Dentist with a patient with having a dental treatment
Executives at Aflac are hoping that strong dental insurance sales will buoy sales of cancer insurance, hospital indemnity insurance and other worksite benefits products.
Virgil Miller, Aflac's president, talked about the power of dental insurance as a benefits sale tugboat Wednesday, during a conference call the company held to go over third-quarter earnings with securities analysts.
Traditionally, Aflac makes many of its U.S. group insurance sales in the fourth quarter of the year. This year, "our pipeline for the fourth quarter looks strong," Miller said.
More brokers are selling employers Aflac group life and group disability plans, and that should help sales of Aflac worksite benefits products, Miller said.
But Miller said recovery from dental system upgrade problems that hurt Aflac dental plan sales in 2024 could do even more to boost overall sales.
The key is bundling dental insurance with Aflac's worksite benefits products, Miller said.
"Every time we sell a $1 of dental, 85 cents worth of voluntary benefits was sold," Miller said.
That means getting Aflac dental insurance sales back on track will help sales of other products, Miller said.
Aflac streamed the call live and posted a recording on its website.
What it means: The current ferocious competition in the dental plan market could get more ferocious.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.