Charlie Cousins, Director of Hooray Health & Protection talks to us about the Business Life Insurance market and why employers that aren’t providing it are missing out.
Let’s face it, announcing to your employees that you’re providing them with life insurance isn’t going to be greeted with cheers of excite with staff rushing to learn more…it’s just not that type of benefit.
However, it does have several benefits that most business owners don’t know about and can be invaluable, especially for the SME market.
Retain your top talent
When arranging new to market schemes, we’ve heard from small business owners specifically looking at employee benefits because their staff have been poached by large corporates. It’s clear the draw of a much-improved benefit package is key when staff are considering their next move.
Depending on their age and medical history, it could save an employee £100’s each month by moving to a company providing Group Life insurance and cancelling their existing individual cover.
Help your staff qualify
Anyone who has taken out individual life insurance knows that you answer lots and lots of questions, disclose your medical history and then often see an eye watering sum.
Insurers require this on an individual basis, but with Group Life policies, medical history is only required for high earners (or those whose benefit extends beyond the free underwriting level). This means staff who may have been declined life insurance due to health conditions would be covered under a company policy with no health questionnaires required.
Tax perks
That’s right- you can do the right thing by your staff whilst benefiting from tax efficiency. Business Life Insurance premium payments are considered a business expense so you will be entitled to corporation tax relief. Additionally, Group Life insurance is not classed as a benefit in kind, so there is no tax contribution for the employee.
All Group Life schemes require a Trust being set up, from which any eligible claims are paid. Thankfully insurers will often provide a Registered Master Trust as part of their product offering, meaning no legal work for the employers. If a company sets a policy up as a registered scheme with payments into a discretionary trust, employees will have no inheritance tax charge either.
Keeping up with the competition
Currently the employee life insurance market insures over 9.5 million people for over a trillion pounds worth of benefit.
We have mentioned retaining your most prized asset but if you’re looking to attract the best talent, you want to ensure you’re keeping up with the market.
Provide support
Sadly, a recent study disclosed that 79% of employees felt their employer didn’t provide any bereavement support following a return to work after the death of a child.
We’ve found with the companies we’ve supported, during any bereavement, want to provide support to their staff but often have never been in the situation before, so don’t know what to do, who to turn to for advice.
Business Life Insurers provide bereavement support is included in the cost of the policy in the form of telephone and face to face counselling for employees and their families.
If you’re considering life insurance for your employees or think you’re paying too much for your current benefits, contact Charlie Cousins on 01273 222805 or visit www.hoorayinsurance.co.uk
