Four pieces, often bought together.
Basic group term life
Employer-paid, guaranteed issue.
A flat amount or a multiple of salary, provided to every eligible employee with no medical questions up to the guaranteed issue limit. Inexpensive per head, and the benefit families remember.
Voluntary life
Employee-paid buy-up for employee, spouse and children.
Lets employees add coverage beyond the employer-paid base at group rates, usually through payroll deduction and often without a medical exam during the initial enrollment window.
Short-term disability
Covers the gap before long-term begins.
Replaces a percentage of income for a defined period after a short waiting period — the coverage that matters for a broken leg or a surgery recovery. Note that Washington’s Paid Family and Medical Leave program covers some of this ground, so the two should be coordinated rather than duplicated.
Long-term disability
Salary replacement for the serious cases.
Picks up where short-term ends and can continue for years. Typically replaces around 60 percent of income up to a monthly cap. This is the coverage employees underestimate most and need most.
Who pays the premium changes who pays the tax.
If the employer pays disability premiums with pre-tax dollars, the benefit an employee eventually receives is generally taxable. If the employee pays with after-tax dollars, the benefit is generally received tax-free. That single structural choice can change what a claim is actually worth to someone at the worst moment of their working life.
It is a decision worth making deliberately rather than inheriting from whatever the last broker set up. We will walk through it, though the final call on tax treatment belongs with your CPA.
Life and disability, answered.
What is guaranteed issue?
An amount of coverage every eligible employee can receive without answering medical questions or taking an exam. Above that limit, carriers require evidence of insurability. Guaranteed issue limits scale with group size.
Does Washington PFML replace short-term disability?
Not entirely. Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave provides partial wage replacement for qualifying medical and family leave, but the benefit levels, duration and qualifying events differ from a private short-term disability policy. They should be coordinated so employees are not paying twice for the same coverage.
Can employees keep coverage if they leave?
Many group life policies include portability or conversion provisions that let a departing employee continue coverage, usually at individual rates and within a short window after termination. It is worth mentioning at exit, since most people never learn it exists.
The rest of the package.
Group Health
Medical coverage across every major Washington carrier.
Read more →Group Dental
The benefit employees use every year and rate highest per dollar.
Read more →Group Vision
Exams, frames and contacts — inexpensive, and always noticed.
Read more →Level-Funded Plans
Fixed monthly cost, capped risk, refunds when claims run low.
Read more →Voluntary Benefits
Employee-paid coverage, often at no cost to the company.
Read more →Add income protection.
Usually a small addition to the monthly spend, and the one employees thank you for later.