Square Inc. Launches Affordable Small Business Benefit Offerings

To provide the benefits, the company partnered with technology-focused organizations.

Square, Inc. has launched employee benefit offerings within Square Payroll, providing small businesses who use Square Payroll access to affordable benefits like health insurance and retirement savings. The benefit can also save businesses money by reducing payroll tax burdens, without any added cost.  

“With today’s launch, Square Payroll is giving small businesses access to ‘big company’ benefits,” says Caroline Hollis, head of Square Payroll. “We’re empowering businesses to provide their employees a comprehensive set of benefits and the financial security that comes with having them.”

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Benefits available through Square Payroll include health insurance, retirement savings, pre-tax spending, and workers’ compensation, says Square, Inc. To provide these benefits to businesses and their employees, Square Payroll has partnered with technology-focused companies including SimplyInsured, Guideline 401(k), Alice, and AP Intego Insurance Group. Through Square Payroll, business owners can select the specific benefits that fit their business and their budget, and after completing the benefits enrollment, those benefits will automatically sync with Square Payroll.

“With Square Payroll we are able to simply and affordably provide employees with the benefits they need and reduce administrative time in the process,” says Shatisha Wilson, LPC, RPT, the owner of Wilson’s Garden of Hope, a play therapy & counseling center in Augusta, Georgia that serves active duty, retired, and reserve members of the military and their families. “Options we looked at before had employee minimums that prevented us from qualifying, but with Square Payroll the benefit plans are designed to meet the needs of businesses my size.”

Vanguard Integrates Health and Wealth With HSA Offering

In partnership with HealthEquity, Vanguard will offer plan sponsors the ability to provide an HSA solution to their employees that features low-cost Vanguard funds or the same investment options as their DC plan line-up.

Vanguard announced a partnership with HealthEquity, an independent health savings account (HSA) custodian, to provide defined contribution (DC) plan sponsors and their participants a new service integrating health and wealth planning for retirement.

Vanguard will offer plan sponsors the ability to provide an HSA solution to their employees that features low-cost Vanguard funds or the same investment options as their DC plan line-up.

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HSAs can be an effective, highly tax-efficient means to save for health care expenses in retirement. For Vanguard participants who elect to save in a HealthEquity HSA, Vanguard’s Retirement Readiness Tool technology will integrate their HSA information with their DC plan balance and other assets to give them a comprehensive view of their current and future retirement savings. Participants will also benefit from highly personalized communications that are rooted in behavioral finance and proven to successfully encourage their next best action.

“Consumers who learn to use HSAs and DC plans together are on the fast track to retirement readiness. Our partnership with Vanguard offers plan sponsors a powerful solution to connect health and wealth,” says Jon Kessler, president and CEO at HealthEquity.

As a supplement to its new HSA solution, Vanguard plans to introduce a new proprietary health care cost calculator that will help participants to better plan and save for health care expenses in retirement.

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