- What is a salary-based benefit?
- What are my options for updating enrollments in salary-based benefits?
- Frequently asked questions
- A basic life product with an issued amount based on X times the employee’s salary
- A disability product in which an employee will receive a certain percentage of their salary in the event they become unable to work
If you're not sure which benefits that your company offers are based on salary, reach out to your Advisor.
What are my options for updating enrollments in salary-based benefits?
The "salary changes" preference under Settings > Preferences allows you to set up how you'd like the Maxwell system to handle enrollments in salary-based benefits once a salary is changed. You'll choose whether you'd like to have enrollments automatically updated to reflect the new coverage and costs.
- Immediately as of the date the new salary is entered
- Example: If the new salary is entered on 11/1, enrollments will update effective 11/1. If the new salary is entered on 11/2, enrollments will update effective 11/2.
- First of the month following the date the new salary is entered
- Example: If the new salary is entered on 11/1, enrollments will update effective 12/1. If the new salary is entered on 11/2, enrollments will update effective 12/1.
- First of the month coinciding with or following the date the new salary is entered
- Example: If the new salary is entered on 11/1, enrollments will update effective 11/1. If the new salary is entered on 11/2, enrollments will update effective 12/1.
Please pay special attention that the effective date is based off of "the date the new salary is entered" into the Maxwell system vs. the date the change/event occurred or any other date. For this reason, you should be mindful of the actual day you are entering the salary change into the system.
Here's an example of how this will work:
- Update an individual employee’s salary from their employee profile or multiple employees' salaries via Bulk Upload following the same process you would to update any employee information. (We recommend using the "Change of Compensation" change reason if updating individually.)
- Once the salaries are updated, head to the "Enrolled Products" tab. See that all of the salary-based benefits have been updated with new effective dates, coverage amounts, and (if applicable) costs that are based on the new salary.

- Update an individual employee’s salary from their employee profile or multiple employees' salaries via Bulk Upload following the same process you would to update any employee information. (We recommend using the "Change of Compensation" change reason if updating individually.)
- Once the salaries are updated, head to the employee’s "Eligible Products" tab. For each salary-based benefit:
- Click Edit/Process. (Note: at this point you may be asked to provide a change reason if you're not already in one. We recommend choosing "Change of Compensation").
- Change the "Shopping Status" to “Confirmed."
- Change the "Intent" to "Enroll."
- Change the "Effective Date" to the date that you want the new salary to be used to determine coverage amounts and costs for the benefit.
- Click Process Elections.
- You’re done! See the employee’s new effective date, coverage amount, and (if applicable) cost for the salary-based benefit under their "Enrolled Products" tab.
- Q: What other improvements to employee compensation management is Maxwell working on?
A: In early 2019, we plan to release the ability to set an effective date for the salary change. This will allow you to load in salary updates whenever is convenient for you, as well as run an open enrollment showing eligible coverage amounts and costs based on their future salaries when the plans are effective. We’re also working on a better way to display an employee’s salary history. Stay tuned! - Q: I need to upload salaries that were effective in the past, and I'd like employee enrollments in salary-based benefits to also be effective in the past. Which option should I take?
A: You should take option #2 and update the salary-based enrollments manually, entering the past effective date on each benefit. Please don't hesitate to contact the Maxwell Customer Support Team if you need any help. - Q: I want to update an employee's salary and enrollments, but they're not effective for some time in the future. Can I still enter them now?
A: Right now we do not support a "salary effective date" so that you can enter salaries but make sure they don't take effect until a certain date. We are working on that functionality now and plan to complete it in early 2019. However, you can always update the salary and either automatically or manually have the salary-based enrollments update at a future effective date. Please be aware that the automatic setting allows for "first of the month following" as the future date. If you'd like to use a different future date, please update the enrollments manually. -
Q: What if a salary increase causes employee coverage to increase above the guaranteed issue amount? Will that be a problem if my portal is set to automatically update salary-based enrollments?
A: For benefits that require evidence of insurability (EOI) to be approved for coverage over the guaranteed issue (GI) amount, a salary increase will not automatically increase coverage over the GI amount. Coverage will only automatically increase up to the GI amount, if applicable. Any amount of coverage over the GI amount will be reflected in the corresponding EOI eligible product as "confirmed" and will require carrier approval before it can be processed as approved coverage. -
Q: I updated the salary, but I did not see a change to the employee's salary-based enrollments. What's going on?
A: An updated enrollment will only be created if the salary change results in a change in the coverage amount or cost. For example, if an employee's coverage amount is already above the maximum coverage amount as allowed by the plan, they will not see a new enrollment when a salary is changed, since nothing has actually changed with the enrollment.