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Estes | Health insurance questions

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ov1127

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Im looking into the phoenix location and was trying to figure out how the health insurance coverage was. I have seen some threads from a few years ago but nothing recent. Can someone tell me which insurance is used, a ballpark range for weekly cost and deductibles for myself, wife and kids? Thanks
 
ov1127 said:
Im looking into the phoenix location and was trying to figure out how the health insurance coverage was. I have seen some threads from a few years ago but nothing recent. Can someone tell me which insurance is used, a ballpark range for weekly cost and deductibles for myself, wife and kids? Thanks
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I have HSA option (health savings account) that is 50$ for whole family a week. Deductible is higher,company puts 30$ a week into account,and I another 60$. Money is tax free,as long as you used it for medical( braces,glasses,prescriptions,copay.....),and you can roll it for next year.My family is healthy so works great for us.
 
Ok thanks. I have 2 kids that are special needs so I have to find out about insurance before i ever take an offer. I was let go last year from sysco due to covid and found a place that pays good but insurance tkes a huge chunk of my check weekly. Unfortunately it's getting hard to find a place that can offer good pay and atleast halfway decent insurance or vice versa.
 
The middle plan is very good. You can’t insure your wife here if she’s able to get insurance through her employer. I’ll send you a DM with the plan summaries.
 
drummerforhire said:
The middle plan is very good. You can’t insure your wife here if she’s able to get insurance through her employer. I’ll send you a DM with the plan summaries.
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Ok thanks. My wife is a stay at home anyway because of all the running around to appts and therapies for the kids so that won't be an issue.
 
I like the HSA choice, but I'm single. It's free and I rarely make a doctors visit, other than the free annual physical. The HSA is a great choice as another IRA account, in fact even better than an IRA, since all contributions up to the maximum amount are before ALL taxes. Plus, Estes matches your first $1000, dollar for dollar. If doing the HSA contributions, you would be wise to never touch it for medical expenses. Pay out of pocket and keep detailed records for all medical/dental expenses out of pocket. At any time, you can take that money out for expenses, tax free, no matter how far back in time you go, providing it was while you had the HSA and you can provide detailed records, otherwise it would be just like an IRA. Let that money grow tax free, no RMD (required minimum distribution), like pretax 401k or IRA at 72 years old. It should be the last money you ever touch except a Roth.

By the way, op, I'm transferring out to Phoenix this September. Hope you get the job!
 
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elviscaprice said:
I like the HSA choice, but I'm single. It's free and I rarely make a doctors visit, other than the free annual physical. The HSA is a great choice as another IRA account, in fact even better than an IRA, since all contributions up to the maximum amount are before ALL taxes. Plus, Estes matches your first $1000, dollar for dollar. If doing the HSA contributions, you would be wise to never touch it for medical expenses. Pay out of pocket and keep detailed records for all medical/dental expenses out of pocket. At any time, you can take that money out for expenses, tax free, no matter how far back in time you go, providing it was while you had the HSA and you can provide detailed records, otherwise it would be just like an IRA. Let that money grow tax free, no RMD (required minimum distribution), like pretax 401k or IRA at 72 years old. It should be the last money you ever touch except a Roth.

By the way, op, I'm transferring out to Phoenix this September. Hope you get the job!
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Man I wish we had a Roth option for our 401k
 
drummerforhire said:
Man I wish we had a Roth option for our 401k
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Better off to max out pretax over Roth (after tax), because of our higher tax bracket. I've inquired with coporate about after tax (non Roth) contributions to our 401k, which would max out at $64,500 (minus company contributions over 50). My understanding, through Vanguard, soon to be Fidelity, is that they are allowed. Can anyone here confirm this???? (note, not all company 401k's allow this) This is a neat way to backdoor your way into Roth contribution through your 401k. When you retire or stop employment with Estes, you can then rollover all after tax contributions to your Roth account (not the gains) tax free. If you retire early, slowly rollover 50-60k at a time of your pretax contributions/gains into the Roth per year, so as to keep your Federal tax rate in a lower bracket. Of course keep some in the pretax account for RMD's after 72, just not too much so as to incur SS taxes.
 
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Think I have the middle plan! I don’t change anything each year. It’s pretty good I reckon! Tax deductible! Think my kids are the only ones that uses it as I’ma healthy mofo
 
drummerforhire said:
I think Elvis got confused on terminologies. Estes doesn’t offer a Roth option on our 401k plan. Only pretax. I would much prefer a Roth 401k since an IRA has such a low limit.
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No, I was referring to the additional contribution space beyond the initial pretax or Roth contribution limits of 26,000 (50 or older). That is where company contributions and if allowed, by company plan, after tax employee contributions (non Roth) can not exceed $64,500 (50 or older). Roth contributions instead of pretax in the initial $26,000 depends on what tax bracket you will fall under currently and the future. For myself, best to do pretax since I'm in such a high income bracket currently, as opposed to the future when I can control rolling over my pretax 401k to a Roth in a much lower tax bracket over time. By the way, Estes doesn't allow Roth contributions either, as drummerforhire correctly points out. Your only current option is pretax.
Sure would be nice though to max out contributions to the $64,500 limit. After the initial $26,000, pretax, you could then do after tax (non Roth) to about $60,000 give or tax a $1,000, depending on the company match of 3.5%. This is what I will be lobbying the company to allow in the 401k plan which is entirely legal.
Then once you retire or quit. You could then roll those after tax contributions (not the gains) tax free, into a Roth IRA.
 
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elviscaprice said:
Then once you retire or quit. You could then roll those after tax contributions (not the gains) tax free, into a Roth IRA.
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You can roll them into a rollover Roth while you’re still working too. Especially if the funds within the Estes plan aren’t so hot and you have better options in mind.
And you can rollover the gains in a traditional IRA with your favorite funds instead of staying in the Estes funds.
 

Big Dave said:
You can roll them into a rollover Roth while you’re still working too. Especially if the funds within the Estes plan aren’t so hot and you have better options in mind.
And you can rollover the gains in a traditional IRA with your favorite funds instead of staying in the Estes funds.
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Thanks Big Dave, unfortunately you have to be 59 1/2 years of age to rollover to an IRA. I'm not quite there yet.
 
drummerforhire said:
I think Elvis got confused on terminologies. Estes doesn’t offer a Roth option on our 401k plan. Only pretax. I would much prefer a Roth 401k since an IRA has such a low limit.
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+, I tguessing in a Roth the company loses a lot of control in what they can do with those funds. von.
 
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