Voluntary

Most critical illness insurance policyholders are 55 or older; men buy higher coverage amounts than women; and claimants overwhelmingly seek benefits for cancer over all other conditions, suggests a new comprehensive study of more than 20,500 individual policies purchased last year.

The economy still may be stuck in neutral, but industry brokers, carriers and vendors are bullish about the future of voluntary benefits.

When it comes to addressing end-of-life needs and services, most people know it's important to plan ahead in order to make sure that their family will not be burdened with overwhelming decisions during a difficult time. Even so, many people put it off because they would rather not have to think about the topic.

Years ago when I approached a crusty old broker from down south about enrolling his voluntary benefits cases, he told me he didn't sell voluntary because, "Boy, the juice ain't worth the squeeze."

New research from MetLife spotlights a disconnect between the perceptions of voluntary benefits held by employers and employees.

Health care reform has been good for business - true or false? These days, it still depends on whom you ask. Ask a producer who sells critical care insurance, though, and the answer you'll probably get is "true."

Voluntary benefits is often referred to as "worksite marketing." Many carriers, in fact, refer to their voluntary products as "worksite voluntary benefits." Recent developments in enrollment technology, however, are rapidly making the term "worksite" obsolete and no longer relevant to the voluntary benefits process. The term "worksite" derives from how these benefits have had to be enrolled. As products that are voluntarily purchased by employees, the only consistently effective means of presenting (and selling) them have been one-on-one employee meetings with licensed benefit counselors (enrollers) at the workplace during the workday.

Employee Benefit News is soliciting short articles from benefits professionals on best practices related to open enrollment and voluntary benefits. Articles selected by the editors will appear in EBN’s June 1 issue or on the Web site.

AlwaysCare Benefits, Inc. recently noted that it achieved a major business milestone: signing up more than 500,000 employees and dependents for group dental, vision, life, disability, critical illness and accident benefit plans.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has triggered considerable angst about the fate of group health insurance coverage since its passage, but recent research suggests that it’s not expected to affect non-medical benefits.