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Mail Delays - ACH Payments Recommended11/30/2021 We highly recommend that your insurance premium payments be made by ACH or credit card rather than mailing us your check. With delays in the mail service and thefts of mailboxes, your check may take weeks to reach us if it reaches us at all. Since the Postal Service implemented new service standards on October 1, 2021, we are experiencing more and longer mail delays than ever. Mail is now taking several days if not weeks to be delivered. In addition, thieves are now stealing entire mailboxes including one recently near our office. This concerns us as checks could be in those mailboxes. This is a new world we live in and we need to adapt to these ongoing challenges. For your safety, we recommend that you make ACH payments to us. There is no cost to you for these ACH payments as we will pick up the $3 per transaction cost. Your payments can be made securely here: As always, we appreciate your business and are here to help if and when you need us.
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Steps to Limit Employment Liability Risk11/1/2021 Establish clear workplace policies - Develop an employee handbook and distribute it! Sample employee handbooks and HR forms libraries are easily accessible and most law-firms or insurers will happily provide content. For your protection, be sure your handbook includes an employment-at-will statement and an equal employment opportunity statement. Create written workplace policies on employment practices; post them and include in employee handbooks. Establish a policy for employees to report concerns and for management to respond. Educate management and employees about ethical and workplace practices. You may wish to include diversity and sensitivity training as part of this education program.
Hire carefully—Screen employees thoroughly, avoiding any discriminatory practices. Provide job descriptions - Create a detailed job description for each role. Each job description should clearly define the required skills and performance expectations. Institute a zero-tolerance policy – This should be established for substance abuse, harassment and any form of discrimination. Additionally, have an "open door" policy in which employees can report infractions without fear of retribution. It is advisable to have a couple of people that issues can be reported to instead of just one. Keep thorough records - Document all employee complaints or investigations, as well as what your company did to resolve those issues. Perform regular employee reviews—Review employee performance and keep a written record of reviews.
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Under Department of Labor (DOL) regulations, your retirement plan will need to maintain an ERISA Fidelity Bond. A fidelity bond protects the assets in the plan from misuse or misappropriation by the plan fiduciaries. Plan fiduciaries include the plan trustees and any person who has control over the management of the plan and its assets. REQUIRED ERISA FIDELITY BOND AMOUNT At the very least, the bond must be equal to 10% of the value of the total plan assets, with a minimum bond value of $1000 and a maximum bond value of $500,000. For the first year, the bond amount will be based on the estimated amount of assets that will be handled by the plan for the year. If you have non-qualifying assets more than 5% of the total plan assets, the bond amount needs to be equal to 100% of these assets. WHY DO I NEED AN ERISA FIDELITY BOND? There are serious consequences for not purchasing and maintaining a sufficient ERISA fidelity bond. Not having this required coverage can be a red flag to the Department of Labor that they need to take a closer look at the plan. You are not only at risk for a DOL audit, but there are citations associated with not having this required coverage. HOW DO I OBTAIN AN ERISA FIDELITY BOND? Colonial Surety Company is a national online insurance company that is U.S. Treasury listed and licensed in all states and territories. As experts in all aspects of ERISA regulations, Colonial Surety Company will ensure that you are properly bonded and that your bond is renewed prior to expiration so that your plan remains in compliance Use the below link to obtain the ERISA Fidelity Bond
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Securing Company Property7/6/2021 These days we can’t be too careful to protect property that we’re responsible for. When handling property belonging to the corporation, extra care should be taken to make sure it’s secured. Especially in the event anyone has cash or checks that belong to the utility, it shouldn’t be left in a vehicle overnight. If you’re issued a company laptop, please don’t leave it in a vehicle when it is parked for the evening – it’s just too tempting to a thief. Also, remember to lock your company vehicle when leaving at the end of the day, whether parked at the office or at an employee’s home.
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Are Your Property Values Up to Date?7/6/2021 Each year before your insurance policy renews, we send out a list of all the property you have insured through us, with a request that you look it over and update it. This is done to try to make sure you’re properly insured in the event you have a claim. This is especially important this year since construction costs have gone through the roof in the past few months. A pumphouse or tank that might have cost $10,000 to replace last year at this time would likely cost significantly more to replace at current prices. When you receive the property listing, we would appreciate you taking a few minutes to look it over through the lens of current prices. We’ll be making a push to reach out to you if it’s been a while since your property values have been updated, but in the meantime if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
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In a world where you can access so many things in just a few clicks of a button, protecting your data is crucial. Adding Multi-Factor Authentication is an extra layer of protection by the site/application requiring a numerical code as a second form of digital identification. This is accomplished from the code sent from a dedicated app in the form of a text or email. Don’t let virtual hackers get into your system. Please see the flyer below for more in-depth details to learn how you can better protect yourself. |