Amsinsure Benefits Blog

  H ow resourceful can you be during your retirement? Determining   where   your retirement money will come from is an integral part of planning for retirement. Most people draw on three main sources of income:   Social Security ,   employer-sponsored plans , and   personal retirement savings . Each offers important resources that can help you fund the lifestyle you seek in retirement. Social Security Social Security offers a retirement benefit to workers and their spouses. You can start receiving benefits as early as age 62 (considered early retirement) or wait until you reach the   full retirement age   of 65 to 67 (depending upon your year of birth). The benefits you receive are based on the income you have earned over the course of your life, subject to a maximum amount. You can calculate how much you can expect to receive by visiting the Social Security Administration (SSA) website at   www.ssa.gov . Social Security benefits wil...

F or a variety of reasons, many couples, regardless of age, may find themselves living together for a period of time as unmarried partners. If you find yourself in this situation, it's important to make conscious decisions about how to handle personal and household finances because unmarried partners lack many protections the law extends to married couples. If you and your partner pool your financial resources, there are no divorce courts, laws, or uniform legal guidelines to separate your combined assets if your relationship ends. So before wading into this uncharted territory, it's worth taking a moment to consider the following questions: If you and your partner merge your finances, will this be limited to household expenses, or will you share income, as well? How   will you share household bills—equally or according to each partner's income or use? Will you hold joint checking and credit card accounts? How will you handle retirement planning for the long term? ...

Every day, 60 people die from opioid pain medications in America. That’s 22,000 people every year. Opioids are being overprescribed and they’re now the #1 cause of unintentional death in the United States. Not surprisingly, this “hidden epidemic” is impacting businesses. The National Safety Council has recommendations on what employers need to do.   Read on for details.

P rofit-sharing plans have long been popular with employees because of the opportunity they provide to share the profitability of a growing firm. Many business owners look beyond shared profitability to shared ownership through employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). ESOPs are essentially "defined contribution" benefit plans. However, unlike most defined contribution plans, ESOPs invest primarily in the sponsoring company's stock. This can help motivate employees, since they have an ownership stake in the company and may directly benefit from an increase in value of the company's stock. On the other hand, the level of benefits paid to plan participants is not guaranteed, and employer contributions to the ESOP can vary. How They Work The amount of employer and (in rare cases) employee contributions, company profitability, and administrative expenses of the plan determine the level of benefits received by participants. Employer contributions are allocated to indi...

  M any growing businesses face the ongoing challenge of recruiting qualified employees for open positions. When it comes to identifying and screening potential workers, business owners typically rely on strategies ranging from tapping informal networks or outsourcing their company's hiring needs to a staffing agency. The Internet has also become an integral part of recruitment. The Internet offers efficiency because it reaches a wide audience and is popular with many job seekers who sign up for daily e-mail job alerts from recruitment websites. Electronic job postings generally allow employers to post detailed job descriptions for long periods of time. In an online ad, you may also be permitted to include a link to your company website, where you can post more in-depth information about the position and your organization. While posting jobs online is only one of several recruitment channels available, you may find that posting on job boards and emailing targeted candidates ...