Benefits Selling Magazine March 2007
Cover Story
Taking center stage
DALLAS -- Ours is a boring business. Sounds harsh, but it certainly looks that way from the outside. And even most insiders confirm that if you can catch them in a moment of weakness. Sharon Alt agrees -- hell, it's one of the
Feature Content
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Continuous Current
Over the past five years, scores of articles have been written about the aging U.S. work force and the impending retirement savings crisis. Less has been written about a new breed of retirement income solutions and the tremendous opportunity these
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Give yourself a raise
Further exacerbating the problem, much like the cost of health care, the cost of running his business has climbed steadily, as well. How can he more effectively mine his current business and see some increased cash flow? Short-term medical
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Growth Strategy
Specialty drugs have revolutionized the treatment of patients with life-threatening conditions. Many patients suffering from hemophilia, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, or rare conditions such as Gaucher disease and severe combined immunodeficiency
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Slash the paperwork
With more than 25 different limited medical products available today, there is little doubt these products are here to stay. While this might seem like a lot, the plans typically are structured one of two ways from a product design and coverage
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Outside the portfolio
Every broker is familiar with the contents that make up the standard benefits portfolio. Core packages and various voluntary products such as short term disability, critical illness, whole life and cancer insurance are common. It's imperative
Source List
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Benefits Selling Expo 2007 Source List
Benefits Selling Expo 2007 March 21-23, 2007 Dallas, Texas NETWORK with the industry's top benefits brokers DISCOVER new sales and marketing strategies CONNECT with leading industry providers Get the tools, techniques and
Competitive Advantage
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An overnight success doesn't happen overnight
Roughly 10 years ago, a business friend, Art McCauley, created a marketing program that teams a life insurance product with U.S. savings bonds. It allowed an insured who purchased a voluntary insurance product to purchase bonds, as well, through
Special Feature
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Shape of things to come
Debacle. Conundrum. Crisis. Broken. Not working. What do all these have in common? They've been used to describe the health care system in the United States (and they're the ones fit to print). And the rhetoric is heating up. Calls
The Zone
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Benefits provider changes name
WELL-KNOWN employee benefits provider UnumProvident announced it is changing its name to Unum Group. Pending the necessary approvals, Unum Group will be known as Unum in the marketplace. Its three primary business units will be known as Unum US,
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Oral health affects overall health
AMERICANS RECOGNIZE the correlation between oral health and overall health. A Guardian Life Insurance Co. study revealed that 89 percent of people surveyed believe it. But even though good oral health is directly responsible for better whole-body
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Sun Life acquires Genworth's group business
IN A MOVE to bolster its U.S. group insurance growth strategy, Sun Life Financial purchased the U.S. group benefits business of Genworth Financial Inc. The $650 million deal is expected to boost Sun Life's earnings per share and return on
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Study finds HSAs lack employer funding
AS CONSUMERS continue to shoulder more of the burden for health care in the United States, one of the primary vehicles available to them is going unused -- the health savings account. Vimo.com, an Internet health care comparison shopping site,
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MI2 announces 2007 annual conference
LOOKS LIKE the Mass Marketing Insurance Institute is hitting the beach. MI2 unveiled its plans last month for the 2007 edition of its annual conference,VBI: Miami Voluntary Benefits Investigation, will take place April 17-19 in Miami. While the
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Spending slows, proportion grows
HEALTH CARE SPENDING accounted for 16 percent of gross domestic product in 2005, according to government figures published in the journal Health Affairs. That figure is up slightly from 15.9 percent in 2004, and amounts to $6,697 for every American,
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Big issues shape outlook for new year
IN THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY, 2007 could be a watershed year. Consumer-driven health care is taking root, incentives to use health savings accounts and their brethren are growing, and initiatives at the state and national level are calling for
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Broker education hits the road
ON THE ROAD AGAIN. That popular Willie Nelson ditty will be the theme song for several instructors from The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. in 2007. The Hartford's Vault program is a series of three-and-a-half day workshops across the
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Heart therapies save lives and money
AMERICANS' exercise and eating habits continue to come under scrutiny and are blamed on more unhealthy outcomes and soaring medical costs. It's no secret the United States is a nation of big eaters and light exercisers. That combination
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Companies drive health programs
WITH HEALTH CARE COSTS on the rise and companies looking for ways to reduce their costs without burdening employees, healthy initiatives are taking root. And some employers are forcing the issue, according to an Associated Press story. One method
Storeylines
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Clean bill of health
DALLAS -- Health care -- a perennial political pi?ata -- actually received a bit of a lift in late January. Never mind that it likely will be short-lived. After decades of talk and little action, the federal government
What's Next
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The voluntary evolution -- where are we?
In 2002, we published a paper that predicted some major changes in the voluntary benefits industry by the year 2020. Some of these predictions involved benefit buyers and products while others were aimed at distribution systems and administrative
Employers Speak Out
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Does your company offer permanent life insurance on a voluntary basis?
EDITOR'S NOTE: As the benefits market shifts more and more away from group coverage toward voluntary, permanent life insurance offerings have begun siding that way, as well. This month we gauged a sampling of employers and employees to see how
