 547-5236

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