TORONTO, May 30, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Beneplan Employee Benefits Co-operative Inc. has issued patronage dividends in the sum of $2.3 million to its participating member-owners.
Member-owners are employers who manage benefit plan funds for small & medium Canadian employers.
This is the largest patronage dividend, which represents the co-operative’s growth in 2017. The dividends represent any surplus premium left over after employee health benefit claims are paid, after administrative expenses. The Beneplan Co-operative pays this surplus back to its member-owners (who are also its policyholders) in proportion with each owner’s actual claims experience in 2017.
“This is in stark contrast to the rest of the group benefits industry, where insurers or third-party administrators actually keep the profit left over in the plan,” says Yafa Sakkejha, General Manager of Beneplan Inc, the management firm administering the co-operative. “That’s why we’re seeing a rapid uptake in growth as a result of dividends being delivered every year since our co-op’s inception.”
Of patronage dividends issued, the average small business received a $9,943 return of premium on an average annual premium of $72,788. The group’s dividends represented an average of an 11% return of premium. On average, 4 out of 5 employers received a dividend due to low claims history, where 1 out of 5 did not receive a dividend but was not charged for the deficit that their group incurred in the pool.
Beneplan is noticing a trend in Canadians joining co-operatives and other mutual-insurance models in an effort to curb pricing and find bespoke service not found at larger insurers.
About Beneplan
Beneplan Inc is the administrator of the Beneplan Employee Benefits Co-operative Inc, a buying group formed in 2000 to help Canadian employers reduce costs on employee benefits, without cutting coverage. Since 2000, Beneplan has paid $14 million in dividends to its small business members who choose fully-insured plans and are too small to self-insure their corporate benefits. Beneplan also offers complimentary services, such as drug advocacy, HR advice and policy templates, nutritionist visits, paramedical fraud solutions, mental health prevention strategies, and universal coverage for pharmacogenetic testing.
Media contact: Sufyan Shaikh sufyan@beneplan.ca