Category: Articles

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When a disaster strikes, physical damage is just the beginning. For many businesses, the bigger challenge is the disruption to operations, revenue, and customer trust. Business Income (BI) coverage—often misunderstood or overlooked—has emerged as a critical tool for ensuring resilience. From hurricanes and wildfires to supply chain breakdowns, real-world events have proven that companies with…

5 Home Renovations That Affect Your Insurance

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Certain home renovations can increase the value of your house or impact potential risks – both of which can affect your homeowners insurance. On average, renovations to your home increase its value by at least 25%, but most homeowners don’t increase their coverage accordingly.1 If you’re planning on tackling any of the home renovations listed below,…

Guestroom Privacy and Key Control: From Policy Statement to Operational Imperative

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When it comes to liability in hotels, few issues rival the reputational damage and monetary losses stemming from failures in guestroom security and privacy protection. The infamous Erin Andrews v. Marriott case—resulting in a $55 million jury award to the Fox Sports reporter—remains a stark reminder of how critical these protections are.1 Such privacy violations…

Compliance Q&A: Health Flexible Spending Accounts – Unsubstantiated Expenses

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Question We switched to a new health Flexible Spending Account (FSA) third-party administrator (TPA). The new TPA deactivated one of our employee’s FSA debit card because of $20 in unsubstantiated expenses, stating this was an Internal Revenue Code requirement. Our prior TPA told us expenses under $25 did not need to be substantiated and that…

Compliance Q&A: Fiduciary Duties in Vendor Selection and Management

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Question My company hired a vendor to outsource the utilization management and appeals processes for our health plan. I have heard that we, as the plan sponsor, have a fiduciary duty to monitor the vendor’s activities. What does that mean, and, if this is really required, how can we comply? Summary The 1974 Employee Retirement…

Compliance Q&A: On-site Clinics

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Question We are considering starting an on-site medical clinic where our employees can receive medical care. Can you explain the main employee benefits compliance concerns for such a clinic? Summary Employers providing access to an on-site medical clinic for their employees have several potential compliance issues to consider, including ERISA, COBRA, HIPAA, the ACA, and…

Compliance Q&A: Group Term Life Insurance – Taxation

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Questions We provide a basic group term life insurance policy of $50,000 to employees. We understand that providing a group life insurance policy under $50,000 would not require an imputed income calculation, but what about supplemental life insurance? Can you provide a high-level overview of group term life insurance and when an employer might have…

Payroll and HR Bandwidth Considerations: Searching for the Right Solution

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With over 300 technology providers in the market place, the search for a benefits administration (“ben admin”) solution can be quite a daunting task. One often neglected step in making this process more palatable is first assessing your organization’s current payroll platform connectivity capabilities and HR bandwidth. Committing to this initial appraisal will help make…

Employee Retention in an Age of Choice

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