If you are a business owner with employees, you must know that employee benefits typically include health insurance (sometimes including dental and vision benefits), term life insurance, and maybe even a retirement program. Also available to employees is group disability insurance, although this type of insurance is opted for less frequently.
As an employer, you can provide coverage for your employees alone, or for the employees and their families. The determining factor is most often, and not surprisingly, cost. The high cost of health insurance in the United States today leads more employers likely to ask employees to pay some or all of the costs of health insurance for their families and sometimes for the employees themselves.
Your business may also serve as the policyholder for the group’s insurance, depending on the size of the group that is to be insured. For many small businesses, however, the insurer may opt to pool them together in a multiple-employer trust. In this case, the trust itself, instead of the single employer, is the insurance policy holder. In turn, this enables smaller businesses to benefit from lower premiums and other services that are frequently enjoyed by larger groups.
In addition to business owners insurance, small businesses can also usually obtain employee benefit insurance through their trade or professional association. As a small business owner, your most sure bet is to find a way to join a larger pool seeking benefits.
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