The Fastest Way to Apply for Paternity Leave at Bank of America

If you work for Bank of America, you are eligible to apply for paternity leave. In fact, Bank of America has always given its employees the option of applying for paid parental leave. Earlier, they would allow employees to take 12 weeks of paid parental leave, but since 2016, they increased it to 16 weeks. You also have the option of taking another 10 weeks of unpaid parental leave.

Given that Bank of America has a number of options when it comes to paternity leave, it may be difficult to figure out which of these options you would like to take advantage of. And there isn't much information on their website about how exactly you should go about applying for parental leave, except that you need to do it via the Sedgwick portal.

This is where DoNotPay can step in. We will gather all your information and apply for paternity leave for you, freeing up your time so that you can focus on what really matters: the new addition to your family.

What should you know about Bank of America paternity leave?

When you're having a biological child or adopting a child, you can apply for paternity leave. There are a few things you need to keep in mind:

• Duration: As mentioned above, you can get a total of 26 weeks of parental leave—16 paid and 10 unpaid.
• Timing: You need to formally apply for leave within the first 15 days of your leave's starting date.
• Leave Installments: You don't have to take the entire 26 weeks at one go. You can break it up into two or three parts as long as each section of your leave is at least seven days long and the period in-between two sections is also seven days. So you could take three weeks of leave, then come back for a week, then take another seven weeks, then come back for two weeks and then take the remaining nine weeks of leave.
• Time Limit: All the days of your parental leave have to be taken within the first year after the baby's birth or the first year after you adopted the baby.

It would be possible for the mother to take as much paid leave as her employer allows to look after the baby and then return to work, leaving the father to look after the baby for an additional 26 weeks. The mother and father can also alternate the time they take off so that they both get maximum time to spend with the baby.

Check the state-by-state policies here:

What else do you need to do at Bank of America when you have a baby?

Once your baby arrives, you're going to want to give it the best possible healthcare, education etc. Bank of America recommends that you do the following things to ensure your child's wellbeing:

Health insurance

Add your child to your medical, dental and vision insurance benefits. Keep in mind that this has to be done within 31 days of your baby's birth or adoption or else you won't be able to do it until the next enrollment period. So it's best to take care of it right away. You can do so by speaking to the Human Resources department at Bank of America.

Change your beneficiaries

If you have life and accident insurance via Bank of America, you can add the baby to your list of beneficiaries, thus making sure that s/he will be taken care of in case anything happens to you.

Make changes to your tax forms

When you entered Bank of America as an employee, you must have filled out the W-4 form which informs Bank of America about how many dependents you have. When your baby is born/adopted, you need to go in and add an extra dependent. This means that BoA will take less taxes out of your paycheck every month.

What benefits does Bank of America offer when you're having a baby?

From financial planning to child care, Bank of America has a number of benefits that you can take advantage of:

1. Financial planning: BoA gives you the option to speak to a financial counselor to help you figure out how to plan for the baby's future. This will also give you the chance to start saving for the child's college education.
2. Medical and counseling services: BoA offers new parents various medical and counseling services that they can take advantage of. You can get 24/7 support from a registered nurse, six free face-to-face counseling sessions and unlimited phone counseling sessions, as well as telephone access to a doctor with a wait time as low as 10 minutes. You do have to be enrolled in a health insurance plan via BoA to get these benefits.
3. Family planning: BoA offers you the opportunity to be reimbursed for eligible adoption, fertility and surrogacy expenses to a maximum of $20,000 throughout the time you work at the bank.
4. Child care: When you decide to return to work after your parental leave, you may be in need of child care. BoA can potentially reimburse you for this.

How do you apply for paternity leave at Bank of America?

The first step is to decide how exactly you want your paternity leave to be broken up, if at all. You’ll want to discuss this with your spouse/partner and figure out what would best suit the two of you. Then decide whether you only need 16 weeks of paid leave or the 10 additional unpaid weeks as well. Once you have decided this, go to the Sedgwick portal and apply from there.

Applying for paternity leave at Bank of America with DoNotPay

As you may have figured, having a baby can get pretty confusing. Between applying for paternity leave, getting your child health insurance, saving up for the baby's future, changing your tax forms and actually physically taking care of the baby, you are likely to be exhausted. So why not simplify at least one part of the process by using DoNotPay?

If you want to request parental leave but don't know where to start, DoNotPay has you covered in 6 easy steps:

1. Tell us which state you work in (if you work in CA, NY, NJ, MA, WA, or DC, your state has a paid family leave program).

2. Choose whether you want us to apply to the program for you or contact your employer with your leave request. If you want to apply for the program, we will walk you through the questions on the form and mail the application form for you.

3. If you want us to contact your employer, enter your leave details, including the starting date, number of weeks of leave, and how many weeks of paid leave you are requesting (for example, you may take a 12 week leave, but only request 8 weeks of paid leave to make the request reasonable).

4. Indicate whether you are the birth parent or not (birth parents have a few additional protections).

5. Enter the name of your company and the person to address this request to.

6. Select whether you want us to email the request to your employer on your behalf.

What Else Can DoNotPay Do for You?

Once you've applied for your BoA paternity leave, you may want to help your spouse or a friend to figure out how they can get parental leave. Or if you have another child and you're no longer working at BoA, you can still use DoNotPay to apply for paternity leave.

• Learn how to apply for leave via FMLA (the Family and Medical Leave Act)
• Write an FMLA request letter
• Learn to fill out FMLA forms
• Apply for leave via FMLA in Florida
• File an FMLA claim

Having a baby is an important milestone in anyone's life. DoNotPay can help you take care of your child by guiding you through the parental leave application process. This will free up your time so that you can do what you really need to do—take care of your baby.