Benefits Consulting Firms and Addresses Long Term Healthcare Planning in the Workforce
KIRKLAND, Wash. — Most American companies provide health and other benefits including retirement savings programs. But many employees may not enjoy their retirement for long. “When they or a family member encounter a long term care need, it can eat into their 401K’s fast,” says Mario Sestito, MultiLife Specialist for LTC Financial Partners LLC. “There’s a gap in benefits packages. A lot of people don’t make the connection that long term care insurance is effectively 401K and retirement protection.” With today’s longer life spans and millions of employees nearing retirement, “the exposure is huge.”
To help solve the problem, Sestito’s organization introduced a new consulting service at the SHRM 59th Annual Conference and Exposition, the latest get-together of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), held in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 24-27, and attended by 22,000 members. Called Long Term Healthcare Benefits Consulting, the service guides companies, helping them determine the most effective way of plugging the long term care gap without necessarily adding to benefits budgets. “In fact,” says Sestito, “a properly-run benefits program can actually save money for the organization.”
It can do this by —
* Introducing appropriate benefit cost sharing
* Offsetting rising healthcare costs
* Reducing attrition
* Increasing productivity
The service starts with an assessment consultation, which includes a review of any past long term care insurance offering, demographic and psychographic analysis, interest surveys, and projections of economic benefits and risks. If the assessment indicates the prospect of positive results, a second phase of the consultation is recommended.
This includes appropriate tweaks to the company benefits program and the design of LTC Financial Partners’ trademarked employee education program, titled LTC Outreach and Education Program (LTCOEP(TM)). “We believe most companies can best serve their employees by educating them on the importance of planning ahead and protecting themselves.” says Sestito.
“At the conference, we couldn’t hand out our information packets fast enough,” says Eric Shaw, Business Relations Specialist for LTC Financial Partners. “With national media highlighting the importance of long term care planning, particularly USA Today this past week, human resource managers were eager to educate themselves on how to respond to this growing employee need.”
Copies of the information packet may be requested at http://www.ltcfp.us/long-term-health-care-consulting or by calling 866-471-4072, extension 118. The consulting program is appropriate for companies of all sizes.
LTC Financial Partners collaborates with traditional benefits consultants including CUNDY Employee Benefits Consulting of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Mercer Human Resources Consulting of New York, New York; and AJ Gallagher of Itasca, Illinois.
[tags]LTC Financial Partners, CUNDY Employee Benefits Consulting, Mercer Human Resources Consulting, SHRM Conference, Mario Sestito, Society for Human Resource Management, Long Term Healthcare Benefits Consulting, LTC Outreach and Education Program[/tags]
