John Surguy - Mid Atlantic Resource Group

05/06/2026

Is an Employee Wellness Program a good idea for your organization?

From the perspective of a management consultant focused on architecting integrated benefit programs, the answer really depends on factors such as an entity's goals, values, culture, activities, location, business strategy, operating environment, the other benefits offered, how the program is designed and implemented, and of course the team of people using the benefit.

Generally, now is a great time to consider offering or upgrading an Employee Wellness Program. According to a 2025 study conducted by the American Psychological Association, 70% of the adult population has been told by a medical professional they are living with a chronic disease and that number is 80% for the subset that feels isolated due to remote work and other factors. 69% report significant stress due to concerns over work, 66% over money, 49 % over physical health, and 47% over mental health. Effective Employee Wellness Programs generally address these primary stressors, focussing on Financial, Physical, and Mental Wellness. They can involve other aspects of wellness as well and work best when integrated within an overall benefits strategy.

People tend to feel overwhelmed, and a Wellness Program can have many positive outcomes. One broad study clearly linking holistic employee wellness to organizational goals was a collaboration between Harvard, Oxford, and Indeed in 2023. It demonstrated a strong correlation between well-being and financial results and noted 97% of candidates search well-being data when searching for a job, 81% of employees with high-well-being scores planned to stay another year (compared to 50% with low scores), and employees with high well-being achieved work goals 1.5 X more compared to those with low well-being. More recently, a 2025 McKinsey Health Institute study concurred and concluded that investing in employee health could produce almost $12 Trillion in global economic value.

While implementing Employee Wellness Programs can have extremely significant benefits, there are many details to be considered for these to materialize. The number of organizations offering these programs is growing rapidly. However, many employers are hesitating due inconsistency in results reported by peers having adopted them.

A good way to address concerns and put all the pieces together is to have a discussion with a third-party consultant that specifically helps design and implement bespoke integrated benefit solutions.

04/29/2026

Involved in running a business? Have you tried reimagining your employee benefit program?

The thought of this can seem daunting. But isn't the cost of ignoring evolution much worse? An organization's people, culture, operating environment, business strategy, available benefit options, and the factors that drive success are always changing. Wouldn't you like for your organization to be in the best possible position to take advantage of these changes?

We provide a training program for employers to help accomplish this entitled "Reimagining Employee Benefits". It covers:
- Contemporary research linking the ways we treat employees to the outcomes observed.
- How employees really feel compared with how employers are trying to make them feel.
- The impact of generational differences among your workforce.
- What has changed in the benefit industry, what still really needs to change, and how to navigate the current environment successfully.
- The differences between using bottom-up and top down-thinking when considering changes to your benefit program and why it's important to do both.
- How to evolve from a "check-the-box" approach to a "key-strategic-investment" framework.
- What happens to engagement when you find better balance between the "squeaky wheel" and long-term employee wellness using 360-degree and seasons-of-life approaches.
- How better representing ROI and other related metrics support the move to a successful strategic approach for benefit programs.
- The role of employee engagement and using creativity in how you approach benefit-related communication.

I would be happy to provide more information regarding this program. Participants who are CPAs can also receive CE credits.

04/10/2026

Planning for care expenses as we age . . .

This article points out some basic information about care expenses that result from aging. As a population most of us have begun to experience this need as life expectancies grow and the prevalence of chronic disease has become significant.

Covering Long-Term Care expenses should be part of everyones financial planning. It is important to use a financial planner that considers all of the aspects of this:

- Costs vary a lot depending upon location.

- There are many solutions available. Insurance is just one.

- While this should be part of your plan at any age, it's best to have an accommodation for this by age 50. There are ways to handle it beyond that age. However, like any other future financial expense, it's best if you have time on your side.

- Solutions vary greatly in cost and effectiveness (which do not necessarily correlate). Make sure you shop around or are using a financial planner that can do that for you. If you have any questions about this aspect of financial planning please reach out to me.

The cost and availability of insurance depend on factors such as age, health, and the type and amount of insurance purchased. Any guarantees are subject to the claims‑paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Before implementing a strategy involving life insurance, it would be prudent to make sure that you are insurable by having the policy approved. As with most financial decisions, there are expenses associated with the purchase of insurance. Policies commonly have mortality and expense charges. In addition, if a policy is surrendered prematurely, there may be surrender charges and income tax implications.

Don't let this huge expense catch you off guard.

04/01/2026

Announcing the Special Needs & Beyond Community Advocate Program!

As Special Needs & Beyond Financial Planners we deeply enjoy helping families protect their loved ones with disabilities. We also spend a lot of time educating NJ families and organizations about the steps required and how to avoid problems early on.

