A finished FIN-355 Topic 6 total reward valuation example, revaluing two job offers' health, disability and retirement benefits at employee value and showing the verdict turn on her circumstances. Searches like "fin 355 topic 6 assignment example", "fin355 topic 6 sample" and "fin-355 topic 6 example" land here.
What a finished FIN-355 Topic 6 total reward valuation looks like
The finished valuation sets the two offers side by side with illustrative figures. Offer A pays 72,000, covers 14,400 of an 18,000 family health premium, matches retirement contributions up to 4 percent, 2,880, with a three-year cliff, and provides long-term disability cover. Offer B pays 78,000, covers 7,200 of a comparable premium and offers no match or disability cover. At employer cost, A leads by 4,580 once the disability policy's 500 is counted. At employee value the answer depends on her. If she needs family coverage and plans to stay, she gains 7,200 in premiums, 2,880 in match and disability cover an individual policy would price at 900, against 6,000 less salary, so A leads by 4,980. If a spouse's plan already covers the household, the premium gap is worth nothing to her, and B leads by 2,220.
How a FIN-355 Topic 6 example is structured
The valuation is organized around two measures of worth, one for the employer and one for the employee. It opens with both offers in full, salary and every benefit, each figure labeled illustrative. The employer-cost table follows, adding salary and benefit spending to produce the total reward statement each company would print. The employee-value section then revalues every line: health at the premium she would otherwise pay, the match at zero until it vests, and disability cover at what an individual policy would cost her. A tax paragraph confirms that both offers run employee premiums through pre-tax payroll deduction, so salary and premium differences are compared on one basis. Three scenarios follow: family coverage and staying, coverage through a spouse, and an exit before vesting. The last paragraph states which offer wins in each scenario and names the fact about her life that decides it.
Two measures of worth, not one
Every benefit carries an employer-cost figure and an employee-value figure, and the example never lets the first stand in for the second.
Employer cost favors the richer package
Counted as spending, Offer A leads by 4,580, the figure a total reward statement would print and the one the example declines to accept unexamined.
Health valued at the premium avoided
A family that needs coverage saves 7,200 a year in premiums under A, while an employee insured through a spouse saves nothing from the same contribution.
An unvested match valued at zero
The 2,880 match is worth its full amount only after the three-year cliff, so an employee likely to leave in year two gives it no value.
Disability cover priced as a purchase
Replacing the group disability cover with an individual policy would cost her about 900 a year, more than the 500 the employer spends on it.
A verdict that names the deciding fact
Offer A wins by 4,980 when she needs family coverage and stays, and loses by 2,220 when a spouse's plan already covers the household.
Where marks go in FIN-355 Topic 6
Valuing benefits at employer cost and calling the result total reward loses the most here, because it states the package from the side that spends the money and assumes the employee values every dollar equally. Papers that compare salaries alone treat the 6,000 difference as decisive when the health premium gap by itself outweighs it. A match counted in full regardless of vesting overstates an offer to anyone likely to leave early. Health coverage valued identically for every employee ignores that a second family policy is worth little to someone already covered through a spouse. A comparison with no line for disability insurance omits the benefit whose absence would hurt most. Mixing pre-tax and after-tax figures without saying which is which makes the arithmetic impossible to check, and a single verdict with no scenarios hides the fact that decides it.
Get a FIN-355 Topic 6 example written to your instructions
Send the FIN-355 Topic 6 instructions and the rubric from your classroom, with the offers, benefit summaries or case your section provides. We write a custom example to them, with every benefit valued at employer cost and at employee value, vesting applied to the match, scenarios run and the deciding fact named, in 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free.
FIN-355 Topic 6 questions, answered
Why not value benefits at what the employer pays?
Because employer cost measures spending, not worth to the person receiving it. A health contribution is valuable to an employee who needs the coverage and worth little to one already insured through a spouse, though it costs the employer the same in both cases. Coverage that is expensive to buy individually, such as disability insurance, can be worth more than its group cost. The example values each line from the employee's side.
How does vesting change the value of a match?
A match belongs to the employee only once it vests. Under a three-year cliff, someone leaving after two years forfeits the entire match, so for that person it is worth nothing, while someone staying five years keeps all of it. Graded schedules release part of the match each year instead. The example asks how long the employee expects to stay before counting any match as pay.
Can I use this to compare my own job offers?
Not directly. Both offers and the employee are composites with illustrative figures, and real benefit plans carry deductibles, networks, waiting periods and tax details the example simplifies. Your comparison depends on your household, your health needs and the actual plan documents. The example demonstrates the employee-value reasoning FIN-355 grades and is not advice about any particular offer.