A great severance package goes far beyond cash. Negotiating extended healthcare (like COBRA), outplacement services, and accelerated equity vesting can often yield more financial value and peace of mind than fighting for an extra week of base pay.
Only 18% of packages initially include extended healthcare coverage by default, but it is successfully added in over 40% of counter-offers, making it the easiest non-cash benefit to win.
Can I Negotiate Healthcare?
Yes. In the US, companies are legally required to offer COBRA, allowing you to stay on their health plan, but the premium is typically entirely on you (and it’s expensive). It is highly common to ask your employer to cover your COBRA premiums for 3 to 6 months as part of your severance negotiation. In the UK, you can negotiate an extension of your private medical insurance (PMI).
What About RSUs and Options?
Equity is often the trickiest part of a redundancy package. When you are terminated, unvested RSUs usually disappear, and you often only have 90 days to exercise vested stock options.
- Ask for Accelerated Vesting: Request that the company vest any RSUs that would have vested during your notice period or severance period.
- Extended Exercise Window: Ask to extend the window to exercise your options from 90 days to 1 year.
| Benefit | How to Ask | Likelihood of Success |
|---|---|---|
| COBRA/Healthcare | ”I need continuity of care for my family for 3 months.” | High |
| Outplacement | ”To transition smoothly, I’d like 3 months of career coaching.” | Very High |
| Accelerated RSUs | ”I helped build X; I request vesting of my next cliff.” | Low-Medium |
| Laptop Keep | ”I’d like to retain my laptop to aid my job search.” | Medium |
What’s Easiest for Employers to Grant?
Employers prefer granting benefits that don’t hit their cash flow immediately. Outplacement services (career coaching) are often pre-paid by the enterprise, meaning it costs them nothing to add you to the program. Extending the exercise window for options is also generally low-friction compared to asking for a $10,000 increase in ex-gratia cash.
For a full step-by-step guide on how to present these requests, read How to Negotiate a Severance Package: Step by Step.
Check what others in your industry successfully negotiated using our Audit My Offer tool. Return to our main hub: Severance & Redundancy Pay: The Complete Guide.