Voluntary Worksite Benefits in 2014

steve63

New Member
2
Hey guys, I'm new to the forum and am really excited to come across a community of passionate employee benefits producers. I wanted to get your opinion. I have been in the industry now for 5 years. Over the past 3 years I have really been getting pushed by some of the carriers I work with to offer voluntary worksite benefits to our groups. It seems like more carriers are offering critical illness, cancer, and accident plans. I know that you can make a quick buck selling these policies, but how do you see them fitting into the marketplace in a post reform environment, specifically in the 2-50 market (that's where most of my book is at)? With the individual and SHOP state/federal exchanges, do you think employees will continue to buy these benefits? How about through private exchanges? And with community rating, the increases in taxes/fees and large rate increases, do you think people will have disposable Income for these supplemental benefits? Thanks for your input...just wondering if this is a good use of my time! Steve
 
For the past seven years I have represented Aflac, which is by far the largest provider of worksite benefits. Although they can go larger, groups ranging from 3 to 100 employees are their forte.

Health insurance reform doesn't impact Aflac's programs. It doesn't address short-term disability, and no health insurance covers everything. Most of Aflac's benefit money goes towards regular ongoing family bills, like rent/mortgage, groceries, utilities, paying for their other insurances, etc.

Aflac is also pushing hard into the enrollment business, and has a bunch of value-adds they can provide, like COBRA administration, HSA/HRA administration, FSAs.

There's a lot of variability regarding the knowledge level of the agents, but you can find seasoned veterans who know the business backwards and forwards.
 
I could be wrong, but I think that 1/1/14 voluntary enrollments will be quite a bit lower than they have been in the past. The uncertainty we're dealing with will slow enrollments and cause re-enrollments to not be as high.

That said, I expect them to pick up once this situation is more stabilized, possibly even by mid-2014.
 
WSB will possibly grow in markets dominated by low to lower middle income folks with heavily subsidized health insurance.

Everyone else, those that will be responsible for paying the lions share of their health insurance premiums will not have disposable income for ancillary lines.
 
We've been expanding our ancillary lines with DI, BOE, life, dental, vision, even DBL and Medicare advantage. The more commissionable product that won't be wiped out by Obamacare, the better.

Everyone here has been calling clients and offering ancillary products for years at this point. Even if the health goes down the tubes, at least we still have the point of contact and some commission.

You could tell who was putting in the effort, they didn't flinch when health carriers cut commissions 25-100% on products in our regions.
 
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