A Year End Tip that Could Lock in Significant Savings!

Gary R. Goodhile

Principal, Sullivan Benefits

In today's health care market, where insurance company representatives all too often suggest that you should be happy when you get an increase below trend, it is refreshing to know that there is still significant competition for your group life and disability premium dollar. In the benefits world this is the last of the soft markets. There are well over 30 companies actively marketing these products nationally and close to 20 of them have local representation. Around this time of year, many of these insurance carriers are anxiously looking to meet year end sales targets (this can be particularly true of publicly held insurance companies). This market condition can often spell opportunity for an employer coming off a multi-year rate guarantee and can be particularly true if the employers' plan has not performed up to the up to the current insurer's expectations. In situations like these an underwriter will often look to increase their rates. The rationale often being that the manual rate is significantly higher than the current rate (a situation that often existed when the account was initially written) or that the company had poor claims experience (in the case of life & LTD insurance there may have been a claim or two). Rate increases under these circumstances can, on occasion, be irrationally high (this often has less to do with your company's performance and more to do with the performance of the insurers block of business).  Read More.