Many employers are choosing to provide a legal insurance plan for their employees. These include not only employers of financial advisors, CPAs, etc., but also employers of many of the clients of these same financial advisors, CPAs, etc. The author utilizes his two decades of experience working with legal insurance plans to provide some guidance to employee benefit plan officers on selecting a legal insurance plan for their employees.
The following tips can be passed along to your employee benefit representatives at work, and in the meantime can provide fodder for the reader and/or his or her clients in making a decision whether to (i) utilize his or her current legal insurance plan at work, (ii) consider an outside legal insurance provider, or (iii) opt not to purchase any legal insurance.
Tip #1: Don’t Limit The Employee’s Choice To Just One Plan
Unless this is mandated by the legal insurance providers you are selecting from, or is too much of a burden for the employer to administer, why limit the employee’s choice to just one legal insurance plan provider? From the employee’s perspective, wouldn’t it be better to give him or her options? Regardless, make sure your employees know that there are other legal insurance plans out there, which they can purchase on their own, independent of the options made available by the company.
Tip #2: Utilize An Internal Review Site
Employ a simple internal site your employees can access which will allow them to submit and/or read internal reviews and comments for the plan or plans they may have used in the past or are considering choosing now. This step will also benefit your employees by keeping the legal plan providers on their toes, ensuring that they provide the best service and select the best attorneys possible for their plans. Note that the experiences expressed by some of your employees may suggest that their co-workers not utilize any legal insurance plan.
Tip #3: Do Your Homework Before Allowing Any Legal Plan Into Your Company
Here it is important to not only read your own employees’ reviews of the legal insurance plan or plans you are currently using, may have used in the past or are currently considering, but to also talk to your colleagues in the business regarding their experiences with the legal insurance plan or plans they are using or may have used in the past. Internet review sites, such as Yelp, can also be beneficial here, provided you are careful to sift out any obviously unhelpful reviews. Remember, the legal insurance plan provider you select, if any, will reflect on your company; you want your employees to be as proud of their company’s legal plan as they are of the company itself.
Tip #4: Grade Your Legal Insurance Plan Providers Each Year
There are several different choices of legal insurance plans available today. Make the plans compete against each other by grading them each year, utilizing your internal employee reviews. Each legal plan you use should know that it will be evaluated by your employees in various categories at the end of each benefit period, and if its grades are unsatisfactory, it will be terminated or at least “placed on probation.” This step will not only benefit your employees; it will also let them know that their input is valued.
James G. Blase, Esq., is principal of Blase & Associates, LLC.