Employer Benefits

The health and well-being of your employees, as well as your ability to hire and retain a strong staff, are all impacted by the benefits plan you offer. The seasoned team at Brooks Financial Group will help you design a benefits plan that meets the objectives of your organization and the needs of your employees. With access to virtually all key insurance carriers, we have the flexibility to design a plan around your needs, as opposed to one particular product line. And, we’ll customize a plan that is efficient, effective, and within the constraints of your budget.

Some types of employee benefits that are mandated by law, including minimum wage, overtime, COBRA, unemployment, and workers compensation, disability, and leave under the Family Medical Leave Act.

However, those you choose to offer generally fall into one of two categories— Core and Ancillary. In short, core benefits consist of health, dental, and vision while ancillary benefits are supplemental in nature but are still key to your overall benefits package.

For those who have partially self-funded benefits and require Administrative Services Only (ASO), Brooks Financial Group can provide services such as Benefit Integration, Member Enrollment, Claims Administration, and more.

Employer Sponsored Health Insurance

Health insurance is typically the most important benefit that employers provide to their employees. For most, employer-provided health coverage gives them some security about their own and their family’s health in a way that is typically more affordable than individual insurance. For employers, offering health coverage is often a necessary compensation form to remain competitive in the marketplace.

For those who are partially self-funded and require Administrative Services Only (ASO), Brooks Financial Group can provide services such as Benefit Design, Stop-Loss Reinsurance, Benefit Integration, Online Enrollment, Claims Administration, and more.

Employer Sponsored Dental Insurance

Dental plans are also a highly attractive employee benefit and provide for those services that are preventative, basic, and/or major in scope. They may also provide for orthodontia services as well.

Employer Sponsored Vision Insurance

Coverage provided under vision plans can range from routine eye exams, frames and fitting of glasses and lenses, to services for the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases, such as glaucoma. The expenses of these services tend to vary based on the provider and depending on the plan, vision insurance may cover services performed by ophthalmologists (medical doctors), optometrists, or opticians. Types of coverage that vision plans provide can also vary, so employers should assess what level of coverage they want to make available based on employee needs and cost containment.

Plan Management and Educational Communications

Managing your firm’s employee benefits can be an overwhelming job. Brooks Financial Group (BFG) offers Plan Management Services as standard protocol whereby our dedicated BFG Relationship Manager works hand-in-hand with your Human Resources team on a frequent basis. Together we successfully handle some of the more complex Benefits and HR responsibilities such as coordinating contractual provisions among carriers, implementing and assisting with benefit integration technology, enrollment and billing systems, claims advocacy, as well as communication tools and platforms.

Technology and Integration

Benefits Integration utilizes proprietary technology platforms in order to centralize and coordinate all employer sponsored benefits, which were are typically separated from each other. This will then permit both the organization and its team members to use a single online platform for benefit communication, benefit education, benefit election & enrollment, billing & reconciliation, reporting, and more.

The experts at BFG will design a Benefit Integration package, along with a detailed timeline and plan for implementation, that will help manage employee offerings more intelligently and comprehensively, while positively impacting your company’s bottom line.

Employer Sponsored Life and Accidental Death and Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance

Basic Life. Many employers offer a basic term life insurance benefit to their employees. In addition to health, dental, and disability, life insurance can be an attractive recruitment and retention tool for employers. Basic AD&D. Accidental Death and Dismemberment insurance, or AD&D, is an insurance policy that protects an employee and their family against the unforeseen financial hardship of an accident that causes death, dismemberment, paralysis, or loss of sight, speech or hearing.

Employer Sponsored Disability Insurance

Disability insurance pays benefits if you are injured or become seriously ill and are no longer able to work, either for a specific period or indefinitely. This insurance guarantees the injured or sick worker is paid a fixed amount of income for this time - generally around 60% of their average income. Disability insurance is not the same as Worker’s Compensation, in which an employee receives a benefit as a result of a job-related injury. There are two types of disability coverage – short term and long term disability.

Employer Sponsored Long-Term Care (LTC) Insurance

As the need of employees to care for elderly family members grows, employers are increasingly offering long-term care insurance to ease the financial burden many working adults face in providing this care.

This coverage is generally offered through an employer by is paid by the employee. Long-term care will ordinarily include nursing home and home health care benefits. Although most long-term care is provided to seniors, people of any age can find themselves permanently or temporarily unable to care for themselves without help.

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

A Health Savings Account (HSA) is NOT insurance. Rather, it is an account funded to pay for qualified eligible expenses (IRC Section 213 (d). In other words, HSAs offer a different way for consumers to pay for their qualified health care expenses. HSAs enable an employee to pay for current health expenses and save for future qualified medical and retiree health expenses on a tax-free basis. An individual must be covered by a Qualified High Deductible Health Plan (QHDHP) to be able to take advantage of HSAs.

Offered in conjunction with a ‘Qualified’ High Deductible Health Plan (QHDHP), an HSA may receive contributions from an eligible individual or any other person, including an employer or a family member, on behalf of an eligible individual. Contributions, other than employer contributions, are deductible on the eligible individual's return whether or not the individual itemizes deductions. Employer contributions are not included in income. Distributions from an HSA that are used to pay qualified medical expenses are not taxed.

Healthcare Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs)

Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) must be funded solely by an employer. The contribution cannot be paid through a voluntary salary reduction agreement on the part of an employee. Employees are reimbursed tax free for qualified medical expenses up to a stated maximum dollar amount for a coverage period. An HRA may be offered with other health plans, and in conjunction with FSAs.

Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs)

There are two types of Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs)—Medical/Health FSAs and Dependent Care FSAs. A Health Flexible Spending Arrangement (FSA) allows employees to be reimbursed for medical expenses, while the Dependent Care FSAs can be set up to pay for employees’ qualifying expenses from taking care of a dependent. These expenses typically cover children, such as for day care, but can also apply to elderly care. FSAs are usually funded through voluntary salary reduction agreements with the employer. No employment or federal income taxes are deducted from the employee contribution. The employer may also contribute. Reimbursements from an FSA that are used to pay qualified medical expenses are not taxed. Medical FSAs cannot be offered in conjunction with HSAs.

Human Resources (HR) Consulting

Technology plays a key role in the effectiveness of any organization’s Human Resources department. When you partner with Brooks Financial Group (BFG), you will gain access to programs that align with your Benefit Integration platform, creating a “total solution” management tool.

Having a trusted Human Resources and Compensation advisor can also help alleviate many of the demands placed on your time and resources. At BFG our Human Resources and Compensation advisors can help you in a number of areas including technology, compliance, compensation, and employee relations.

Wellness Programming and Consulting

This important component is often overlooked and not given the attention necessary to assure enterprise population health is consistent with the overall benefit package objectives. Wellness Programming has grown enormously in recent years as employers are able measure results and improvements to their population health, morale and productivity. Recently, data exhibited that financial stress has an impact on physical health and thus new initiatives have even led to Financial Wellness programs that assist employees in defining budgets, understanding basic cash flow, creating reserve accounts and much more.