The Benefits Blog

Disability can affect anyone, with 1 in 4 of today's 20-year-olds likely to become disabled during their working career, highlighting the importance of disability insurance for financial protection. Despite this, many Americans are unprepared, emphasizing the need for comprehensive insurance plans like those offered by Symetra to mitigate financial strain during medical crises.

Education is key to helping employees understand the value of the benefits offered at their workplace. That's why we created a financial planning workbook.

Group life and disability insurance plans frequently come with value-added services, offering employees and their families access to valuable professional resources. These services complement insurance coverage and provide guidance to help navigate challenging life events.

We had the opportunity to interview Kayla Halpin, Symetra’s assistant vice president and absence practice lead, on her experience taking maternity leave and what thoughts she’d give to those who may need to take their own leave.

Tune in for part two of our webinar series with Symetra’s Group Life and Disability Associate Product Manager, Rebecca Ford, to learn more about the history of Paid Family and Medical Leave.

Statutory disability and paid leave programs are growing in popularity. Symetra’s Group Life and Disability Associate Product Manager, Rebecca Ford, walks us through a historical overview in this two-part webinar series.

Bruce Hoffman, a Sr. Vocational Rehabilitation Consultant on our team talks about the importance of a comprehensive return-to-work program and the difference it can make for everyone involved.

A change in group life insurance carriers is a seamless—perhaps even unnoticed—process for most workers. However, employees who are not actively at work on the new policy’s effective date could find themselves cut off from life insurance coverage. Fortunately, many carriers include continuity of coverage provisions in their contracts to help protect these employees. Keep reading >

Experiencing a short-term disability is stressful enough for employees; having to worry about whether they’ll receive their benefit payments shouldn’t be. To make things a little easier, we created our new Swift Claims Practices, a streamlined claims approval process for childbirth, life-changing diagnoses and routine surgeries. Keep reading to learn more.

Most people associate life insurance with a lump-sum payment to beneficiaries at the time of an insured’s death. And while that’s how the product is used most, there are times when an insured may need their policy benefits while they’re still alive. Learn more about how accelerated death benefit options can help.

Group term life insurance is a benefit most employees don’t have to think about until they need it. But employers need to be aware of the potential tax implications of employer-sponsored group term life insurance coverage with benefit amounts over $50,000. Employers are responsible for including this taxable income—known as imputed income—as wages on employee W-2 forms.

Waiver of premium is a valuable benefit that allows employees who are unable to work due to a disabling condition to maintain their group life insurance coverage without making premium payments. Because the process for obtaining this benefit varies, here are some questions to consider when evaluating carriers.

Mental health conditions like depression can have a significant effect on employee productivity and absenteeism. Employers can lessen the impact of mental illness in the workplace by identifying potential mental health concerns and following a few best practices.

Understanding regulations around the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Americans with Disabilities Act Amendment Act (ADAAA) is essential for providing a welcome workplace for employees with disabilities and avoiding penalties for noncompliance. In this article, we’ll discuss the regulations and highlight a few resources to help you navigate them.

A cancer diagnosis is one of the most challenging things a person can face. Aside from the physical effects, cancer can affect a person’s mental health, productivity and relationships. Here are a few tips to help your clients support their employees.

Critical illness insurance and disability insurance are fundamentally different products, but both share the same goal of helping to provide financial relief for employees when a medical condition strikes.

Are critical illness benefits considered taxable income?

Voluntary benefits such as accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity insurance are a growing market for benefits brokers. If you’re not offering them to your clients, it may be time to add them to your portfolio.

While medical and disability insurance can help pay for the cost of care and potential loss of income, additional out-of-pocket costs can add financial pressure to an already difficult situation. Critical illness insurance is designed to help with these unexpected costs.

Employees are used to health care benefits taking a bite out of their paychecks. But what about benefits that help manage or reduce expenses? That’s the idea behind many types of value-add programs that can be included with employee benefit plans. Here’s a review of some frequently used programs that can help employees make the most of their benefits coverage.

The ongoing pandemic has shown the impact an illness can have on a person’s finances. Brendan Sharpe discusses how supplemental health benefits can give employers another avenue in protecting their employees’ financial future.

You may have noticed that we offer two types of accident coverage: scheduled benefit and per occurrence. Understanding how both policies work can help your clients decide which plan best fits their benefits package.

If you’re like most people, you mistakenly lump health savings accounts (HSAs) in with the flexible spending accounts (FSAs) offered by employers. But while FSAs have annual “use it or lose it” strictures, HSAs offer tax benefits and long-term, flexible utility that can pack a powerful one-two punch.

