Articles Posted in Employee Benefits

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Legal Benefits can resolve serious problems

Good employee benefits are means by which a company can attract top talent. Whatever assistance an employer can give to make daily life easier is always appreciated, and modern society forces issues on people from every angle. Contracts and leases, wills and court cases, all can drive up the frustration levels of a hard-working employee. Group legal service plans are intended to help with problems that may involve legal intervention. The more comprehensive the benefit is, the greater value it has for a plan member.

The Elements of a Great Benefit

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It is a silent crime with loud repercussions. Identity theft is a consequence of a society that is increasingly more Internet connected and cashless. Accounts on lines can be hacked into and a bystander at an ATM machine can copy debit card numbers. The average direct material cost to a victim is approximately $5000. That is in addition to some sizable indirect damages.

The Aftermath of Identity Theft

It would be enough of a problem if all that was taken happened to be cash. When a person’s identity has been stolen the information is used by the thief to commit more extensive crimes. There have been numerous cases of stolen identity used to open up bogus credit card accounts that are maxed out almost immediately. The victim is left trying to recover from this and credit rating can suffer immensely. Cleaning up all the damage can take months and even years with a lot of paperwork needed to reestablish a respectable credit rating. It is a serious paper mountain that has to be climbed.

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26icon.png It would be great if adoptions happened just like in the movies where there was always a happy ending. It is sad, but modern-day adoptions are lengthy struggles with laws and regulations. The amount of paperwork and procedures are enough to make a person think of giving up the process entirely. When that happens the children are the real losers.

Needs and requirements for Connecticut adoptions

Federal, state and local background checks are necessary for prospective adoptive parents as well as fingerprints. Home studies are standard procedure in many states and Connecticut is no exception. Connecticut law does allow single parents and same gender parents to adopt in addition to traditional parent relationships, but the whole process is still the same no matter who wishes to adopt. This includes specific steps to take by prospective parents who are not related by blood, and other requirements for blood relatives and stepparents. It all depends on the relationship to the child being adopted. If the birth parents are alive, there has to be an acknowledgment that parental rights have been terminated and any adoption is irrevocable. The twists and turns that must be made by anyone wishing to adopt can be draining.

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A family is the bedrock of society but it is also incredibly fragile. Issues such as adoption, child custody, divorce, and child abuse can roil a domestic situation and create stresses that are unique because they are so personal. Family related matters touch a person far more deeply than property concerns and worry about the relationships between children and relatives are not just distracting; they can be devastating.

The damage is more than just to the individual. Diminished productivity and high rates of absenteeism resulting from family related problems has cost corporate America billions of dollars. Family law in the state of New York is codified under the Domestic Relations section of the Consolidated Laws. The articles show fairly standard definitions such as adoptions, marriages, and the various actions required for child custody and divorce among others. What a person has to remember is that no law is ever completely cast in stone. Indeed, every session of the New York Legislature can result in changes to various subsections of family law and these changes, however subtle, could cause possible distress for an employee. A basic lack of understanding and the sheer complexity of some of the regulations can cause considerable frustration. Family law is definitely an area where no one should try to be his or her own attorney, and those who attempt to do that create major headaches for themselves.

The damage of trying to do it alone is not limited to just the individual. The distractions brought on by these domestic issues have many times resulted in deadlines not being met. Employee assistance programs have been initiated to help employees deal with domestic crisis that could flare up. These help, but for many there still remain legal issues that are above and beyond what a counselor can provide in New York. Group legal plan benefits offered by an employee sensitive company can help reduce a great deal of family related stress issues.

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Mentioning estates and wills can cause people to think of elderly folk dying in hospital beds surrounded by children who are adults. That doesn’t always happen. One of the saddest things that can occur is for a person to die at a young age and leave behind survivors who are minors. The sadness comes as much from what will happen to the children as the death itself.

The question of guardianship, i.e. the care and supervision of a surviving minor, is very straightforward if one of the birth parents is still alive. That adult has guardianship under the laws of the state of Connecticut. Difficulties, however, may occur if both birth parents should happen to be dead or the surviving parent has certain challenges, including mental incompetence or question of paternity. Problems about how the welfare and estate of a minor are to be managed then arise and guardianship includes such legal definitions as temporary guardian, standby guardian, co – guardian, and testamentary guardian among others. Anyone of those may influence the future care and well-being of surviving minors; it all depends on the given circumstance.

Connecticut has detailed guidelines for how the various forms of guardianship relating to minors must be handled. However, there are obviously different types for different situations. An employee doesn’t expect to die young, but if he or she should pass away without proper instructions for the care and well-being of surviving children, it could be left to the probate court to sort out. The possibility for both lengthy legal proceedings and extensive paperwork are quite real should that be the case. It is always better to have some plan of action to cover guardianship. Such planning for a surviving child’s welfare can be overwhelming for anyone who is unfamiliar with the law. A Connecticut employer that cares about reducing employee anxiety and fears will offer assistance with a group legal services plan.

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America is quickly becoming a cashless society. Increasingly more financial transactions are done with credit cards and debit cards as opposed to dollars and cents. That is fantastic for retail companies because shoppers using plastic will buy a little bit extra, and it’s extremely convenient for shoppers as well. However, there is a danger that lurks on the fringes. Greater use of plastic opens up an opportunity for professional thieves to steal identity and use credit card information for fraudulent purchases.

