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Key Benefits Decisions to Make When Joining a New Company

Key Benefits Decisions to Make When Joining a New Company -

By Geoff Curran, Wealth Advisor CPA/ABV, CFA®, CFP®
Published On 09/27/2016

When switching jobs, it can seem overwhelming to review all of the documents related to your new company’s employee benefits. These plans include choices for medical, dental, vision, retirement, life and accidental death and dismemberment, short-term and long-term disability and many other additional benefits that may be useful.

With all of these options to navigate through, combined with the anxiety of starting a new job, it can help to focus on making a few key decisions.

Retirement plan

You don’t want to leave free money on the table, so enroll in your company’s 401(k) plan as soon as you are eligible, and set your contribution percent (deferral rate) to at least the minimum required to receive the full employer match. This may mean contributing 6% to receive the employer match of 3%.

If you don’t start out deferring at a rate above the matching percent, let’s say 3% to 6%, then try to increase your deferral rate by 1% every 6 months to increase your retirement savings. You can also make a plan to increase your contribution rate when you receive any raises.

If you’re given the option between a Traditional (pre-tax) and Roth (after-tax) 401(k), consider your age and income level, and whether you’re already contributing to an outside Roth IRA. The employer match will always be to the Traditional 401(k) portion, so you can decide whether your contributions are pre-tax or after-tax for your portion. If you think your tax rate will be much higher in retirement than it is now, Roth 401(k) contributions make sense. Sometimes splitting your contributions 50/50, where 50% goes into the Traditional portion and 50% goes into the Roth portion, is the perfect medium. This way, you receive a tax deduction for half of your contributions now, while the other half is contributed after taxes and can be withdrawn tax-free in retirement.

Health care plan

Some companies give you multiple health care plans to choose from, while others give you just one option. These options may include an HMO, PPO, POS, or high-deductible health plan (HDHP) paired with a health savings account (HSA). If you’re deciding between an HMO, PPO or POS, make sure you’re comfortable with the in-network doctors available to you and your family, as well as the level of deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. It doesn’t make sense to choose the least expensive health plan if you can’t afford the deductible.

If it’s available, select the high-deductible health plan paired with an HSA. It can provide the best overall value of any health plan available. If the total of your and your employer’s contributions reach the maximum you can contribute, then you receive a unique tax advantage because payroll taxes, federal income taxes and most state income taxes won’t be deducted from these contributions. They grow tax free, and withdrawals can be made tax free for qualified out-of-pocket medical expenses, including dental and vision. And, unused funds in the account are not forfeited at the end of each year like with a flexible spending account, so you can invest and allow these funds to grow.

More information about the benefits of using an HSA can be found by reading my article, A New Perspective on Health Savings Accounts.

Life insurance and accidental death and dismemberment

It’s a good idea to have life insurance that’s 10 times your income, especially when you have young dependents to provide for. Group plans may not let you go higher than 5 times your income, so acquiring the remaining coverage through an individual term policy may make sense.

Be aware that group life insurance through work is contingent upon your employment at the company, so if you are no longer working there, you may experience a loss of coverage. An individual term policy would avoid this, but may be more expensive than group benefits.

Even though the chance of having an event where accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) pays out is slim to none, it’s still a worthwhile benefit if it doesn’t cost more than a few dollars a month. Most benefits plans sign you up for it automatically.

Short-term and long-term disability

Usually you’re automatically enrolled in short-term and long-term disability benefits. However, if you’re given the choice, select the option where you can pay these premiums with after-tax dollars, versus pre-tax dollars from your paycheck. These premiums are often less than $25 to $30 each pay period, and are paid pre-tax, meaning not subject to tax. Paying for these premiums after tax permits you to receive benefits tax-free if you ever need to file a claim. Since these premiums are small and have minimal tax consequences, receiving tax-free benefits if you have a claimis substantially more favorable.

Employee stock purchase program

If your employer offers an employee stock purchase program (ESPP) where they allow you to buy their stock at a 10% to 15% discount during stated periods in the year, considering enrolling with up to 10% of your paycheck. To avoid concentrating too much risk in your company, i.e., human capital plus financial capital, it makes sense to sell this stock as soon as possible to pocket the after-tax gain from the discount and any appreciation to help diversify. That 10% to 15% discount is considered compensation and taxed as ordinary income. Additional profit is taxed as short-term or long-term capital gains depending on how long you end up holding the stock.

Other popular benefits like legal aid, group long-term care insurance and identity theft protection can also be valuable benefits, but make sure you aren’t already receiving these benefits through another source. Group long-term care insurance is becoming more common, but it’s worth shopping around to make sure you’re getting a favorable rate. Also, one caution about group long-term care is that the insurance provider doesn’t have to get permission from the state regulators to raise premiums like they do for individual policies.

When evaluating benefits, we recommend contacting an advisor to review your options.

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By Geoff Curran, Wealth Advisor CPA/ABV, CFA®, CFP®

Geoff has always enjoyed talking with people about finance, learning about their investments, financial strategy, and business sense. His interest only deepened with time, and what began as a hobby has now become a life-long passion, with an unparalleled passion for continuing education that makes him an expert in many subjects from traditional taxes and investments to business succession planning and executive compensation negotiations.

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