Are Brokers offering Voluntary Employee Group Benefits seeing an Increase in Employee participation?
Now that the ACA is mandatory do you believe employers will seek out an Voluntary Employee Group Benefit Plan from Brokers advantageous. Better suited for the employee to make that decision?
The funny thing is I'm moving toward Living Benefits term life insurance and with the cut in cost my local market is eating up the savings and flexibility included with these products.
I feel there is a huge opportunity on Voluntary employee benefit schemes on a Group platform. But high costs, acceptability and lack of product innovation are key characteristics of this business. It is better for employers to negotiate directly with the insurers.
Yes, There are more voluntary benefits offered in today's companies than ever before and the employees of today's companies are better suited to make that choice due to the availability of information on the world wide web. But it also depends on the voluntary benefit offered as to being advantageous. There are a whole new set of problems that benefits need to address to be of value.
As previously stated, the Affordable Care Act will, and has increased popularity in voluntary benefits. For example, GAP plans have become more popular to help offset deductibles and higher max out-of-pocket expenses.
As employers migrate to High Deductible health plans we have found a increase in their willingness to offer voluntary employee group and supplemental plans. It provides the employees with individualized coverage that fits their needs and fills the coverage gaps that are inherent in HD plans.
Yes Erick. Voluntary Benefits are a great way to give employees options when selecting their benefits and also provides employers with much needed savings!
Mark, a very big savings! but also better employee retention, less Stress, better PRODUCTIVITY!
Thank you.
Yes. Employers providing Voluntary Employee Group Benefits are
seeing an increase in participation and benefits for their employees.
This a good way to get value added benefits, tailored to specific employee needs.
according to MetLife’s 2013 Study of Employee Benefits Trends, 58 percent of employers say providing voluntary benefits is a significant benefits strategy up significantly in 2012 from 32 percent in 2010. Nearly half of employers who currently offer voluntary benefits say they are likely to increase the number of products they will offer in the next two years.
Based on the increase in medical premiums that I am encountering I don't see a lot of extra money available to buy any additional benefits.
Mark, point well taken, However! there is plenty of money on the table! Even with EXISTING CLIENTS! WHY then do I CONSISTENTLY get a 50 TO 100% Closing VEGB when OFFERED, MY WAY?
My feeling is LET ME make that Decision as an Employee of ANY company. That would be fair and it should NOT be up to the gatekeeper to make that call because they DON'T know what your needs are as a family. Agreed?
Wouldn't YOU want to at least have the opportunity to Present or are you going to BELIEVE there is NO MONEY and LAY DOWN and Roll over to NO!? Let me prove my point!
Mark, I see you haven't responded to my reply, any particular reason?
I see you don't agree.
I guess I look at it differently. I don't like the Aflac, colonial, critical illness policies. I like comprehensive major medical, real long term disability etc. The businesses I deal with have been getting such large increases it is jepoardizing the other coverages. I get voluntary plans and products, it just seems that for the businesses under 50 lives ACA is overpowering everything.
It has been my experience that voluntary benefits are increasing in popularity due to ObamaCare.
Small businesses or large? Each has a different set of circumstances. Giving employees the ability to buy certain benefits with preferred pricing will definitely be valuable, as long as the core health insurance issues are addressed in some way. Small and large businesses will each need to tackle this differently.
AJ DiLiberto, Thank you for your reply. My thought about posting this "Discussion" was to bring out the WHY every company should ALLOW their employees to have the OPTION to See the Presentation on an Voluntary Employee Group Benefit. Not let HR, Gatekeeper, or Benefits person make the decision for the Employee. Well said! Unless the "Gatekeeper" will allow the Presentation to happen, there in lies the challenge! How does HR, Benefits person or Gatekeeper know what each employees Family NEED? They can't possibly! just like you or any other person reading this, would you want someone else Speaking for you and they NOT know what your needs are? I think not!
RJ Sratton, You are correct! There are a lot of brokers leaving money on the table because they choose to believe people don't have the money, WRONG!