Death-in-service benefits are a valuable addition to a company’s remuneration package. Should the worst happen, such business protection offers assurances to an employee’s family. They can also mark the crossover between business and personal affairs, where issues to do with finance become charged with emotion and questions of responsibility.
Martin Byrne, founder of Business Protect, is very aware of the personal side of things and how a very human interface in financial affairs can make a huge difference.
The Race Against Time
“I’d been contacted by an HR representative of a large firm where there was no death-in-service plan,” Martin explains. ‘There was some urgency because it involved an employee who was terminally ill in a hospice.”
Martin points out that there are administrative complexities to setting up a group death-in-service scheme, including the setting up of a master trust and nominating trustees to manage it.
“I was aware that this was a pressurised situation. There was an individual dying with his family currently standing to receive nothing.”
It became a race against time, with Martin searching for a provider with the right quote, one that would include someone who was terminally ill.
“It was a case of pushing against the barriers, in terms of time, administration and level of service,” Martin says. “We got there in the end, with the right quote. The death-in-benefits scheme was up and running and two days later the guy in the hospice died.”
The legacy was that the family received two years’ salary a fortnight after the death, and the company concerned now had a robust death-in-service scheme in place for its employees.
The End Objective
“‘What are you in business for?’ People often ask this of themselves, especially when the pressure’s on. For me it really is about being able to interact with people on a very human level, to get the very best results I can for them”
Martin Byrne, Business Protect
Businesses are made up of individuals. Amid all the talk of growth, development and objectives, it is the people that make it all work. It is in the interests of businesses to protect their employees, including the implementation of an appropriate death-in-benefits scheme.
“My job is to offer the right level of business protection,” Martin says. “But that means looking after the people who work there, and stepping up to the challenge to ensure that business works for them, just as they’ve worked for the business.”
To discover more about the options available for you to protect the people within your business, please call Business Protect on 0161 9562470 or visit their website.
