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Setting up group insurance without having to dig into tax rules.

You tell us by chat what you want to offer, we arrange the rest.

What is group insurance?

A supplementary pension you build up as an employer for your staff, usually with death cover and sometimes disability cover alongside it. The premium goes from the company to the insurer, and your employee receives the capital at retirement.

For a small employer it comes down mainly to this: a way to give people something extra without raising gross salary. In tax terms and on social security contributions that works out more favourably, for you and for your employee.*

Why it still gets left undone is well known. You have to choose between plan types, set a contribution percentage, decide whether everyone or only certain roles are included, and on top of that comes a set of rules about tax limits and about what you may and may not differentiate legally between groups of employees.

That is exactly the part we do not expect you to work out yourself.

What we work out in that conversation

You tell us what you want to offer and for whom: how many people, which roles, roughly what you want to spend on it and whether you are doing it for everyone or for part of your team.

We then set up the plan: the type, the contribution, the cover alongside it and the tax limits it has to stay within. You do not have to look any of that up.

Because we are a broker and not an insurer, we have no plan of our own to sell. We go to the market and explain where the differences lie. In group insurance those differences are mostly in the charges taken off the premium, in the return the insurer guarantees and in what happens when someone leaves your company.

If a plan is already running, we look at what it actually delivers for your people and whether it can be done better elsewhere.

Group insurance runs for years, so everything stays in the same conversation. If someone joins, if someone leaves or if your plan changes, you pick up the thread where you left it.

How to start

  1. You send a message through the chat on this page.

  2. You answer a few targeted questions about your team. No long questionnaire.

  3. You get a tailored proposal usually within two working days, explaining what the plan builds up, what it costs you and what is not in it.

  4. If you agree, you confirm the proposal.

What a conversation with Ōmata looks like

You do not need to know which policy you are looking for, and there is no form to fill in.

Start your request

Viktor is online

You are talking to an AI assistant. You can ask for a human colleague to take over at any time.

  • CustomerOur best technician is asking for a raise. A fellow business owner told me group insurance is smarter.
  • ŌmataThat can be true, but it depends on his salary and on what he needs right now. How many people do you employ, and is this for one person or the whole team?
  • CustomerEight people. It would be tidier for the whole team.
  • ŌmataSensible — a plan for one person invites discussion. Are you thinking of a fixed amount per person, or a percentage of salary?
  • CustomerNot sure yet, I mainly want to know the cost compared with a plain pay rise.
  • ŌmataNoted. I will pass this on to our expert, with a calculation for eight people and that comparison. You will hear from us usually within two working days.

Try it yourself

Who this is for

This is not a policy you take because you must. You take it to keep people, or because you are in a sector where everyone already has one.

  • Anyone employing scarce talent

    In IT, engineering and care a group plan is no longer a perk but an expectation at the interview.

  • Growing SMEs

    From about five people the pay package becomes an instrument rather than an amount.

  • Anyone under sector agreements

    Some sectors already have a compulsory supplementary plan; an employer’s own plan often comes on top.

  • Companies with senior staff

    For higher salaries the tax and social treatment of pay weighs heaviest.

  • Anyone preparing a sale

    A well-built plan is an argument in a sale file; a badly built one is a liability.

Who this is not for

  • Anyone working alone. Without staff there is no group. As a self-employed person you build a pension through other arrangements — that is on a different page.
  • Anyone working only with students and short contracts. A plan with many joiners and leavers costs more in administration than it delivers.
  • Anyone who wants to sell it as a pay rise. Your staff see the money much later. Anyone who needs spending power today is not helped by it, however efficient it is.
  • Anyone unable to commit for several years. Starting a plan and stopping after two years gives paperwork and unhappy people. Do it if you can keep it up.

What group insurance covers

Group insurance is at heart a savings plan with insurance around it. It builds capital for your employees’ pension, and it can be supplemented with death cover, a premium waiver during long-term illness and collective hospital cover. What you pay in is a business expense for the company, within the limits the tax rules set.

  • Building pension capital The main purpose: an amount paid out at retirement, on top of the state pension.
  • Death cover A capital sum for dependants if an employee dies before retirement age.

    Often the building block that makes the greatest impression at the smallest cost.

  • Premium waiver on disability If someone is off long term, the plan keeps running without contributions.

    Without it the build-up stops at the worst possible moment.

  • Collective hospital cover Hospital cover for the whole group, usually cheaper and without a medical questionnaire per person.
  • A statutory minimum return A statutory minimum return applies to the contributions.

