CASEY HOLLAND

“We recommend flood insurance, and the most important thing to remember when you’re buying flood insurance is when it comes springtime – and here in the Red River Valley as we want to say it – we have to start thinking about flood insurance in January.”

The reason, he said, is because the National Flood Insurance Pro gram has a 30-day waiting period.

“If you want to buy insurance and know it’s a big concern, make sure you’re planning ahead 30 days before the event actually takes place, because you can’t call in and say I want coverage now. … If you’re calling in on March 15 and the flood actually occurs on March 31, then you would not have coverage because there’s that 30-day waiting period.”

What companies are offering

Jessica Jackson, senior business advisor and retirement specialist with Alerus, has a question.

“As I’m meeting with clients, I’m asking a lot of questions,” she said, noting one of the main ones is, “What can I do to help you?”

It’s a good question that sparks a lot of answers.

She said as she reviews with individuals their employee benefits, items often discussed are financial wellness, which may entail employee education plans, health savings account, and flexible savings accounts, among other items.

“We talk about what’s working, maybe what’s not working with their existing providers, those types of things,” she said.

Among the discussions, they’ll review “different contribution plans, defining features, different vesting schedules. Long story short,” she said, “we will sit down and review compliance data – and what I mean by that is, we will review average deferral percentages and participation rates in the plan. We’ll talk about employee education and what that looks like, and what they’d like it to look like in the upcoming year. We’ll review their investment report and talk through those parameters.

She said since the pandemic, employers are asking more about what they can do for or offer their teams in the way of financial wellness options.

A big topic is retirement options.

Retirement benefits

“We are seeing new team members come on board, and they are more financially savvy, if you will,” Jackson said, noting more people are asking about retirement options these days. “Different industries may experience that more prevalent than others, but overall, I would agree that I have been hearing that feedback from employers that their people are asking about it.”

Brenna Grossbauer

Brenna Grossbauer, chief human resources officer with Starion Bank, said Starion was in the middle of open enrollment when she spoke with Prairie Business on Nov. 10, and noted some changes.

“This year, for example, we added another holiday to our roster of holidays,” Grossbauer said. “A lot of the changes with our 401k program is to make it more competitive in the market and a better benefit overall for our employees, and so we did change the matching contribution.”

The company also changed the vesting schedule and is implementing auto enrollment – a nice feature, she said, but which doesn’t take options away from the employee.

“When we have a new hire start with us, they are automatically enrolled into a 401k program,” she explained. “They still have the option, they’re in complete control if they don’t want to contribute for whatever reason, or they can opt out; but we automatically enroll them and that’s just to encourage people to participate.”

She said the company goes “about middle of the road,” enrolling employees at 3% so they get that match on their money. They can increase or decrease the amount they contribute, if they’d like.

Starion Bank also offers a profit sharing program.

“Contribution there is up to a maximum of their 6% discretionary contributions into people’s 401K plans and it’s based on the bank’s performance,” she said. “At the beginning of each year, we set what our goals are; we build out and depending on the different milestones or hurdles or financial goals that we set, wherever that lays out, determines what the profit share is as well.”

Emergency savings accounts

Something else employers may consider offering employees is an emergency savings account.

“That is something actually that’s relatively new for Alerus and that we’re pretty proud of,” Jackson said. Essentially this account is another option to help employees save or earmark money.

And why is that important?

“Well,” Jackson explained, “it’s important because if an employee is not confident that they have a decent emergency fund set aside, they’re going to be less likely to contribute to their retirement plan. I know because I’ve met with literally thousands of employees as I’ve provided employee education, and I repeatedly hear that feedback. They’ll say, ‘I know I need to contribute to my plan, but I don’t have a decent enough (amount) put away. I don’t have an emergency account set up or things like debt management. I have this loaded debt I need to address and then I can contribute to my plan.”

Basically, an emergency savings account allows the employee to simply complete the payroll deduction. “They can set up that automatic deduction from their payroll into an emergency savings account,” she said. “It’s super simple, easy, and they can change the amount at any time.” continued on page 14

Ch Ristin Fine

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