| Dear friends & colleagues:
In our last newsletter we discussed employee paid voluntary benefits as a means of increasing employee satisfaction as contribution requirements continue upward, making it more and more difficult for employees to participate in core plans. This newsletter will key on the type of services an employer should receive from a broker at no cost in return for allowing voluntary benefits to be sold to their employees. As we said in our last newsletter, never give it away for free! |
| Five Types of Services an Employer Should Receive in Return for a Voluntary Offering
Broker Commissions on Sales Should Pay 100% of the Cost |
 Customized employer-specific communications
- Annual core benefits enrollment support
- Annual voluntary benefits counseling support
- New hire core/voluntary enrollment support
- Data collection and exchange
If your voluntary benefits carrier and/or broker are not providing at least some of the above services in return for the commissions earned, you probably have better alternatives available to you. See below for a more extensive list of services.
As with brokers, not all voluntary carriers and communication/enrollment companies are created equal. There are the good ones and there are the not so good ones. BBCG encourages you to be discriminating when making these choices.
Please email us at [email protected] if we can assist you in fine tuning your approach to voluntary benefits. |
| Services Associated with Voluntary Benefits --Speaking As a Broker
Minimum List of Expectations
|
|
 There will be some variation from account to account based on size of the employer, its actual needs, technology platforms involved, projected employee participation and the revenue that the broker can assume to be generated. Ultimately, 100% of the financial risk should be borne by the broker and the communications/enrollment vendor. The employer should never accept any risk sharing regarding the relative success of the underlying sales process.
Below is the list of services that may be available to your company at no cost:
- Individual face-to-face, telephonic, company-based internal intranet, or external Internet counseling by licensed agents with substantial experience in the enrollment services business and in the specific products that are being offered (e.g., universal life insurance)
- Most often on-site enrollers using laptop computers
- Any mix of the above technologies available
- A customized enrollment plan designed strictly for your company -- not an off the shelf approach
- Employer-specific customized communications which translate into a higher perception of benefits value on the part of your employees
- Your staff and vendor consultants design and implement the communication program that delivers the specific message you want going to your employees
- The availability of multiple media for various purposes
- Knowledge of wealth accumulation plans like 401(k) and 403(b) approaches and the ability to assist in increasing participation in those plans
- In-depth knowledge of up-to-date HSA plan regulations if offered
- Employee training on benefits related web interfaces, whether internal intranet only or via the Internet
- Customized education campaigns as you see the need
- Simultaneous automated core and voluntary annual benefit enrollments
- On-going new hire enrollment support
- Automated enrollment data capture
- Automated enrollment data transfer
- HRIS download to enroller system
- Enroller system upload back to HRIS
- Enroller system upload to all participating carriers
- Appropriate data protection and back-up
Please email us at [email protected] for more information on customizing a service package for your employee group. |
