Expanded Services to Support Total Financial Wellness
Larry Robinson, Chief Product Officer
Today we are excited to announce new and expanded services for the BrightPlan Total Financial Wellness solution. This includes global access in four new countries, coverage for families and new services dedicated to tax, estate planning and student loan optimization. This reinforces our commitment to delivering a world-class solution and services that enable companies and HR teams to enhance the employee experience with comprehensive financial wellness benefits.
These services support employees and their families with key aspects of their financial well-being, enabling them to have an end-to-end solution for all their financial needs.
Tax Services
Employees often direct tax questions about their total rewards to HR teams. Common questions include:
- Tax planning for equity compensation, such as RSU, ESPP or stock options
- How to best utilize tax-advantaged accounts such as 401(k), HSA, and FSA
- Tax implications of life events, such as a promotion, starting a family, or a death in the family
- Support for preparing and filing tax returns
HR teams often don’t have an integrated and trusted resource to direct employees’ tax queries to. These can be complex, leading to confusion and underutilization of benefits. HR leaders are eager to support employees in navigating complex tax concerns.
To address this need, BrightPlan’s Total Financial Wellness solution supports tax guidance, tax planning and now offers tax filing services for employees in the U.S. Employees can speak with a tax expert, optimize their taxes and, for an additional fee, file their tax returns. HR teams now have a go-to expert to direct their employees with tax questions.
Estate Planning and Legal Services
Employees’ lives are constantly changing and defined by life events: New job, marriage, starting a family, saving for a child’s education, caring for aging parents, and navigating retirement and aging for oneself. Employees also often turn to HR teams to determine if their company offers benefits or programs that can support them.
No matter where employees are in their journey, estate planning is a key component of financial well-being. Estate planning ensures an employee’s assets are adequately managed and distributed in the event they become incapacitated or pass away.
Common estate planning situations include:
- A will for an employee who is starting a family, identifying a guardian for the child in case of death or incapacity
- A trust for an employee who would like their assets to pass through to their family without the hassle or delays from probate
- A Power of Attorney for an employee’s aging parent so the employee can take care of their financial affairs
- A special needs trust for employees who would like their children with special needs to be financially secure even after the employees’ passing
In support of employees’ holistic financial wellness, BrightPlan is expanding its estate planning services, which now include legal advice and document preparation services. This service, available at an additional cost, allows employees to talk to a legal expert, determine which estate planning documents best fit their needs, and create them with the supervision of attorneys. It makes estate planning simple, convenient and affordable for employees with customized estate plans and access to attorneys in all 50 U.S. states.
Student Loan Support
With 45 million Americans collectively owing $1.7 trillion in student loans, employers are increasingly looking for ways to attract and retain top talent by helping them manage and pay their student loans.
Depending on the type of loan and the payment terms, the average borrower has access to many programs and resources that can help them optimize their debt payoff, these include:
- Accelerated payment plan
- Loan forgiveness
- Loan consolidation
- Loan interest deduction
- Loan refinancing
BrightPlan has always supported debt reduction goals. This expanded service, however, is fully optimized for the unique programs available for student loans that are not available for other types of debt. The service helps employers identify employees with significant student debt and provides loan repayment strategies and resources tailored to each individual. It also analyzes employees’ unique situations to find the best student loan optimization strategy. With this, HR teams can now deliver a compelling benefits offering for employees with student debt.
With these expanded services, BrightPlan continues to enhance its Total Financial Wellness solution, delivering holistic capabilities that address all aspects of an employee’s financial life, empowering them with financial confidence and giving employers competitive differentiation in attracting and retaining top talent.