Whatever direction health care reform takes in the future, health savings accounts—or HSAs—appear positioned to take a larger role. Like a 401(k) for medical expenses, these tax-advantaged savings accounts are designed to help employees accumulate money to spend on qualified medical costs. Here are some of the tax advantages and other benefits HSAs can offer.

In today’s high-deductible health plan marketplace, employees are expected to pay a growing share of out-of-pocket expenses. That’s why it’s important to balance a cost-effective benefits plan with coverage that meets the needs of employees and their families. Voluntary benefits such as disability, accident and critical illness coverage can help employers ensure their workforce stays financially well while managing the bottom line.

Stop loss is one of Symetra’s longest-standing products; we’ve been offering it for nearly 50 years. Our underwriting team includes more than 60 experts in a variety of areas, and our underwriters have over 300 years of combined professional experience.

When choosing a stop loss carrier, it's important to partner with a company with a history of following through on its promises. Our stop loss claims team is committed to delivering claim payments as expected—while also seeking opportunities to control costs without sacrificing the quality of care.

From price to policy details to claims speed, there are many factors that go into selecting a stop loss carrier. But a key consideration should also be expertise. Symetra is a pioneer in this business, and we take pride in the collective industry knowledge we bring to our customers across the country.

When it comes to medical stop loss, it’s important to get the coverage that’s right for your clients’ needs and budgets. Many major medical insurance carriers offer their own coverage, and may encourage you to “bundle” your stop loss with their plan administration. But as with any major purchase, it’s important to check out the various options the marketplace has to offer.

For many employers, backing their self-funded group medical plan with stop loss coverage makes financial sense. “Lasering” is a common stop loss practice in which an individual participant—based on prior claims experience or known conditions—is covered by the stop loss policy at a higher Specific deductible than the rest of the group. Learn more about this potential cost-saving option.

Symetra has a long history of partnering with third-party administrators, brokers and consultants to help make self-funding a success. Learn more about how Symetra supports TPAs…

We always look to the future for ways to prepare for an evolving benefits landscape. One way to do that is by developing new talent through the Stop Loss Sales Rotation Training program. Learn more about how this training program has helped us position ourselves for the future of stop loss.

Employers who self-fund their group’s or company’s medical coverage typically rely on stop loss to help cover large and unexpected claims. But stop loss is a reimbursement, which means employers must make initial claims payments themselves. Fortunately, many stop loss carriers include advance funding provisions in their contracts that can accelerate reimbursements of qualifying catastrophic claims. Keep reading >

Benefits enrollment and administration involve the transfer of large amounts of data between employers and their benefits providers. In the past, these transfers could only happen manually, which was time consuming and prone to human error. Today, electronic data transfer can take over much of this responsibility, with increased accuracy and efficiency.

Benefits enrollment and other HR functions are important to any business and the employees who work for them. But they can also be complicated, time-consuming and stress-inducing for everyone involved. Fortunately, a growing array of technology solutions are available for employers of all sizes to streamline and simplify the complexities of HR administration.

In Episode 3 of our Working Forward podcast, we were excited to talk with Cake & Arrow, a New York-based experience design, user research and innovation firm for the insurance and financial services industry. We talked to them about their research and what employers should know about the new realities of post-pandemic work for their employees.

In Episode 2 of our Working Forward podcasts, my cohosts and I had the pleasure of speaking with two dynamic HR executives about the future of work from the employer’s perspective.

Get to know Laura Stoffel, our new stop loss director of strategic partnerships. 

Get to know Joe Nespoli, our new group life, disability and voluntary benefits regional sales executive in South Florida.

Get to know Kelsey Meteyer Bane, our new regional sales executive serving the DC, Maryland and Virginia markets.

Get to know Alex Duffy, our new regional sales executive serving the Minnesota and Illinois markets.

Get to know Jack Reed, our new stop loss regional group manager. Jack will be serving the greater Los Angeles, Idaho and Nevada markets. Keep reading to learn more.

Get to know Zachary Papotto, our new stop loss regional group manager who will be serving the Kentucky, West Virginia and Western Tennessee markets. Keep reading to learn more.

Get to know our director of product management for life, disability and Select Benefits supplemental health products.

Get to know Tom Costello, our vice president of stop loss sales.

Get to know Harry Monti, our executive vice president of group life, disability and supplemental health benefits.