    If the actual return falls below it, the employer makes up the difference.*

  • Administration and communication Annual statements for each member, and the declaration to the pension database.
  • A business expense for the company Contributions are deductible for the company within the limits the tax rules set.

    What that means in your case belongs in your proposal.

What group insurance does not cover

Not covered are the state pension itself and anything outside the enrolled group. Nor is the risk that the tax rules change, or the expectation that an employee can use the money today.

  • The state pension This comes on top and replaces nothing.

    It is the second pillar, alongside the first.

  • Anyone not in the plan rules A plan applies to the categories you define in it.

    Forgetting to include someone is a discussion that surfaces years later.

  • Immediate spending power The money is released at retirement.

    For anyone getting by today, this is not a solution.

  • Certainty about the tax treatment The tax treatment of the second pillar moves with the legislation.

    What applies today is not a promise for twenty years out.

  • The self-employed director You are not in it as a self-employed person.

    Other arrangements exist for you.

Just ask

The 80 per cent rule, in plain words

There is a ceiling on what can be built up tax-efficiently. In practice it is called the 80 per cent rule: the total of your state pension and all supplementary pensions together may not exceed a certain share of your last normal annual salary.

What that means in figures depends on your salary, your career, your retirement age and on what has already been built up elsewhere. There is no general amount, and any figure a website gives you is a guess about your situation.

Defined contribution or defined benefit: who carries the risk

In a defined contribution plan you fix what you pay in. What that yields at the end depends on the return. In a defined benefit plan you fix what has to be there at the end, and you make up any shortfall.

The difference is therefore about who carries the risk. For most SMEs a defined contribution plan is the sensible choice: you know what it costs each year and you can budget it.

What determines the price

A figure without your details is a guess. What determines the cost, we can list.

  • Number of members

    And the categories you divide the plan into.

  • Contribution per person

    A fixed amount or a percentage of salary.

  • Building blocks

    Death cover, premium waiver and hospital cover, or not.

  • Age profile

    A young team builds up longer and costs less on death cover.

  • Charges

    What the insurer charges on contributions and on management.

  • Return profile

    Guaranteed, unit-linked or a mix, each with its own risk.

Frequently asked questions

Is this better value than a pay rise?

Often yes, but not always, and it depends on the situation.* A euro of gross salary and a euro into a pension plan do not come to the same thing, and the gap widens the higher the salary. Against that, your employee only sees the money at retirement. Have it calculated for your case rather than taking it as a rule of thumb.

How much can I contribute tax-efficiently?

There is an upper limit, in practice called the 80 per cent rule: the total of the state pension and all supplementary pensions may not exceed a certain share of the last normal annual salary. What that means in figures depends on salary, career and retirement age, and is calculated when the plan is set up.

Defined contribution or defined benefit?

Under defined contribution you fix what you pay in and the outcome depends on the return. Under defined benefit you fix the outcome and make up any shortfall. For most SMEs the first is the sensible choice: predictable and budgetable.

Do I have to do this for all my staff?

You may create categories, but they have to be objectively justifiable — by role or seniority, not by person. A plan for a single employee sooner or later causes arguments. Have the categories drawn up with you; it is the part most often disputed afterwards.

What happens when someone leaves?

The reserve built up stays with the employee. They can leave it with your insurer, transfer it to their new employer’s plan or move it elsewhere. What you paid in does not come back — that is the nature of a supplementary pension.

What if the return disappoints?

A statutory minimum return applies to the contributions. If the actual return falls below it, the employer makes up the difference. That is not theoretical: in the low-rate years it was a real cost, and it is why the choice of the underlying fund counts.

Who is behind Ōmata?

Ōmata Insurance is the AI-first studio of the Induver group and a sister company of Group Induver NV: two companies within the same group, not parent and subsidiary. Ōmata puts you in touch with Group Induver NV, an insurance broker holding FSMA number 016880; that is where the advice and the policy come about. The full identification is set out in the legal notices.

About Ōmata

Ōmata is the AI-first insurance studio of Group Induver. You tell us what you want to insure over chat; usually within two working days you receive a proposal, drawn up by an insurance broker at Group Induver NV, registered with the FSMA under number 016880.

Read on

Ready to start?

Send us a message and tell us briefly what you want to insure. You get an immediate reply and your proposal usually within two working days.

Notes on the asterisks on this page
  • The statutory minimum guaranteed returns themselves are not named here; the current percentages and how the top-up is calculated are confirmed by Group Induver for each plan.
  • Whether group insurance is more advantageous than a plain pay rise depends on the individual salary and file; this comparison is not used as a general rule, but calculated case by case.