The right employee benefits solution can help you reach today’s goals and stretch for tomorrow’s. We deliver group benefits plans and services that are flexible, innovative, and anticipate your needs. And we deliver them with easy administration for you, backed up with exceptional service from us.
As your business grows and changes, we’ll help you be prepared for the future. Talk to us. We can help.
Comprehensive coverage made simple
Achieving the right mix of group insurance benefits can play a critical role in the health and well-being of your organization’s employees and their families. At the same time, group insurance represents a significant cost for your organization. It is important to get the details right.
We work to find the optimum solution for your group, whether it consists of two people or 2,000. With client education among our foremost goals, we provide training and employee information sessions to your organization to ensure your employees are optimizing their benefit dollars.
Our advisors are not only thoroughly informed about the products you will buy, they also make sure that you have the knowledge you need to run the best possible plan for your group.
Other group benefit services include an annual review of the benefit program and contractual negotiations with the insurance provider, tendering of group insurance contracts to ensure market competitiveness, cost containment and/or plan improvement strategies, employee meetings and assistance with plan administration.
We offer the following group insurance services:
Life Insurance
Many Canadians believe they have sufficient coverage through their group plan. Generally speaking, group life insurance is a good starting point for individuals who don’t have any other insurance. In many cases, additional coverage is advisable.
Group Life Insurance coverage can be a flat benefit amount or a function of income. It may even include a non-evidence maximum providing a set amount of life insurance without the need to provide medical evidence.
Whatever the particulars of your group’s size, age, salary and state of health, our team of experts will design a plan that meets your organization’s needs.
Optional Life Insurance
Optional Life Insurance can provide members of medium sized to large group plans with greater coverage and different terms than their group plan offers. Our advisors will explain the substantial benefits and many options available under this type of coverage.
Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D)
AD&D coverage mirrors your group’s life insurance plan. If you die or are dismembered as a result of an accident, your AD&D coverage pays you or your beneficiaries a set benefit.
Dependent Life Insurance
Long-term Disability (LTD)
A person’s greatest asset is their ability to earn an income. Long-term Disability insurance can help protect your employee’s way of life and diminish the financial impact a long-term disability may inflict.
There are many options for designing Long-term Disability insurance solutions and our advisors will find the one that fits your company and employee needs. For example, plans can be set up as either taxable (employer paid) or tax free (100% employee paid with after-tax dollars) at the time of claim. We also design programs for diverse demographic segments within your organization.
Short-term Disability or Weekly Income (STD or WI)
You may have wondered whether Short-term Disability is worth the cost. Canada has an Employment Insurance (EI) scheme so why bother with this coverage? The advantages are two-fold: In some cases, you can set up STD or WI to pay more than Employment Insurance. As well, an STD claim that will become an LTD claim lays the groundwork for the pending LTD claim. This simplifies your paperwork down the road.
Does your group need Short-term Disability coverage? Call us and together we will examine the benefits of implementing a Short-term Disability insurance plan.
Critical Illness Insurance
Critical Illness Insurance protects you while you are still alive. If you become critically ill—and are diagnosed with an eligible, covered critical illness as defined in your contract—after a set period of time called the survival period (usually between 31–90 days from the date of diagnosis) you are paid a lump sum that you can use as you wish provided your condition is covered and meets the definition of the contract.
Critical Illness Insurance is a complex benefit. Our advisors will provide a full explanation of how it works and to what extent you are covered.
Employee Assistance Plans (EAP)
We believe that Employee Assistance Plans are among the most useful and underutilized insurance programs on the market. Services can include short-term counseling, substance-abuse counseling, even help finding appropriate child daycare or elder-care arrangements. As well, an EAP, if properly utilized, may be able to reduce long-term disability claims and may also be helpful in reducing some types of drug claims in the extended health care portion of the employee benefit plan.
Typically inexpensive, these plans are often excluded because employees tend to under-utilize them. We will review your EAP on an annual basis and offer advice about how employees can utilize the coverage.
Health Care Plans
Provincial health care is notoriously incomplete when it comes to coverage for drugs; paramedical services such as massage therapy, physiotherapy and chiropractic; semi-private or private hospital coverage; and travel coverage. Our experts will optimize your employees’ health care coverage to suit the company budget and your group’s particular needs.
Best Doctors Program – Other Second-opinion Services
Second-opinion services are a component of many employee health care plans and they can literally save a person’s life. This service is for employees that want a confidential second opinion (no details are submitted to the employer), or a second opinion for a condition or suspected condition on the covered conditions list. At an employee’s direction, his or her medical information is sent to the Second-opinion Service for review by leading medical experts in the specific field of illness. The result? The employee receives the world’s best medical opinions about how to treat or cure an illness.
Dental Care
Dental Care is a benefit your employees can plan on using. Custom tailored to your organization’s specific needs, the dental plans our advisors design can cover all your needs, from basic dental care to major dental care. The most comprehensive plans include orthodontics for children—some even include orthodontics for adults.
Vision Care
We provide expert advice about the Vision Care Plan that will make the most sense for your organization. Services covered can range from eye exams only to coverage for eyeglasses, contact lenses and laser eye surgery. Coverage amounts can reset every two years for a specified benefit amount.
Provincial Health Insurance Replacement
Foreign workers or employees on assignment in Canada may be covered under a Canadian employee benefits plan. However, it is mandatory to have provincial coverage (example OHIP) in place prior to the employee joining the benefit plan. If the employee does not have access to provincial coverage we may be able to secure temporary coverage in lieu of the provincial plan.
Retention/Refund Accounting
We have many years of experience administering refund accounts. If your firm is of a size where Refund Accounting may make sense, G.F. Kirkpatrick will be pleased to offer a comparative analysis of costs between your current insured plan and that of refund accounting. Refund accounting only applies to experience-rated benefits such as Health Care, Drugs, Dental and Vision Care.
Administrative Services Only (ASO)
ASO is an arrangement in which your group essentially insures itself. ASOs are usually reserved for larger companies. Our advisors will explain the intricacies and risks to your firm and whether or not ASO may be appropriate for your organization.
Health Care Spending Accounts (HSAs)
HSAs offer employees flexible health care spending as a supplement to the Health Care, Dental Care, Drug and Vision Care benefits offered under the regular group plan; many medium to large groups use them as a specialty benefit to attract and maintain employees. With HSAs, your organization stipulates how much money an employee may spend on eligible health care in addition to any claims the employee makes under the regular group plan. While one individual may use the account to buy orthodontia for a child, another may wish to spend their entire HSA on massage. Our advisors will explain your many options for this service.