Benefits by Design Insurance Services #employeebenefitspecialist Archives

The Myers-Briggs Test: How Can You Use It?

February 6, 2023

If you’ve ever visited a career counselor, you may already be familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI. It was created by a mother-daughter team in the 1940s. Myers and Briggs were not psychologists, but they had read “Psychological Types” by Carl Jung, and they wanted to show how everyone could fit into one of the personality types that Jung had described.

The indicator divides people according to four binary factors, for a total of sixteen types. The MBTI website describes the factors thusly:

Introversion/Extroversion — Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or your own inner world?
Sensing/Intuition — Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning?
Thinking/Feeling — When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances?
Judging/Perceiving — In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options?

Looking at these factors, you can see why so many people take this test when they are in college, or when they are considering a career move. While many people spend their whole lives in careers that aren’t obvious matches for their personalities, you’re most likely to be happy and successful in a job that suits you. An introvert may be advised to seek out behind-the-scenes jobs, while extroverts are pushed towards public-facing roles. Judging types are good project managers, but they may struggle in jobs that require investigation or information-gathering.

So, is finding a great candidate as easy as giving applicants a test? Not so fast. The MBTI was never meant to be scientific, and throughout the years, plenty of psychologists have criticized it as imprecise. Even Carl Jung, on whose theories the indicator was based, disagreed with the idea that people broke down into easy binaries; he thought of personality as more of a spectrum. This is probably why many people who take the test twice get different results. Asked to decide between two options when they really fall in between, they choose randomly. However, if all you want to do is narrow down your job search, the MBTI is a good place to start. If the suggested careers sound all wrong for you, then don’t go into those careers.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why it’s a bad idea to predicate hiring or promotion decisions on a personality test. You may miss out on perfectly qualified candidates because of the way they answered a question. And it’s legally dubious — forcing employees or applicants to take a personality test may violate privacy laws.

A completely foolproof way to divide people up by personality would make life a lot easier for managers and job seekers alike. Alas, the Myers-Briggs test is not that. It should only be treated as a rough guide to a career path.

Benefits by Design Insurance Services is a full-service health insurance and employee benefits broker, offering creative benefits coverage solutions for your business or family. We can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information We are located in the San Francisco Bay Area and in San Diego and provide the expert advice for group and individual health insurance, Medicare, Medicare Part D, life, and travel insurance decisions.

At Benefits by Design, we can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information.

Benefits by Design Insurance Services is a full-service health insurance and employee benefits broker, offering creative benefits coverage solutions for your business or family. We can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information We are in the San Francisco Bay Area and in San Diego and provide the expert advice for group and individual health insurance, Medicare, Medicare Part D, life, and travel insurance decisions.

Contact us for more information.

[email protected]
(415)-524-8959 Larkspur, CA office
(760) 696-3573 San Diego, CA office

IRS Adjusts HSA Limits for 2023

February 6, 2023

As it does each year, the IRS has announced changes for health savings accounts, which are associated with high-deductible health plans.

The figures for 2023:

Self-only: $3,850 (a $200 increase from 2022).
Family: $7,750 (a $450 increase from 2022).

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, “The contribution limits are adjusted for inflation (rounded to the nearest $50) annually, using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the 12-month period ending on March 31. The catch-up contribution amount, however, is fixed by statute.”

The IRS has made a similar adjustment to maximum out-of-pocket amounts:

Self-only: $7,500 (a $450 increase from 2022).
Family: $15,000 (a $900 increase from 2022).

The catch-up contribution amount for those 55 and older is not automatically adjusted and remains at $1,000.

Rising slightly are minimum deductibles:

Self-only: $1,500 (a $100 increase from 2022).
Family: $3,000 (a $200 increase from 2022).

More information is available in IRS Rev. Proc. 22-24.

At Benefits by Design, we can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information.

Benefits by Design Insurance Services is a full-service health insurance and employee benefits broker, offering creative benefits coverage solutions for your business or family. We can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information We are in the San Francisco Bay Area and in San Diego and provide the expert advice for group and individual health insurance, Medicare, Medicare Part D, life, and travel insurance decisions.

Contact us for more information.

[email protected]
(415)-524-8959 Larkspur, CA office
(760) 696-3573 San Diego, CA office

Health Savings Account (HSA) Maximum Contributions 2023

January 31, 2023

Health savings accounts are paired with high-deductible health plans for an especially adaptable insurance and savings program. HDHPs have large deductibles that members must meet before receiving coverage. Participants meet those deductibles by contributing their own money to HSAs. The government does not tax these funds as long as they’re used to pay for qualified medical expenses.

So basically, an HSA is like a 401(k) for medical expenses. Money is set aside from your paycheck — before taxes — in a savings account used for eligible expenses, which grows tax-free. You can invest a portion of your HSA savings in a variety of investment options.

The best part is that the HSA belongs to you, the participant, not to your employer. When employees leave their jobs for any reason, they still keep their HSA. If you elect to retain your HDHP under COBRA, you may even pay the COBRA premiums from your HSA. Employees can take their money with them if they switch employers or if they change health insurers.

Learn the nuts and bolts

Among qualified medical expenses are medical care, prescription drugs, long-term care premiums, acupuncture, ambulance, contact lenses, labs and X-rays. If participants withdraw funds for anything other than qualified medical expenses, the IRS imposes a 20% penalty. After participants reach age 65, however, the plan essentially works like a retirement account; money comes out taxed as ordinary income, but without penalty. However, this is voluntary. Senior citizens can continue to hold the funds and use them tax-free for qualified expenses.

HSAs can help save money in several ways:

As participants add funds to the account, their contributions reduce their annual taxable income.
The funds withdrawn to pay for qualified medical expenses remain untaxed.
Funds in an HSA account earn interest tax-free indefinitely.
The insurance plan tends to cost less, as high-deductible plans generally have lower premiums than traditional health plans do.

Know the numbers

Eligibility for HSAs has no income limits, but the HDHP has specified minimum limits for the annual deductible and maximum limits for out-of-pocket expenses. The following numbers are for 2023. There are usually annual adjustments.

Participants can contribute to an HSA up to $3,850 for self-only coverage and up to $7,750 for family coverage.
An employer may, but does not have to, make contributions to an HSA.
The minimum annual deductible is $1,500 self-only and $3,000 family.
The maximum out-of-pocket limit is $7,500 self-only and $15,000 family.
Those age 55 or older can contribute an additional $1,000 as a catch-up deduction. This is set by statue and generally does not change each year.
Participants can make a one-time transfer of IRA assets to fund an HSAs, although there are limits. Transfers aren’t taxable as IRA distributions and aren’t deductible.
Participants over age 65 can use HSAs to pay premiums for Medicare Parts A, B and D and Medicare HMO premiums. But participants who enroll in Medicare can no longer contribute to an HSA.

This is just a summary of how HSAs and HDHPs work together. Employees deciding whether they’re right for them should consider their own particular situation and options and the costs of their plan options.

Benefits by Design Insurance Services is a full-service health insurance and employee benefits broker, offering creative benefits coverage solutions for your business or family. We can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information We are in the San Francisco Bay Area and in San Diego and provide the expert advice for group and individual health insurance, Medicare, Medicare Part D, life, and travel insurance decisions.

Contact us for more information.

[email protected]
(415)-524-8959 Larkspur, CA office
(760) 696-3573 San Diego, CA office

Tag: #employeebenefitspecialist

The Myers-Briggs Test: How Can You Use It?

IRS Adjusts HSA Limits for 2023

Health Savings Account (HSA) Maximum Contributions 2023