Advisor strategies

A wide breadth of product offerings and more attention to financial wellness are behind the steady increase in voluntary sales, according to LIMRA data.

With employers scrambling to do more with less, support technology is evolving to embrace more functions and brokers’ knowledge base needs to keep pace.

New medical plans promote primary care and health counseling in an effort to lower medical costs.

Consumer prices may be relatively stable overall, but healthcare costs for people 65 and over are rising rapidly.

Providers are looking to bulk up their marketplaces with features that provide employees with more choice, say experts.

Many working with employers to create packages of inexpensive perks, such as generous maternity leaves and sabbaticals, that target millennials.

Already included as core offerings in most employer plans, SEC money market reform will likely make them even more attractive.

Workplace productivity and engagement drops as the number of employees grappling with money challenges skyrockets.

For workers looking at life post-career, steady income is more important than return on investment.

Workers are increasingly turning away from traditional healthcare delivery models in favor of alternatives, according to Oliver Wyman research.

Low satisfaction and high costs are driving consumers away from traditional healthcare delivery models in favor of alternatives.

Number of agents and brokers surging as more insurers rely on independents, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The HealthiestYou application encourages higher levels of utilization with mobile access, greater ease of use, according to benefit advisers.

Integrating telemedicine with voluntary benefits can mean substantial savings for employers and significant opportunities for brokers.

In another ACA irony, carriers seek to discourage sales of money losing policies by denying consumers the professional advice they need, says NAHU president Don Goldmann.

Working through their advisers, some organizations are responding with financial literacy and other workforce programs

Benefits administration technology firm Businessolver partners with online finance company SoFi to provide student loan refinancing as an employee benefit.

There are a number of successful methods to use to convince a client’s staff of the value of these offerings, says benefit expert Tyson Funk.

Advisers and their clients have to start planning now to ensure they are prepared for the HSA fiduciary rules taking effect in two years.

HealthiestYou application encourages higher levels of utilization with mobile access, greater ease of use.