Straight From The Source Blog by Higginbotham Insurance

There’s something special about autumn. It’s a favorite time of year for millions with its cool, crisp air and the kaleidoscope of rich colors. It’s a time for wrapping up the yard work, digging out that favorite old sweater and sending the kids back to school.

But like any other season, autumn has its own unique driving hazards.

Here are 10 of the most common fall driving hazards that safe drivers watch out for:

Employee benefits are one of the key drivers that entice great people to join a company, be productive employees and develop long-term loyalty. But today’s employees want more than just health insurance.

They want personal and professional growth opportunities, career flexibility, collaborative work environments, volunteer days and an individualized balance of compensation and benefits. They want a diversified and personalized experience, and they want it neatly packaged and easy to understand.

This unification of work-life balance benefits is what the concept of total rewards is all about. However, offering a rich mix of work-life benefits isn't enough. The success of your total rewards program depends on how employees perceive your program’s value. How can you help promote positive perceptions? Through great communication strategies.

Here are seven communication tips to get you on the right track:

Medicare Part D Notices Due by Oct. 14

The deadline to distribute creditable coverage disclosure notices to Medicare-eligible individuals is only a few weeks away. If you have plan participants eligible for Medicare Part D, you must disclose to those individuals before Oct. 15 each year whether their prescription coverage through your group plan is as comprehensive as the benefits offered under Medicare Part D.

Sometimes the insurance requirements of a contract aren’t in agreement with the indemnification provision. This can result from a simple error due to edits by multiple parties, or it can be an attempt to circumvent anti-indemnity statues – or even bury a provision that, in effect, is a broad-form indemnity. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, many states have enacted anti-indemnification statutes, making certain broad-form indemnifications void as against public policy. Any provision that attempts to circumvent an anti-indemnity statute will also be void, and a conflict between insurance and indemnity can lead to litigation. In this edition of our contract review series, we review some of the statutes that address those provisions and study examples so you can identify such a provision when you see it in a contract.

Use Plan Analytics to Evaluate Your Retirement Plan

Your retirement plan is a valuable resource for your employees and serves as a vehicle to attract and retain top talent. Ensuring plan success is crucial. Examining plan analytics can help evaluate its success.

Don’t assume your employees understand their health savings accounts (HSAs). According to research conducted by Alegeus, 65 percent of HSA holders lacked the knowledge needed to pass a basic fluency test about their accounts. As a result, many people may be unable to maximize their benefits, leading to higher costs and more frustration than necessary.

Is your workplace safe from gun violence? In 2017, 61,839 incidents of gun violence, including 346 mass shootings, resulted in 15,637 deaths and 31,248 injuries, according to the Gun Violence Archive. So far in 2018, there have already been 40,536 incidents. Data from the CDC shows that the number of homicides committed using firearms is on the rise.

Hosting events such as concerts, festivals, conferences, trade shows, sporting events and celebrations subjects a business to a variety of liabilities and risks that must be considered to avoid costly litigation or other losses when something goes amiss. Appropriate coverage for events include property insurance, general liability insurance, employer’s liability insurance and cancellation insurance.

DOL Updates Model FMLA Forms

The Department of Labor (DOL) recently released updated model forms to help employers administer employee leaves under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The DOL’s model FMLA forms contain an expiration date in the upper right corner. The expiration date relates to a regulatory approval process; it does not relate to the forms’ actual content. Every three years, the DOL must submit its model FMLA forms to the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval for continued use.