Group Salary Continuance Insurance – Where is yours held?

Today, many leading organisations recognise the importance of their employees’ financial wellbeing and are putting measures into place to support it.

One such measure is salary continuance insurance, which can be funded by employers on behalf of their employees and may help an employee in the unfortunate case that they ever become injured or ill in a way that renders them unable to return work for a period of time.

While the benefits to employees are clear (providing them, if eligible, with guaranteed income while they are unable to work), for employers, the returns may also be significant.

To start with, premiums are generally tax deductible and do not attract fringe benefits tax. Salary continuance insurance may also act as an independent framework to support HR teams effectively manage their employee absences (assisting with the “how much longer should we give him/her?” conversations) and enhancing the likelihood of successful return-to-work outcomes.

So, what else is available?

Despite the obvious advantages, many organisations may not be fully optimising their salary continuance insurance program because it has been packaged to employees within their default superannuation fund. While an “inside superannuation” strategy may have been appropriate in the past, this is often no longer the case.

What are the alternatives?

Pleasingly, options for salary continuance insurance outside of superannuation are plentiful. With the help of an expert, your organisation will be able to determine if a standalone group insurance arrangement is the right approach for organisations and their employees.

As well as the potential for efficient tax treatments, pricing control, greater choice of insurers and flexibility with benefit options this article outlines our top three reasons for switching to a standalone salary continuance insurance plan and a case study of standalone salary continuance insurance in action.