We frequently get phone calls from families who have inadvertently become disqualified from public benefits or who think they've taken all the right steps just to find the only thing accomplished was lost time and money. These problems do not always have attractive remedies. The value of public benefits can be in the millions of dollars so it is important to protect those and properly plan for all of the contingencies that may impact your family, not just the financial ones.

To provide additional support to the Special Needs Community, we are introducing a community advocate program which will be open to volunteers in each community who will receive annual training from the Special Needs and Beyond team. Our goal is for each community to have someone trusted, knowledgeable, and easy to access that can help identify and prevent issues that usually relate to a very basic understanding of how these problems are created to begin with. If you are affiliated with a school or community group that works with Special Needs families and would like to become an advocate for your community please message me or call me at 908-591-4007.

03/13/2026

Stressed? . . .
. . Consider tackling money stress!

Work and money are at the top of the chronic stressors list. Since most people go to work to earn a living the two are naturally correlated,

Money stress is extremely harmful to mental and physical health resulting in a significant decrease in function. According to the BrightPlan 2024 Wellness Barometer Survey, financial stress impacts 81% of employees and results in 7.3 hours per week in lost productivity. Ttat's 18.25% less productivity for a 40 hour work week!

As a Wellness-Based Financial Planner and Benefit Strategy Management Consultant, these are some of the things I bring into focus to address the root causes of money stress:

- Thinking about money as a stress reducer rather than a cause of stress.

- Replacing money with more meaningful measures for accomplishment and self-worth.

- Embracing money stress as a fundamental part o being happy.

- Replacing behaviors that increase money stress with those that reduce it.

- Understanding the psychology behind money stress and how to use it to your advantage.

- Leveraging professional development and learning to reduce money stress.

- Leaning on employee benefits to reduce money stress..

- Turning fear into confidence with respect to financial matters.
. . Wether you're an individual wanting to tackle money stress or an employer who would like to properly structure a financial wellness benefit, there are many science-based approaches to reduce money stress!

Who's on board?

03/04/2026

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? . . . No!

It's a Program Manager for the Employee Benefit Management Consulting Service on his way to fix some benefit plans!

This service stays up to date with employee benefit science and trends and assumes a top-down strategic approach to optimizing all aspects of employee benefit plans. This allows for a broader perspective where consideration is given to all benefit structures, services, and providers. It is designed to eliminate conflicts of interest and provides fee transparency through a specific contractual agreement with a fixed fee. Referral fees, commissions, and asset-based fees are not accepted. The service is meant to augment existing plan provider services by answering questions like:

- What do my employees really want?
- How do my benefits impact my organizations culture?
- What is happening in my organization that is inhibiting performance?
- How can current research and science inform benefit decision making?
- How can I allocate benefit funding to maximize ROI?
- How do I improve the benefits I already have in place?
- What are the benefits that can make a big difference that I haven't considered and can they be implemented without substantially increasing costs?
- How can I improve the benchmarking of my benefit program?
- What are some new ways to communicate with my employees about benefits that will make a difference?
- How do I implement procurement cycles for my benefits to manage costs, maximize employee performance, and reduce liability and what does a robust procurement process look like?
- And many more!

The most important thing to realize is that the benefit industry has changed dramatically in recent years with many new options to consider. While bottom-up providers such as brokers and advisors will continue to be part of the solution, a top-down strategic consultant can make a big difference in the success of your program. For more information please reach out to me: (908) 591-4007.

02/25/2026

Getting out Monday morning was tough, even for Luke Skywalker!

Since we're getting to the end of February, it reminded me of the goals we set and what can happen as the year progresses.

Even though we tell ourselves to be resilient and push through, we sometimes quit. What can we do to avoid this? . . . What if we reframe this problem and try to better understand why people quit? There's a long list of reasons. Here's my attempt at a short-list:

1. Focusing on actions without context - Even a goal of going to the gym a couple of times a week is not sustainable unless you have clarity around why you want to do that. If you take enough time to reflect on a regular basis, and decide it's important to be healthy to enjoy time with future grandkids for example, actions are tied to the things that are important to you and goals become easier to achieve.

2. Time Horizon - Our time horizons are way too short! Those that bring new ideas to market understand that goals take time to achieve. Progress can be slow and may be up and down before observing even a glimmer of success. Patience is just as important as hard work.

3. Learning - Achieving goals requires learning new things and that can be difficult. Realizing this and focusing on curiosity can help manage frustration.

