Group Benefits

Group Benefit Coverage

Group insurance protects people's financial security in one or more ways, such as offering low-cost life insurance or a dental plan for the self-employed. A group can comprise (or “be composed of”) members of an association, a company's employees, or professionals in a group, such as lawyers or doctors. Insurers realize that people belong to the group because of their field of work, occupation, or association. Thus, the group is removed from the acquisition of insurance due to a higher-than-normal health, work, or environmental risk.

Personalized Solutions for Your Specific Needs:

Putting our clients first, we seek the best plan for each sponsoring group while meeting their unique objectives. As brokers, we represent a wide selection of the top insurers. Group benefit plans are designed with the membership of the group in mind. We assess the needs closely to unify with an insurer with the most suitable coverage and price.

Group insurance plans can include a combination of coverages, including:

• Group Life Insurance offers financial assistance in the event of the plan member's death. A Group Dependent Life Insurance plan pays out a lump-sum benefit to a beneficiary in the event of the death of a plan member's spouse or dependent children.
• Group Short-Term Disability (STD) or Weekly Indemnity is a benefit compensating an employee for income lost due to a short absence from work due to an accident or sickness.
• Group Long-Term Disability (LTD) coverage provides an income to a disabled employee unable to perform the duties of his or her own occupation.
• Group Extended Health Care Benefit supplements medical costs for plan members and dependents otherwise not included by provincial healthcare.
• Group Dental Care covers varying dental services and/or supplies for plan members and their eligible dependents.
• Employee Assistance Plan is a professional counselling and referral service sponsored by the employer to provide service to employees and their family members.

Other Advanced Plans include:

• Vision Care pays for routine eye exams and a percentage of eyeglasses and lenses.
• Critical Illness provides a benefit paid to an employee after surviving an ailment from a list of critical illnesses or injuries to provide financial assistance while adjusting to any lifestyle change during recovery.
• A Group Pension Plan is a program maintained by an employer, an employee organization, or both to fund retirement income to employees or defer income for periods that extend to or beyond employment termination.
• Health Care Spending Account (HCSA or HSA) is an individual employee account that reimburses eligible healthcare expenses or other benefits not covered by provincial health insurance. This offers a tax-effective way to offer health and dental benefit choices for self-service to plan members.
• Administrative Services Only Program (ASO) enables large employers to self-insure health insurance, dental care and short-term disability insurance benefits by supplying administrative functions for their health care claims processing with methods to contain costs.

This information is intended to general educative reference only. This group material is not a specific piece of advice for any one situation as every solution is different.

Group Benefit Consulting

Your Group Benefits program should be as unique as your business. We can deliver specialized expertise and work effectively as an extension of your human resources department. Unlike a generic, off-the-shelf plan, your Group Benefits program is designed with your objectives.

What Group Benefits Services Do We Provide?

• Monitoring and communication of industry trends
• Benefits plan assessment, design, and monitoring
• Plan renewal
• Brokering your plan
• Managed healthcare initiatives

Communication of Industry Trends

With the changing face of the insurance marketplace, having our firm on your side is reassuring. We will keep you informed of all the latest group benefit trends and products and communicate with you in a variety of ways:

• Open communication is available with our team.
• Information bulletins to keep you updated.
• Client seminars are scheduled periodically throughout the year.

Your Group Benefits Plan

What we offer:

• We will discuss and analyze key factors that may affect your benefit planning.
• Our team creates custom group benefit plans with traditional, flexible benefit designs or health care spending accounts, based not only on our consultation with you but also on always revealing the latest industry products that best meet your needs.
• We help you develop employee handouts and other communications materials.
• We monitor your benefits program, actively making recommendations so it continues to serve the needs of your business and reflects the latest industry trends.
• Each quarter, we complete an assessment of your claims, which will give an accurate picture of how plan members are using your benefits plan so there are no financial surprises for you, the plan sponsor.
• We give you options, including the most up-to-date and innovative international solutions—before they become commonplace.
• At least once a year, we analyze the competitiveness of the plan.
• Our in-depth knowledge of the brokering providers and their approaches to underwriting allows us to negotiate the best possible arrangements for you. In this process, we:
  • Analyze carrier proposals.
  • Develop a report to make it easier for you to make an informed decision about your provider.
  • Schedule presentations by the leading quoting carriers—personal contact between you and the provider is critical to a good working relationship.
  • Responding quickly to your questions and concerns.
  • Maintaining employee records using the latest pension administration system technology.
  • Processing benefits on termination, death, or retirement.

