First and foremost, I want to stress the fact that I am not a financial advisor. I have my own financial advisor who is excellent at giving me sound advice. I suggest you also hire a professional who can mentor you and give you suggestions based on your own personal needs.
I have found in my own business that offering benefits to key employees is an advantage for both me and them. Benefits assist my employees in obvious ways, but they are also an advantage for me because my employees want to work for me when they feel that they are appreciated and respected. More recently, I have started offering the benefit of long-term disability insurance to some.
In my limited experience, I have discovered long-term disability insurance to be more inexpensive than short-term disability insurance. It also tends to be more valuable because it insures against more severe medical problems. Long-term disability insurance typically kicks in after 90 days if it is proven that an individual is unable to work for an extended period of time due to a medical condition. The employee will then be able to replace all or part of their income for the time that they cannot work.
While I do not offer this benefit to all of my employees, I do offer it to those who have worked hard over several years as some extra compensation for their dedication and loyalty. The corporation (appraisal business) owns the policy and must provide the same benefits to those employees under the same job title. So, while I do not offer this to all of my employees, I currently offer it to all of the certified appraisers who work for me (which presently is a single individual).
I encourage you to talk with a financial advisor about possibly introducing this type of benefit option into your business especially if you have employees who have been particularly dedicated and loyal over the years.
For more information on this subject, please listen to The Appraiser Coach Podcast Episode:
