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Category Archives: Insurance / Employee Benefits

Foursurance Agency LLC In Clifton Park Provides Home, Automobile, Life Insurance

Posted onSeptember 12, 2022
Don Ferlazzo opened a new independent insurance agency, Foursurance, located at 1673 Route 9 in Clifton Park in the Healthplex Fitness office complex.
©2022 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Jill nagy

Don Ferlazzo opened a new independent insurance agency in August in Clifton Park. 

Foursurance Agency  LLC provides insurance for anything with four wheels, four walls and even four paws, Ferlazzo said. 

“There are a lot of fours in life that need protecting,” he said, adding he wants to be people’s “forever agency.”

Located at 1673 Route 9 in the Healthplex Fitness office complex. It is in Clifton Park but has a Halfmoon mailing address. 

Formerly employed by a single insurance company, Ferlazzo now sells policies from 15 carriers. He said his client base stretches across the Capital District.

Basically, the company handles auto, home and life insurance.

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Business Report: Benefits Help Businesses Retain Employees

Posted onSeptember 12, 2022
Renee Walrath, president, Walrath Recruiting Inc., Saratoga Springs.

By Renee Walrath

If the past few years have taught us anything it would have to be that life is ever-changing and situations can change at the drop of a hat. Benefits have shifted from being just part of an employment compensation package to a focal point of employment and a draw for top-tier talent. 

Companies are continuously looking to attain strong employees yet are struggling because valuable workers are fleeing to seek other options with stronger compensation. Often a potential employee will be willing to take a salary decrease if the benefits package is more robust with a higher employee contribution. 

When interviewing, be open and communicative with interviewees. Be clear about your company’s contributions toward health insurance. If a potential employee does not ask, inform them if they will receive health benefits right away or if there is a waiting period. Either way, offering health coverage shows employees your company cares are invested in them. 

Employees are more likely to accept a position and remain with a company that provides them with excellent health benefits. This in turn, increases employee retention and reduces costs for companies. With less turnover, companies do not have to continually recruit, onboard, and train new employees. 

On top of offering health insurance, ensure that your interviewees are aware of your company’s policy on accumulating paid time off (PTO) days, sick days, vacation days, and holidays. These benefits can sometimes be just as important to a potential employee as health coverage and is often a deciding factor in accepting a position. 

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State Seeks Companies To Develop Insurance Policies To Promote Clean Technologies

Posted onSeptember 12, 2022

A new program focused on the research and development of new insurance policies and products to promote the adoption of clean technologies across New York state is on the way. 

The program will provide funding for products that manage the financial risk associated with climate change, supporting the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal of reducing carbon emissions 85 percent by 2050. 

 “New York state is leaving no stone unturned in our fight against climate change, and that includes investing in industries that will develop and advance clean, green technologies,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said. “By promoting innovative policies that will create more sustainable climate technology, we are taking bold action to meet the challenges of climate change. My administration remains laser focused on supporting key initiatives that will benefit both businesses and consumers while contributing to our state’s nation-leading climate efforts.” 

 The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) will select a program administrator to develop the new initiative, manage operations, leverage industry expertise, and boost research and development to establish new risk models. 

The program administrator will also select innovative insurance ideas, products, and services, such as insurance for residential and commercial renewable energy projects, that will develop new business models to enable future climate technology solutions. 

The program administrator will be awarded up to $1.5 million to work with managing general underwriters (MGUs) and managing general agents (MGAs) that can research, develop, and test new insurance products, and it will award up to $5 million in competitive grants which are anticipated to be announced in 2023. 

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SUNY Empire State Partners With Amazon To Help Its Employees Learn New Work Skills

Posted onSeptember 12, 2022

SUNY Empire State College has been accepted as a premier member into the Amazon Career Choice program, an education benefit that empowers Amazon employees to learn new skills for career success at Amazon or elsewhere. 

SUNY Empire is the first institution within the SUNY system to partner with the Amazon Career Choice program.

Officials said partnership with SUNY Empire will make it more convenient for Amazon’s hourly employees to earn their undergraduate degree online, in person at SUNY Empire locations, at Amazon Career Choice classrooms located across New York state, or a combination of all three. 

Through its Career Choice program, Amazon provides funding for employees’ tuition, books, and fees with no lifetime limit on participating.

SUNY Empire and Amazon are collaborating to hold fall information sessions for Amazon employees across New York state, beginning with the company’s two Staten Island distribution centers, as well as distribution centers in Albany and Buffalo. The goal is to eventually expand the partnership to eligible employees in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. 

The college will also begin offering college courses on site at Amazon’s Career Choice Classrooms in Staten Island and Albany in the spring of 2023. In the U.S. alone, the company is investing $1.2 billion to upskill more than 300,000 Amazon employees by 2025 to help move them into higher-paying, in-demand jobs. 

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Adirondack EAP Provides Employees In The Area With Counseling And Training Services

Posted onSeptember 17, 2021

By Susan Elise Campbell

The Employee Assistance Program of Warren, Washington, and Saratoga Counties (Adirondack EAP) will turn the corner on 40 years with a new executive director at its helm.

Richard J. Demers is soon to retire as executive director after 36 years.

Over the decades Demers and his staff established Adirondack EAP as a valuable community resource providing free and confidential assessment, counseling, and referrals for employees of member organizations and their families, according to Tracey Riley, president of the board of directors and vice president of human resources at Finch Paper.