Identity theft is becoming increasingly more common. Roughly 12.6 million Americans

were the victims of identity theft in 2012, with approximately $21 billion being stolen. The most common use of identity theft is for various forms of financial fraud. This doesn’t just include bank accounts or credit cards. Identity theft can also facilitate mail fraud, attempts to get tax refunds, and criminal attempts to get benefits from government social programs. Identity theft is even more serious when the stolen identity is used for drug trafficking and computer-related crimes. Any individual can request credit monitoring services from a third party, but the thief may be long gone before the final information is received.

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Information technology has truly exploded in the last 10 years. It isn’t just mainframe computers or PCs that store personal information, but also smart phones, and iPads and other tools of the social network revolution. There are quite a few places where personal information can be stored and that is not always a good thing. Identity theft has become an increasingly more serious crime.

Legally speaking, Identity theft is the actual taking of someone’s identity and assuming to be that person. It is ordinarily linked with credit cards and bank accounts but other areas such as health care savings accounts or retirement benefits can also be affected. It is a serious form of fraud that has been magnified by the accessibility of information through computer hacking and computer viruses. The consequences can be nothing short of a disaster, as identity theft can be used not only to break into an individual’s bank accounts, but even destroy a person’s credit rating before that individual even knows what is happening. The state of Pennsylvania has taken action and there are laws regarding identity theft in Pennsylvania statutes, which also include restitution. The laws are on the books but the damage may still have been done to person’s credit rating. Certain legal action may be needed to be taken to restore credit integrity, or process claims for reimbursement of electronically stolen funds. This can be a very involved process and group legal plans can help.

The illegal activity will require the processing of documents to restore a person’s good name after a serious case of identity theft. This may include filing paperwork germane to restoring a healthy credit status such as a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint, or a fraud alert on a credit file. A credit bureau may have disclosed privileged information and may be liable, necessitating legal action to collect damages. Not everybody has the financial resources to afford any of this, but if a company has a group legal plan the employees can take advantage of it to go about restoring financial integrity. A group legal plan can direct an individual to lawyers who are skilled in the area of identity theft. Perhaps the greatest service these barristers can do is cut the amount of time needed to undo the damage. For anyone who relies on credit for buying a house or even maintaining credit cards time is a critical concern. If litigation is necessary, the group legal plan can keep the costs manageable.

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There are quite a few people in New Jersey who sincerely believe that there’s not much required to create a will and protect their New Jersey estate for loved ones. It seems so simple to just write something down, get it signed, and have a notary public stamp it.

They just feel there’s no reason to have a lawyer involved. That is a bad mistake.

New Jersey does adhere to the Uniform Probate Code to make these little bit easier but the process of drawing up an effective will takes some understanding of the legal code in the Garden State. Moreover, circumstances change and a beneficiary may die before the principal passes away, created complications which the originator of the will may not have considered. The worst-case scenario is that a beneficiary dies, and then the principal of the estate passes away, and survivors have to prove that the original beneficiary is deceased. Such estate disasters are the finer points of probate that attorneys who are part of New Jersey based prepaid legal plans recognize immediately. They can advise a person quickly about what to do to prevent something like this happening, making certain that the last will and testament has a contingency to cover the death of the primary beneficiary.

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It wasn’t too long ago that HR departments worried a lot about high levels of absenteeism. A struggling economy seems to be taking care of that situation, because people are now trying to hang onto their jobs and mental health days are things of the past. Unfortunately, there’s a new phenomenon that is creating a problem and it is known as presenteeism.

It happens when employees report to work but do not function at full productivity. In other words, the company is paying for a person who is present but not working very hard. The cost for this low efficiency can be very substantial. Business experts note that people reporting in when they’re sick is one of the causes, but being distracted by outside difficulties is just as bad. An employee who has worries on the mind is not working to capacity. In an intelligence driven workforce where cognitive skills are essential for profitability, this is quite serious. Major sources of such production threatening distractions are legal problems outside of the office.

It is estimated that over one third of all employees are confronted at one time or another with legal issues. While most anxieties involve estate planning and wills, matters such as family law and identity theft also plague a productive person’s thoughts. These have the ability to turn one’s attention away from a deadline and a company has to find the means to reduce the distraction. A group legal plan is a strong possible solution.

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Human resource departments are always looking for ways to keep employees satisfied and loyal to the company. It only makes sense because turnover costs can be frighteningly high, and whatever encourages retention is a good thing. A big problem is the cost of employee benefits and these can do some serious damage to the corporate bottom line. One benefit that is deeply appreciated and doesn’t cost a king’s ransom is

prepaid legal services.

Litigation has become an unfortunate fact of life and it is not easy to dodge. The American Bar Association estimates that more than one third of all employees will have need of a lawyer for one reason or another. Certain fundamental documents such as wills and estate plans can have different requirements depending on the state of residence, and using online do-it-yourself services can be incredibly risky. Prepaid legal services permit an employee to have access to credentialed attorneys who are specialists in areas such as probate, personal property, and issues of personal debt.

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