4. Disruption - Achieving new goals is not particularly convenient. You may decide that you want to help achieve a goal through volunteering for a new project at work. This may result in having to show up earlier or do some extra work on weekends over an extended period of time.

5. Fear of judgment - It can be difficult to put your ego aside and not focus too much on the acknowledgment of others when trying to achieve goals. Far fewer people than you think will judge you as they are focused on what they themselves are doing. If by chance you encounter a critic, refocus on why you want to achieve your goal and the steps to get there.

5. Bad Environment - Just like plants, we as humans will not thrive if we are not in the right environment. When wanting to achieve new goals it's important to find or create the best environment for you.

6. Not asking for help - No one was self-made. Everyone had help. This can come from clients, providers, family members, coaches, colleagues, mentors, and friends. If you do nothing else, you will find that with the right support, it will be difficult to quit!

01/13/2026

The new focus on TRT is welcome. I hope sufficient attention is paid to other hormones as well. Over 50 exist naturally in the body. As a provider of wellness-based financial planning and management consulting on employee benefit plans where employee wellness is paramount, this is a topic of great interest to me. A few things cross my mind:

1) Some hormones are used as building blocks for others and when introducing hormones externally, other hormone levels can be disrupted. It seems we should pay attention to the optimal balance of hormones rather than the level of just one or two.

2) By some accounts 1 out of 7 people are using GLP-1. While extremely effective to achieve weight-loss some are reporting greater losses in muscle mass than fat. Maintaining muscle mass is extremely important for preserving health as we age. Also, muscle burns more calories at rest than fat meaning that in the longer term you may not be able to eat as many calories if your Basal Metabolic Rate is diminished and your level of activity doesn't increase. Finally, I suspect that some are relying on GLP-1 without making changes to WHAT they eat. A non-optimal diet that is unchanged will continue have a negative impact on health.

3) Most health insurance does not cover HRT and it will be interesting how that evolves. According to the 2025 Kaiser Family Foundation Benefits Survey, one in five large employers offer GLP-1 for weight-loss.

4) Many wellness providers are now aggressively marketing HRT. I'm a big believer in leveraging the best knowledge, especially for health. But, I can't help wondering if some of these therapies will need to be put into the "Too good to be true" bucket for now.

5) For those that are apprehensive and don't want to incur the cost of HRT, there are many other pathways to improving health. Testosterone production for example, can be improved by resistance training. getting more quality sleep, managing stress, maintaining a healthy weight, eating the right diet, and eliminating excessive alcohol intake.

What does everyone else think about this?

New U.S. dietary guidelines for the first time include advice for men on maintaining healthy testosterone levels.

12/29/2025

What will Wellness mean to you in 2026?

By John Surguy

We generally refer to Health & Wellness as if it were one thing. But what is Wellness, anyway? Is it the same as Health? Is it a state or something else . . . a process perhaps?

Wellness can be misunderstood and differing characterizations do not help. For example:

Dictionaries sometimes describe it as "the state of being in good health".

The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a Miami non-profit that empowers wellness worldwide defines it as "the active pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health". It's more of a cross-functional process.

I favor the latter definition and here's one reason why:

We're often taught that health is largely hereditary. That were just lucky or unlucky. For many, this has served as a convenient excuse to avoid more actively pursuing healthy lifestyles. But what if in the midst of the current US healthcare crisis, where two thirds of adults have been told by a medical professional they have a chronic disease, this is is simply not true? What if we can take steps to greatly improve our quality of life, particularly as we age so that we can enjoy life more and be there for our loved ones rather than accept they will have to spend their time and money taking care of us?

As it turns out, genetics only account for around 20% of what happens to us. Recent research informs that decisions, activities, and habits explain the remaining 80% (see National Institute of Health and other sources for discussion). Epigenetics, the study of the altering of gene expression informs that in most cases DNA can be turned on or off depending on the lifestyle choices we make.

One great aspect of the period we're living in is that we have far more knowledge than our ancestors did. It's important that we continue to leverage this and think about Wellness in a manner that is informed, proactive, and cross-functional. As a someones who provides wellness based-financial planning to families, and management consulting on employee benefit programs to businesses, I look forward to continuing to help you insure your financial and business decisions help support the overall Wellness of your community this year!

So what will Wellness be to you in 2026? Will it be a state or a process?

Happy New Year!

12/23/2025

When income rises, it’s tempting to upgrade your lifestyle. But that can derail long-term goals. Instead, make it a habit to increase savings first whenever you get a raise or bonus. This simple shift helps your wealth grow as fast as your income, keeping you on track for bigger goals.

Want to create a plan that grows with you? Let’s connect.