Adirondack EAP is a local, rather than a national EAP, with its  main office at 559 Glen St. and affiliated offices in Plattsburg, Saratoga Springs, Albany, Clifton Falls, and other locations.

Today there are 60 member companies and 25,000 employees and their families have been served, Riley said.

EAP counselors work in a consultative role with managers and supervisors of member companies, providing them mindfulness training or other assistance, such as helping with transitions if there has been a tragedy in the workplace, McManus said.

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Business Report: Cyber Insurance Is Important

Posted onSeptember 17, 2021
Melissa Davidson, licensed sales executive at Northern Insuring Agency.

By Melissa Davidson

Cyber insurance, which not too long ago was thought of as a want and not a need, is now considered a primary component in many business insurance policies. Cyberattacks are on the rise with breaches becoming more frequent and losses becoming more severe. 

According to AM Best, “The loss ratio for cyber insurance rose dramatically in 2020, [up] to 67.8 percent from 44.8 percent in 2019. However, the increase was not limited to just a few insurers—the loss ratio rose for 15 of the 20 largest cyber insurers.”

Cyber liability insurance generally covers a business’s liability for a data breach involving sensitive customer information: such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, account numbers, driver’s license numbers and health records. 

Those costs can include lost income due to a cyber event, costs associated with notifying customers affected by a breach, costs for recovering compromised data, costs for repairing damaged computer systems and more. Moreover, cyber coverage is not automatically included in general liability coverage and is generally excluded. This coverage needs to be purchased separately.

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Fingerpaint Helps Pay Workers’ College Debt

Posted onSeptember 17, 2021

By Lisa Balschunat

Ninety staffers nationwide at Fingerpaint Marketing are getting help paying off their college student loans.

Edward Mitzen, founder of the Saratoga Springs-based company, saw an opportunity to assist employees in reducing or paying off their student loans. He gave each of them $30,000 for that purpose,  with no strings attached.

“We recruit the best and the brightest,” Mitzen said. “We always look for ways to do right by staff.  We cover 100 percent of their health care premiums. We offer paid sabbaticals … We had student loan program that paid out about $100 per month to a staffer. It was a nice program, but it wasn’t helping enough. It barely covered the interest on a monthly loan payment.”

Fingerpaint is a health and wellness marketing firm with a global team of more than 580 people. Known for its innovate and data-drive approach, the firm provides marketing solutions to healthcare clients specifically in the pharmaceutical, rare disease and gene therapy sectors.

“We conducted a staff survey about how much debt people were carrying due to college student loans,” he said.  “What we found was that some people’s monthly payments were bigger than a monthly mortgage payment. Someone with a $40,000 loan who is paying into it for five years will still owe $40,000 in five years due to the interest.”

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State Lowers Employer Retirement Payments

Posted onSeptember 17, 2021

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has announced reductions in employer contribution rates to the New York state and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) for both of its systems—the Employees’ Retirement System (ERS) and Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS).

He said the adjusted rates will impact payments in the State Fiscal Year 2022-23.

In addition, DiNapoli lowered the long-term assumed rate of return on the Fund’s investments from 6.8 percent to 5.9 percent.

“The fund’s strength gives us the ability to weather volatile markets. Our prudent strategy for long-term, steady returns helps ensure our state’s pension fund will continue to be one of the nation’s strongest and best-funded,” DiNapoli said. “While the reduction in employer contribution rates is welcome news for taxpayers, our investment decisions are always made based on what is best for our 1.1 million working and retired members and their beneficiaries.”

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Stewart’s Shops Offers Its Employees Free Access To CDTA Route Network In The Area

Posted onSeptember 17, 2021
Stewart’s Shops has partnered with CDTA to offer the Universal Access program to its employees. The program allows workers to ride CDTA buses free of charge.
Courtesy CDTA

Stewart’s Shops has partnered with CDTA to offer the Universal Access program to its employees. 

The partnership provides Stewart’s Shops employees in the Capital Region with unlimited access to the CDTA route network. The pilot program, which began in August, allows them  to ride CDTA buses free of charge with just a swipe of their CDTA Navigator card.

The program already has 150 people using the  benefit. The company anticipates that number to climb to nearly 1,000 in the coming months.

“We are proud to welcome Stewart’s Shops to our growing CDTA family,” said CDTA CEO Carm Basile. “Universal Access lets tens of thousands of Capital Region employees, students, faculty and staff navigate to and from their designated destinations using everything that CDTA has to offer. 

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Workers At Altek In Waterford Buy Company Via Employee Stock Ownership Plan

Posted onSeptember 14, 2020September 15, 2020

By Jill Nagy
Altek Energy Systems’ president is selling the company to the employees and it will not cost them a penny, he said.
Mike O’Connor, currently the owner and a co-founder of the company, created an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) that will hold the company’s shares on behalf of the employees. As people retire or otherwise leave the company, they will receive the value of their shares.
Shares will be allocated among the employees based upon the amount of time they have been with the company and how much they earn. Their shares will vest over a five-year period.
O’Connor said the new corporation will be what is known as a Subchapter-S corporation. Subchapter-S corporations do not pay corporate income tax. Rather, their earnings are allocated to the shareholders and taxed as regular income.
As a conventional corporation, Altek pays $400,000-500,000 in taxes a year, O’Connor estimated.
After 40 years with Altek, O’Connor said he sees the transition as a graceful exit strategy. It will leave the company intact and allow him to remove cash from the company. He also foresees considerable tax savings.

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