Demand for Voluntary Benefits is Greater Than Ever
Just a quick post today, since it's the fourth quarter and if you're in the employee benefits business that means all your time goes to new and existing clients who have open enrollments.
The year is coming quickly to a close and Covid-19 remains the headline of the year. I've written a few times about the various ways it has impacted the voluntary benefits industry. Mostly I've focused on specifics, like how VB plans work for a Covid-19 diagnosis.
But how's the industry doing as a whole? Is it up or down this year? There have certainly been challenges for an industry whose distribution model has traditionally relied a lot on face-to-face communication and sales. From the perspective of a firm that brokers and enrolls voluntary benefits, I can tell you that April and May this year were nail-biters, as we grappled with losing that method entirely and moved operations completely to call center and Zoom.
But we've adjusted, as have our clients. And the mile-high view says the industry overall has too. In fact, if anything the novel coronavirus has shown people even more clearly that using voluntary benefits to strengthen your financial safety net is a sound idea. Business closures and unemployment may have caused setbacks this year, but the demand for voluntary benefits is still there and growing.
Here are some encouraging articles from around the industry: