Voluntary

Although life insurance made modest gains in the third quarter of 2010 when gross written premiums were up 6% from the same period a year earlier, an Aite Group report notes that premiums fell to historic lows in 2009 when the product was considered an unnecessary discretionary purchase.

Two recent reports on disability issues conclude that fewer working Americans filed such claims during the height of the economic downturn and that there’s a serious misunderstanding about disability and the value of income-protection planning.

Of the 568 short-term disability, accident and critical-illness claimants with voluntary policies from Unum responding to an independent customer-satisfaction survey, 90% said they would recommend the carrier to their co-workers.

Dearborn National’s Worksite and Individual Solutions division hopes to reach new heights with Mountain Vista, a new term life plan aimed at working-class Americans with premiums projected to be level for 10, 20 or 30 years.

Helping employees understand the language of finance enables benefit advisers to better meet the needs of clients ...

The value of cyberspace during open enrollment is at least on equal footing with face time, suggest two recent unpublished surveys of employees and carriers that sell voluntary benefit plans.

A unit of brokerage powerhouse Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. waded deeper into the worksite market with one of eight acquisitions made since November 2009 to build a national platform that serves the employee benefits needs of middle-market companies.

Mutual of Omaha recently brought more than a century of disability income insurance market know-how to a new product offering in this area.

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America’s new multi-coverage voluntary package features comprehensive benefits at a single rate that emphasizes affordability and enrollment simplicity.

Shopping for identity theft protection, a product that is gaining traction in the worksite market, is no easy feat. But a new Web site now makes it easy to compare half a dozen of the nascent industry’s leading service providers that are aggressively fighting this growing crime wave.