County weighs changes to employee life insurance [Ottumwa Courier, Iowa]

Oct. 11—OTTUMWA — The Wapello County Board of Supervisors weighed, but took no action on, a proposal from New York Life Insurance to change the structure of term life insurance for county employees.

Paul Katsion, a New York Life representative, said employees now are paid $20,000 in term life, and can get $60,000 in accidental death and dismemberment insurance. However, that insurance is rarely paid out. The proposal offered by the company is more in line with employee salaries.

The discussion started when a former county employee approached New York Life about needing more life insurance during a visit last year.

"It surprised me that the policy he had was completely upside down," he said. "No one understood what they had, but kept it because it was free."

Katsion offered a term life policy of 24.2 cents per $1,000 per month, and 2.2 cents per $1,000 for accidental death and dismemberment. For example, a $30,000 life policy for an employee would cost $7.26 per month, not including the accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

Currently, the county pays about $840 per month for 136 employees in term life insurance.

"I'll be honest with you, you'll be getting a bargain. It's probably some of the cheapest term covers I've ever seen," he said. "So I think more along the lines of $30,000 to $50,000 of term coverage, but is it really a benefit if the employee doesn't see the value in it?"

Katsion said employees would have the option to buy accidental death and dismemberment insurance, but he wasn't a fan of it, considering how rare it had been for someone to die as a result of an accident.

He said all county employees would get the 24.2 cents per $1,000 as a start, then the option to buy additional insurance. However, the county will need to determine how much it is willing to pay.

"Let's say you make $100,000 and you say, 'Well, $30,000 isn't enough. Can I buy an additional $70,000?'" he said. "For that $70,000, we ask five simplified questions, but whatever the county offers every employee, that's guaranteed."

In other business:

—The board passed a resolution allowing the auditor's office to begin moving away from paper record-keeping to electronic records.

"We've come across this in our auditor's meetings that we should probably pass this. Some of our documents that are standard will no longer have a paper copy," auditor Kelly Spurgeon said. "I don't know of other offices that do that, but I know other auditor's offices are doing this individually."

— Chad Drury can be reached at [email protected], and on Twitter @ChadDrury

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