Group Benefits Plans
A group benefits plan is one of the most powerful — and most frequently mishandled — line items in an SMB's budget. Done well, it's the single best retention tool a small or mid-sized business owns. Done poorly, it's an unpredictable expense that climbs 15-25% every renewal with no real explanation.
Because we're independent, we shop your renewal across every major Canadian carrier — Canada Life, Manulife, Sun Life, Equitable, Empire Life, Beneva, GreenShield, RWAM and the regional carriers — and build the contract that fits your team, your industry and your budget, not the carrier with the best referral relationship.
What goes into a Thompson & Pollock group benefits plan
Prescription drugs, paramedical (massage, physio, chiro, mental health), vision, medical supplies and out-of-province coverage — designed around what your team actually uses.
Basic, major and orthodontic coverage with the flexibility to tier by employee class — predictable cost, real value to staff.
Baseline employer-paid life insurance and accidental death & dismemberment, with optional employee-paid top-up.
True income replacement when an employee can't work — coordinated with EI sick benefits and CPP-D so the math actually works at claim time.
Lump-sum benefit on covered diagnoses — increasingly the most-valued benefit by mid-career employees with families.
A flexible, tax-effective top-up to the core plan: employees spend the way they want, employers get a fixed, predictable cost.
Confidential mental health, counselling and life-event support — proven to reduce disability claims and absenteeism.
On-demand telemedicine — particularly valuable for remote workers, shift-based trades teams and offices outside major centres.
How we keep your renewal under control
- Annual full-market re-marketing — we benchmark your plan against the rest of the Canadian market every year, not just when renewal hurts
- Plan-design optimization — tiered coverage by employee class so you spend where it matters most
- Claims analytics — we look at where the dollars are actually going and adjust the design before the renewal hits
- HSA layering — convert unpredictable cost into a fixed-dollar employer contribution employees love
- Disability claims advocacy — we sit between your employee and the carrier so claims get paid and your experience rating stays clean
- Communication materials and onboarding for new hires — so the benefit you're paying for is actually understood and used
Who we build group benefits plans for
Trades and construction companies, professional corporations, manufacturing and warehousing operations, retail and hospitality groups, technology firms, healthcare practices, and family-owned businesses from 3 to 300 lives — across Ontario and New Brunswick.
Group benefits work best alongside a group retirement plan and the right corporate-side insurance — see our full business services for buy/sell agreement funding, key person insurance and corporately owned critical illness.
Get a no-obligation group benefits review
Send us your current renewal and we'll benchmark it against the full Canadian market — at no cost and no obligation.