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Life Planning Accounts
Add an Option to the Benefits Mix
HR professionals are familiar with account-based benefits such as health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Now there’s a new type of account that more and more progressive employers are adopting - life planning accounts (LPAs).
What is a Life Planning Account?
Like the more familiar employer-sponsored accounts, LPAs are a means for companies to help employees support the health and wellness activities in their lives. But LPAs differ from other spending accounts in two key ways:
LPAs are funded by employers with money that is taxable as income to employees when they spend it, unlike the tax advantages of HSAs, FSAs and HRAs, for which withdrawn funds are not taxable.
Employers decide how employees can spend their LPA funds, with acceptable product and service categories. Many employers see this ability to limit and direct employee spending of employer-provided money as a compelling reason to offer LPAs.
Unlike funds contributed to an HSA, employers pay for only the amounts employees actually spend, which can make a big difference at the year-end budget review. An LPA also adds flexibility to benefits plans.
Let your employees choose how to spend their life planning account, based on wellbeing category “pillars” of approved expenditures. Categories and parameters are completely customizable for your organization.
Fitness & Exercise
Gym memberships
Yoga classes
Athletic wear
Workout equipment
Retirement Planning
401(k)
Roth 401(k)
Financial counseling
Student Loan & Education
Loan payments
Tuition
College savings plans
Charitable Giving
Donations
501(3)(c) entities
Other approved organizations
Emergency Fund
Hardship
Emergency cash
Approved eligible expenses
Health Expenses
HSA
Nutritional counseling
Supplements
These are just examples. Organizations can include anything that they believe promotes employee wellness, including things like golf clubs, cookbooks for healthier eating, and activities that challenge them. They can also explicitly prohibit categories or items such as nicotine or alcohol.
“At Slalom, we were seeing that a one-size-fits-all approach does not fit well with our diverse workforce and wanted to do something different to give employees more options,” said Will Cone, Director of Global Benefits & Mobility, Slalom Consulting. “Life Planning Accounts have provided us flexibility and the ability to support well-being activities globally. PTO Exchange made it easy to do so.”
Life Planning Account Platform
The PTO Exchange platform allows your company to customize and launch an LPA program quickly and easily. Just select the amount of your reward, decide on the approved pillar categories, and set your policies. You’ll also need to set up administrators and a process for adjudication for reimbursement requests.
PTO Exchange can help with all of these steps, including on-going adjudication services. Your rewards program can be completely outsourced for simplicity, security and speed.
Offer your employee an easy way to access their LPA funds. PTO Exchange offers employers an additional option of pre-loaded debit cards. These can be configured based on your specific parameters of approved vendor categories.
Integration with Payroll and HR Systems
The PTO Exchange platform integrates seamlessly with leading payroll providers including Kronos/Ultimate, Paylocity, ADP, Workday, TriNet, and SAP, among others.
Payroll integration refreshes your employee data each pay period, ensures that LPA reimbursements are tracked and taxed properly and LPA balances adjusted accordingly.
Smaller companies can use the built-in PTO Exchange Data Import / Export tool to manage payroll interactions. Larger customers can set up automate file interfaces that run outside of normal business hours and ensure their data are always up-to-date and accurate.
PTO Exchange can accommodate a variety of data layouts and supports single sign-on (SSO).
Your Preferred Partner for Life Planning Accounts
PTO Exchange has developed a flexible benefits platform that allows you to get your LPA up and running quickly.
Key benefits of partnering with PTO Exchange for your LPA:
