Archives 2010

PEO Payroll Services with PAY-surance HR / PEO Pros

One of the most common “employer headache” complaint heard is handling the complicated and changing world of employee payroll and tax compliance associated with having employees.

Jeff Bosworth

“I decided to have PEO Pros find a PEO for me because doing Payroll was so laborious.” says Jeff Bosworth, Orlando area business owner and HR consultant. “It was a constant problem. I’m a firm believer that you pay people for professionalism.”

Handling payroll and ensuring employee tax compliance is a major benefit of working with a PEO. In addition to ensuring compliance with all taxing agents in the local, state and federal governments, annual tasks such as issuing W-2s are handled professionally. It’s important to remember that a PEO uses their own FEIN and it becomes their responsibility to comply. This is a favorable transfer of liability for business owners.

In addition to representing PEOs, PAY-surance HR also functions as brokes for Administrative Service Organizations (ASOs), more commonly known as Payroll Companies.

Payroll Services are available in three ways:

* From a PEO as a PEO client
* From a “payroll company” as an ASO client
* As a service from a PEO using the ASO model

In all of these cases, PEO Pros has the staff and expertise to find you a feasible solution.

Florida is an “administrative state” which means the state sets the rates for workers comp for each “class code.”

You would think this would mean everybody pays the same for their workers comp insurance.

Not so. There are several modifiers and discounts that can be applied to premium payments.

Written Safety Program Credit
If you have an approved, written safety program the carriers are authorized to give you an overall 2% discount.

“Drug-Free” Workplace Credit
If your workplace employs an approved drug testing program you are eligible for an additional 5% discount on premium.

Stock Company Discount
The state allows Stock Company Carriers (as opposed to Mutual Carriers) to discount premium at larger volumes, in the approx. range of 8 to 14%

Experience Modifier (Mod)
The National Council for Compensation Insurance (ncci.com) is tasked with determining a premium multiplier for companies in various states, including Florida. Everyone starts at 1.0. Should you demonstrate good claims history, you can be assigned a “credit mod” – a number under 1.0. For example a 0.8 mod is basically saying the same thing as a 20% discount. Conversely, a “debit mod” (greater than 1) can be assigned for poor claims history.

Deductible Discounts
In the case of larger clients, a discount can be approved by the state insurance office for a deductible credit. These can start small (say $500) and go all the way up to “high deductible” credits ($1 million for example.)

PEOs often use high deductible policies to share the risk with the carrier for their clients.

As wholesalers for Workers’ Comp, we have many partners and sources for coverage.

In the coming weeks look for significant changes to our website. We hope to be adding more functionality and easier navigation. Thank you for your patience.

The project should be complete by September 2010

Health and P&C agents are needed.

Licensed in FL or another state? Looking for an agency that will let you grow with it?

Please contact us.

Our staff has taken on the incredible task of sorting through the 2900+ pages of the new health care bill – HR 3590.

It is still very early but we believe there may be some advantages to small business owners, those with less than 100 employees.

If you are interested in hearing how this may benefit your small business, please contact us.

“Rick and John’s Weekend Update” is a video blog done by two business owners here in East Orlando. Today’s guest was noted health expert and insurance agency owner Augie Buffa, of I-surance, LLC.

It is often overlooked that we are an insurance agency.

Lately, we have been finding our clients need help with group or individual health insurance.

We have partnered with several agencies to supply superior health insurance products to our customers.

A primary tax that affects business owners is the state unemployment tax assessment (SUTA).

In Florida, a new business is assigned a rate of 2.7%. This rate is charged on the first $7000 of each employee’s annual payroll.

After 10 quarters the business SUTA rate is subject to review, and may increase or decline, based on unemployment claim history.

Many business owners would rather not worry about this tax and instead leave this employer headache to a PEO, who will become the employer of record in a co-employment situation.

In that case, by using a PEO to handle your HR issues, these headaches literally become “Somebody Else’s Problem” – SEP!