Choose Your Benefits Carefully

Annual open enrollment gives you an opportunity to review the benefits offered by your employer, including health insurance, vision and dental plans, and life insurance, and make selections that reflect your current situation. Open enrollment typically is the only time during the year when you can change your benefits without experiencing a qualifying event, including loss of health coverage or changes in your household due to marriage, divorce, births, or deaths.

Benefits Review

It’s important to carefully review your new benefit offerings. Don’t automatically sign up for the same plans or options you had in the past. Changes in premiums, copays, and deductibles may make a different plan more affordable. If you’re married, compare your benefits with the benefits offered by your spouse’s employer and choose the better plan.

Dependent Care FSA

A dependent care flexible savings account (FSA) lets you set aside pretax money to pay for qualifying dependent care expenses, including daycare, nursery/ preschool, babysitters/nannies, day camps, and adult daycare. In 2022, the maximum amount individuals and married couples filing jointly can contribute is $5,000, while a married filing single taxpayer can contribute $2,500.

Life Insurance

Your employer may offer group life insurance as one of your benefits. But if your loved ones depend on your income, a group policy generally won’t provide the coverage you need to support them in the event of your death. And your coverage typically ends when your employment ends. Purchasing an individual policy can help provide for your loved ones if something happens to you.

Disability Insurance

Disability insurance replaces a portion of your income if you become sick or injured and can’t work. Short-term disability typically covers you for a few months to one year and generally replaces 50%-60% of your earnings. Your employer may offer short-term disability coverage at no cost to you.

Your employer may offer an option to purchase long-term disability insurance, which provides benefits from a few years up to retirement age. The cost depends on several factors, including the type of coverage you choose, the waiting period before benefits start, and the percentage of income you want the policy to replace. Coverage typically ends when you quit your job.

*2023 contribution limits had not been announced prior publication.