Voluntary Benefits

Most employees can expect to see voluntary benefit options added to their benefit plans thanks to new regulatory and economic issues. Half of employers surveyed by Colonial Life & Accident Insurance say they expect to add voluntary, employee-paid insurance benefits to their plans within the next year.

Over the last decade, the mix of sales between group and individual platforms has shifted from predominantly individual plans to more and more group voluntary plans, according to an annual sales study from Eastbridge Consulting Group.

I recently heard a business owner describe his company’s voluntary benefits package as a “nice to have.” If that’s the case, I say get rid of the package and save both the aggravation and administrative cost.

A new study from the Institute for Womens Policy Research finds that giving employees access to paid sick days reduces visits to hospital emergency rooms, saving $1 billion every year.

In last months column, we looked at overall voluntary sales for 2010. In this edition, we analyze the results further by looking at product line sales as well as platform.

Americans are occasionally a little too optimistic.