Benefits are kind of scary

Many of you know that I passed my second CEBS exam a few weeks ago. 

I am so relieved I passed, as the second course made the first one look like a cake walk.  Here is what we covered in a mere 12 weeks, no joke:

Individual and group life insurance
Disability management
Vacations and other time-off benefits
Dependent care and work-life benefits
Flexible benefits I
Flexible benefits II
Plan administration, technology and communication
Taxation of group plan benefits
Workers' compensation
Social insurance concepts
Health benefits for retireees
Long-term care insurance

One of the things I'm learning through the CEBS program is that benefits can be scary and weird, even to people who know what they are talking about.  Keeping up with benefit laws, tax laws, technology and your industry's competition is not for the faint of heart.  It's complicated.

Here are some things I learned in my second course:

• Most people don't have enough life insurance. Calculating how much life insurance you need and what type of product you should buy is confusing.
  

• Economic changes in the work environment of white collar employees increases short and long term disability claims.  (And, in my experience, workers comp claims as well).
  

• The IRS has its fingers in EVERYTHING.
  

• Employers use a "credit system" in cafeteria plans instead of actual dollar values to "smooth out benefit inequities" and hide true costs from employees.  Also, this makes it possible for employers to offer a "cash out option" that is not a dollar-for-dollar value.
  

• Under Medicare Part D (in 2008), if your prescription costs are between $2,510 and $5,726 per year, none of it is covered.
  

• Long Term Care Insurance is necessary because while modern medicine can usually prevent death, it can't always restore health.  For the elderly, a life saving medical treatment is often the beginning of several months (or even years) of custodial care.

Well, I'm off to my third course: Retirement Plan Design (yay?).