Why 'insurance for living' can't wait

A 29-year-old marketing manager recently left her job after two years. When the HR team explained that her group life insurance policy wouldn't be transferred over to her new employer, she asked a question that should make the industry uncomfortable: "So what was the point?"

Brokers and advisers know she's asking the right question. Our World Life Insurance Report 2026 reveals a troubling reality: a fundamental mismatch exists between what younger employees expect from group life insurance and what the industry actually provides.

The numbers tell a stark story. While 44% of under-40 employees want coverage that follows them when they change jobs, only 19% of insurers offer portable solutions. Nearly six in 10 want direct interaction with their insurers to understand and manage their benefits, yet only 31% of carriers have built the platforms to enable this. And over half expect benefits portals with financial guidance and automated updates, but just one in five insurers deliver them.

These gaps signal more than customer dissatisfaction. They warn that the traditional group life insurance model is colliding with a fundamentally different employment landscape. Millennials and Gen Z employees average just two years and three months with the same employer compared to more than eight years for baby boomers. When the average employee changes jobs a dozen or more times before retirement, asking them to rebuild their financial protection every 27 months isn't just frustrating, it's a design flaw.

But the portability problem represents only part of a larger transformation. Younger employees are challenging a core assumption the industry has held for decades: that life insurance's value lies primarily in the death benefit.

Our research found that 68% of under 40 recognize life insurance as essential for long-term financial security. Awareness exists. But traditional policies don't align with how they're actually living their lives, which explains why adoption remains disappointingly low. They are not rejecting protection. They are rejecting products that feel irrelevant to their immediate needs.

This is where the concept of "insurance for living" becomes critical. Unlike traditional life insurance focused solely on death benefits, living benefits provide tangible value throughout the policyholder's life. This could come in the form of wellness rewards for maintaining healthy behaviors, immediate financial support for critical illness treatments, coverage for fertility treatments, or the ability to access policy value for major life events like funding education or managing unexpected financial pressures.

Our research found that 82% of employees under 40 value living benefits, yet insurers still position them as optional add-ons rather than core features. This disconnect matters because younger employees now compare group life insurance to every financial tool competing for their attention.

In my view, three key barriers stand in the way. First, many insurers maintain separate underwriting processes and pricing structures for group and retail policies, making seamless portability nearly impossible. Converting group coverage to individual policies often means starting from scratch with new health questions, new underwriting, different pricing, which causes many employees to abandon coverage altogether. 

Second, even when portability options exist, employers rarely inform departing employees about their options or support navigation of the conversion process. Third, conversion processes remain unnecessarily complex, involving paperwork, waiting periods and coverage gaps that defeat portability's entire purpose.

The path forward requires modernizing underwriting to enable seamless transitions between group and individual coverage, investing in direct-to-employee platforms and redesigning policies with living benefits at the core.

HR leaders with the help of their advisers should ask harder questions when evaluating insurance partners. What happens to an employee's coverage when they leave? Can it convert without new underwriting or significant premium increases? Does the insurer provide direct employee engagement tools? Are living benefits integrated within the core offering with clear communication about access?

Benefit advisers should encourage their employer clients to take concrete action. It starts with demanding that insurers clearly communicate living benefits during onboarding with specific examples of when and how employees can use them. They also can push for education programs that go beyond standard benefits orientation. Employees need to understand their group life insurance can support them through critical illness, help manage unexpected challenges and reward healthy behaviors, not just provide a death benefit. 

The workforce has changed, and our products and delivery models must change with it. Employers and insurers that act decisively now will build lasting relationships with the next generation of workers. It could define whether an employer attracts or loses a star talent. Those that wait will defend shrinking enrollment while watching employees choose alternatives that better match their lives.

The 29-year-old who asked, "what was the point?" deserves a better answer. We have the data, technology and knowledge of what employees want. The only question is whether we're ready to deliver it.