Note: This information is intended for general educative reference only. This group material is not a specific piece of advice for any one situation, as every solution is different.

Employee Retirement Plans

When your employees retire or are approaching retirement, they will need help through this period of change. Professionals are available to educate your employees about all available retirement income vehicles.

We can design your employee retirement plan to incorporate the following:

• Analysis of available investment vehicles and associated yields.
• Investment tracking and reinvestment alternatives.
• Individual financial and investment consulting.
• Establishment and management of individual registered and non-registered retirement savings plans.
• Self-directed RRSPs, group RRSPs, and RESPs.

Group Retirement Options

We offer the expertise and services to ease the transition to retirement for your retirees:

• Retirement consulting.
• Retirement income projections.
• Establishment of retirement income vehicles—RRSPs, RRIFs, LIRAs, LIFs, and annuities.

Individual Group Investment Products

Whether making investment contributions to save for future expenses or retirement, the Group Investment Program allows you to take control of your personal portfolio and achieve your financial goals with peace of mind.

• Lower investment management fees.
• No front- or back-end sales charges.
• No deferred sales charges (DSCs).
• No minimum investment.
• Pre-authorized cheque (PAC).
• Spousal RRSPs.
• Self-directed RRSPs.
• No annual administration fees.
• Consolidated statements.

Note: This information is intended for general educative reference only. This group material is not a specific piece of advice for any one situation, as every solution is different.

Group RRSP Planning

An employer arranges employees to contribute to a group RRSP via payroll deductions. The level of contribution per year is decided by the employee, to be invested as specified by the administrator of the group RRSP account. The Group RRSP is managed according to investment selections in individual employee accounts. We discuss and analyze key factors that may affect your corporate retirement program.

Instant Tax Savings

With a group plan, the contributing employee gains similar benefits to a regular RRSP as contributions can be deducted from the employee's income, thus lowering his or her taxable income. A Group RRSP reduces taxes at source, allowing the employee to have a higher income issued by payroll.

Investment Options

Part of implementing an excellent Group RRSP plan is to have a wide selection of investments available for employees.

Fees

Group RRSP fees can be lessened because of the buying power of a group of investors, translating to better returns for the employee over time.

Administration

It is easy to add employees to a Group RRSP. If the company winds down the plan in the future, or if employees are terminated, they can move their money to their own individual RRSP plans. Conversely, pension rules are more strictly regulated.

Employee Vesting

Once the employee and/or the employer contribute to an employee's plan, the ownership is attributed to the employee.

Note: This information is intended for general educative reference only. This group material is not a specific piece of advice for any one situation, as every solution is different.

Group Retirement Service Providers will make sure of the following:

We offer careful analysis of pension and retirement vehicles as our Group Retirement consulting team applies their knowledgeable experience in the financial services industry, including the following areas:

Communicating with Your Employees

We can coordinate, develop, and deliver seminars for your employees.

Monitoring Your Program

We monitor your program so it continues to work optimally for you with respect to:

• The plan's pricing is according to your needs.
• Investment fund selection and ongoing performance.
• Technological advancements that ease your administrative duties.
• Communication with you and your members.

Reviewing Your Program

We will tender your Group Retirement program to several providers to ensure your arrangement is the best in the industry. Potential providers will present a complete analysis of competitive quotes.

Note: This information is intended for general educative reference only. This group material is not a specific piece of advice for any one situation, as every solution is different.