Health insurance is a very big deal, especially for small business owners. With all that has developed over the past few years, business owners have had to quickly adapt to legal changes and provide health coverage for their employees. The rush to find employee insurance in order to avoid penalties has undoubtedly lead to some poor decisions when choosing a health insurance provider.

If you happen to be a small law firm owner who rushed into the decision, or you are starting up a small firm for the first time, I came across an article that may be able to assist you in making the right choice. Choosing the Right Health Plan for your Employees, an article on FindLaw.com, covers some helpful things to consider when choosing a health insurance provider, such as;

• What Type of health Insurance
• Whether you should use an insurance broker
• Finding a better deal
• The way to evaluate a policy
• Doing your homework on the provider

To check out the article for yourself and gain some helpful advice, click here.

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Most people never think about the fact that a lawyer with his own firm as a small business owner. But in fact, that’s the way it is for many lawyers, whether they’re a partner, or a sole practitioner. You deal with multiple cases, handle your payroll and taxes, and manage all of the things a business needs. One of those needs being disability insurance. And anyone who has been around personal injury cases knows that having decent disability insurance can go a long way.

I recently came across an article by Darrell Zahorsky called “11 Tips For Buying Small Business Disability Insurance.” If you happen to be in the market for such insurance, click the link above to check out his article. It covers things such as:

• Defining disability
• Determining disability type
• Looking at financial ratings

And more. Give it a read. It might even come in handy for someone you know.

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I recently came across an article by Brain Tannebaum. It’s based on his interview with Sam Cohen, from Attorneys First, about malpractice insurance for attorneys. Brain does a good job of covering the basic questions a lawyer might have. I thought it might be very useful to a new attorney wondering about malpractice insurance. Brian covers several points during the article, some of which are:

• Which attorneys don’t need malpractice insurance.
• What malpractice insurance covers.
• Considerable options for attorney coverage.

To find out what other advice is Sam shares, view the full article here.

Employee benefits are something every working American looks at when considering a job. Retirement plans, health insurance, dental insurance, paid sick days and so on. Offering these benefits can be a big deciding factor when they choose to work for you. When I took my last job, all of these were things I considered. But, there was also something else that pushed me toward the position.

Life insurance.

Sure, it’s not something many employers give much thought. Standard health insurance, paid days off and a 401k are obviously three of the big benefits potential employees look for. But offering your employees life insurance makes for a nice icing on the cake.

If you are wondering if it could cost your firm a lot, check out, Offering Life Insurance to Your Employees, an article on Yahoo Small Business. It covers the basic benefits of offering life insurance to your employees, including how paying for a group rate can be cheaper than you and them paying individually.

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The Small Business Heath Care Tax Credit is designed to help small businesses offer health insurance coverage.  If you provide health insurance coverage to your employees, your law firm may qualify for the small business health care tax credit.  Can you answer yes to these two questions?

• Does your firm have fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees that earn an average wage of less than $50,000?
• Does your firm pay at least half of the cost for your employees’ health insurance premiums?

If you answered ‘yes’ to these questions, talk to your Certified Public Accountant (CPA) about your firm’s eligibility.  Click here to read the IRS’ tips regarding this credit.

Kelly A. O’Leary, CPA, CGMA, MBA, CITP
Director of Finance and Administration

A new year means new beginnings. Well, maybe not, but it does mean a new Social Security wage base. The Social Security Administration announced there will be an increase from $117,000 to $118,500 for the 2015 wage base.

Social Security’s Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) 2015 tax rate will be 6.2 percent for both employees and employer. This in turn would make the maximum contributed per individual to be $7,347. The individual’s employer will pay the same amount. For those who are self-employed, the OASDI tax rate is 12.4 percent.

You can learn more about this by visiting Social Security’s Contribution and Benefit Base page of their website.

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