I was talking to a broker the other day about pre-taxing benefits in a small business and he said, "It isn't 1998 anymore. Pre-tax isn't a big deal these days." It sounds weird to say aloud, but I think he's right. If you have less than 50 employees (and 96 percent of businesses in the U.S. do), you're more concerned with benefits paperwork and administration than tax savings.

He got me thinking: Was pre-tax ever as big a deal to employers and employees as it was to us?

Last month, I lamented that too many in our business have fallen into the order taker trap. An employee says, "I like that accident plan," and we write them up without exploring other options that may better meet their needs. I call it Order Taker Syndrome (OTS).

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.