Employee Benefits Basics

Everyone is the group benefits industry has been terminated. This episode shares some tough termination stories, discusses how you protect your own mental health, stop the fight or flight response, and how they can be prevented. Hosted by Beneplan CEO Yafa Sakkejha.

If you're a Canadian employee benefits broker trying to grow your block of business, here's your sign that you don't need to wait for the perfect MGA or super intermediary to get started. You just need to be willing to read the fine print.

Should employees be cut off of benefits while they're on workers compensation? Should they be fired? What can a benefits consultant or broker recommend to an employer during this time?

Explaining how the new Canada Dental Benefit works and what it means for employee benefit plans.

The Canada Revenue Agency just released a notice #325 on when and how insurance intermediaries need to charge GST or HST on their commissions and fees, and when it is exempt. We also talk about what you can do when a large insurer or government tries to change the parameters of your work.

Here's why I adore Canada's Employment Insurance premium reduction program and why every group benefits plan should take advantage of it. yafa@beneplan.ca

As an employee benefits advisor, you'll need to get comfortable speaking in front of groups of strangers... Often people who are coming into the meeting or presentation already with a negative view of you. If you have ever done an employee meeting or a tough renewal, and want to learn how to stop being nervous, this one is for you. 💙

Plus, the least requested benefits under group insurance contracts.

What is supposed to happen to employee benefits during a temporary layoff? This episode is focused on employers in Ontario, Canada and the employment standards act.

A highlight of the changes and coverages of gender transition surgeries in private health insurance, employee benefits in Canada.

The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is an industry peer group for insurance companies. They work together to agree on basic rules of the game to make sure that consumers are treated fairly and consistently within the industry. My name is Yafa Sakkejha, and I'm the CEO of Beneplan.

A guide on the 4 steps to obtaining your LLQP license in Canada. This license allows you to sell life insurance, accident and sickness insurance, disability Insurance and other group benefits products.

Here's a quick history as to how my father, Mark Faiz Sakkejha, came to Canada as a refugee, became an insurance broker, pension consultant, group benefits broker, and finally a benefits third party administrator (TPA) and employee benefits cooperative

I get pitched different preferred provider networks all the time. It's a distraction from the financial incentives of plan sponsors. Benefits brokers should instead look at formulary management or PLAs (price level agreements)

Knowing when to bend the rules is a critical skill that you need to learn. Here's how I think about asking underwriting for permission to add late applicants, add ineligible dependants, ask for an open enrollment...and what to do when you can't break the rules.

Employee benefits advisors ask me all the time how much commission to charge their plan sponsors. Here are my two cents.

In B2B sales and relationship management, it's important to think about these ten pieces when it comes to video call etiquette.

So many business leaders I've spoken to over the last two years have quietly admitted that they've been sucked back into the day-to-day grind of their business... After years trying to "delegate and elevate". What does that mean for your advisory practice, and how inflation will affect your growth plans in 2023.

The one person you're guaranteed to find in the office? The owner/operator. Work around the edges of what's considered normal to catch these key influencers in person. They want to see people in person.

Encourage your clients to spend "ugly money" on core benefits like disability, life insurance and drugs -- and try to avoid having them spend "pretty money" on massage, vision and other benefits that aren't as fundamental to financial security and life sustaining healthcare.

I'm shocked how often I see advisors double ending the deal - meaning, acting as both the benefits broker and the CFO or HR manager. Be careful not to do this, and here's what to do when you come across it.

Using Loom to record tutorial videos will take your career to the next level. Save your clients time, don't ask for more zoom meetings, and get right to the point. Private Video tutorials can be rewatched, shared, sped up or slowed down. It allows the client to multitask. It allows them to take an important phone call and pause the video. Give yourself and your clients the gift of Loom! This is no...

Don't be offended if a business owner asks you to talk to one of their key people before making a decision. It's a critical part of building trust across the organization.

Cafeteria style flexible benefit plans seem to go through phases where they're popular, and then go out of vogue. We wanted to share the challenges with running a flex plan (hint: anti-selection), and how to explain the pitfalls to a plan sponsor. We also encourage advisors to take a leadership role in designing a simplified class and division structure in group health insurance.

Beneplan is raising the floor of minimum coverage on health & dental to include fertility, erectile dysfunction, more mental health support, IUDs, breast pumps and smoking cessation treatments to any new group or group who updates their plan through an amendment.