A basic online search to  determine what employees really want from their employer can result in reading for several hours. I will try to condense the simple things for you here.

According to  Entrepreneur, your employees really value more basic benefits.

Federal law has numerous required benefits:

• Give employees time off to vote, serve on a jury and perform military service.
• Comply with all workers' compensation requirements.
• Withhold FICA taxes from employees' paychecks and pay your own portion of FICA taxes, providing employees with retirement and disability benefits.
• Pay state and federal unemployment taxes

Are you a business owner looking for a benefit plan that will help both you and your most valued key employee(s)?

With the cost of long-term care rising significantly every year, we all look for alternative ways to provide funding for that possibility. Since I have talked about the need for life insurance in the past, why not combine the  life insurance coverage AND long-term care coverage into a single policy? Yes, most carriers have added “Living Benefits” to their life insurance policies. Each has different rules for accessing the cash value/face value depending on what type of care you need.

Consider this option of a combined policy:

A 12-pay whole life policy designed to provide long term care benefits. It also offers life insurance protection and cash value accumulation. (12-pay means paying premiums for only 12 years.) And with a streamlined underwriting process, it may be easier to purchase than fully underwritten life insurance products.

Here is how the plan will work:

• Your business will pay the premiums for the policies on each employee selected to participate.
• The employees will own the policies on their lives and enjoy all rights and benefits.
• The premium paid for each policy will be considered bonus compensation to the employee insured.
• The business will receive an income tax deduction for the full amount of the premium paid, subject to reasonable compensation limits.
• The cost to the employee will be limited to the annual income tax due on the bonus amount each year.
• The plan will require minimal administration and record keepi

One of my most asked questions is “why should I spend more money for a permanent policy when term is so inexpensive?”

My answer is always the same. “Why don’t we find out what you need and what your goals are, and then decide on term vs permanent.” Many people think only of the death benefit, and not what the goal is. They should both be looked at as “tools”, and not just a death benefit.

Term is just what it sounds like, you pay the same amount of premium (monthly, semi-annually, annually, etc.) for the life of the term (a term of 5yrs, a term of 10yrs, a term of 20yrs, etc.) The problem is that when the “term” is completed i.e. at the end of 5yrs, the premium amount also goes up! If you still need the insurance, you could end up paying significantly more. A good use of this tool might be to pay off a mortgage if the insured dies. One client purchased a 20yr term to cover his 20yr mortgage, and then reduced the face amount of the policy regularly as he paid down his mortgage. Some of the insurers have added “living benefits” to their term policies. This allows you to utilize some of the death benefit to pay for long term care, chronic care, other medical issues or terminal diagnosis.

Permanent policies are much more complex and come in a host of variations. You might purchase Whole Life, Universal Life, Indexed Universal Life, etc. These are all a type of permanent policy. Once the need/goal is defined, then you can decide on t