Fiing the Revenue Gap How Brokers Can Leverage Vountary Benefits to Buid Business Benefits at Work Series A Coonia Life White Paper May 2011
Tabe of Contents Executive Summary 1 Vountary Benefits Create Opportunities for Brokers 2 The Timing Is Right for Vountary Benefits to Grow 5 Deveoping a Vountary Practice Is Easier Than Brokers Think 9 Brokers See Success with Vountary Products: Case Studies 14 Tomorrow s Broker Must Have a Vountary Strategy to Fuy Manage 17 Cients Needs Appendix 19 About Coonia Life 20 References 21
Fiing the Revenue Gap Executive Summary The broker s word today ooks quite different than it did a few years ago. Reduced commissions, heath care reform and an economy sti trying to recover from recession have eft many brokers in search of new ways to increase revenue or repace ost income. Even as empoyers start to hire again, many human resources departments are finding their word has changed, too. The rising costs of providing empoyee benefits, changes in the heath care pans they offer, and greater administrative duties have made their ives more compicated. They re faced with significant change, yet they must remain competitive in order to survive. And they re ooking to brokers for hep. Fortunatey, brokers can address these chaenges head-on with a powerfu soution: vountary benefits. By adding vountary benefits to their portfoios, brokers can increase their agency s revenue and hep cients remain competitive. Benefits brokers primary business has been medica and empoyer-funded benefits and, for many, vountary insurance simpy hasn t been their bread and butter, says Bonnie Brazze, vice president at Eastbridge Consuting Group Inc. However, changes have taken pace in the ast severa years benefits pans have gotten more expensive and companies are increasingy cost-sharing with empoyees so we see more brokers fuy incorporating vountary benefits into their business mode and proactivey crossseing these offerings. Athough most brokers are famiiar with the genera concept of vountary benefits, many sti have a earning curve. Brazze estimates a majority of brokers are not ready to sit down and consut with empoyers in order to recommend and se vountary benefits on their own. This white paper discusses what brokers need to know to everage vountary benefits to buid business in today s workpace. Brokers wi earn what immediate opportunities exist in the marketpace aong with how to impement a turnkey vountary benefits practice with no overhead or product training required. The paper discusses how brokers can increase empoyee participation through strong benefits communication and education. Brokers wi aso discover how to maximize resuts by using oca enroers who can offer one-to-one benefits counseing. Benefits pans have gotten more expensive and companies are increasingy cost-sharing with empoyees, so we see more brokers fuy incorporating vountary benefits into their business mode and proactivey cross-seing these offerings. Bonnie Brazze, Vice President Eastbridge Consuting Group Inc. 1
2 Vountary Benefits Create Opportunity for Brokers
Vountary Benefits Create Opportunity for Brokers Brokers don t need cients with thousands of empoyees to get a boost from adding vountary benefits to their offerings. A recent Eastbridge Consuting survey found that a arge number of independent benefits brokers consider companies with 100 or fewer empoyees their primary target for the saes and marketing of vountary worksite benefits. 1 Company size brokers consider their primary target for vountary worksite benefits Fewer than 100 empoyees 78% 100-999 empoyees 17% 1,000 or more empoyees 3% Don t know 2% Source: Eastbridge Consuting Inc., Producer Attitude Scorecard Service (PASS), TM Coonia Life Resuts, October 2010. Brokers who want to take advantage of marketpace opportunities can quicky and cost-effectivey deveop a vountary benefits program that ets them offer a proven soution that meets both new and existing cients needs and one that aso begins making money right away. Vountary benefits, such as ife, accident, cancer, critica iness, hospita confinement indemnity, and short-term disabiity, are designed to suppement core benefit offerings. Vountary insurance pans aow empoyers to offer a cost-effective, expanded benefits package at itte to no direct cost to them. Empoyees choose the benefits that best meet their individua and famiy needs and typicay pay for these products themseves, usuay through convenient payro deduction. Individua vountary benefits are owned by empoyees, so they can keep the coverage if they eave empoyment. Some group vountary benefits aow empoyees to convert to individua poicies when they eave their company. Additionay, vountary benefits pay insureds a ump-sum benefit they can use as they see fit. Empoyees can choose to appy the money they receive to their medica expenses, such as deductibes, treatment bis, rehabiitation or home heath care expenses. Or, they can use the money for nonmedica expenses, such as mortgages, groceries, eectric bis, chid care or trave to and from a treatment center. The key advantages empoyers gain with vountary benefits incude: Better management of their benefit costs. For exampe, empoyers can offer ower-priced, high-deductibe heath pans and provide vountary insurance to hep cover the higher deductibes. Brokers who want to take advantage of marketpace opportunities can deveop a vountary benefits program that meets cients needs and aso begins making money right away. Lower payro taxes. As an added bonus, offering vountary benefits that quaify for pretaxing can ower payro taxes with each enroed empoyee. Time and money savings. Impementing a comprehensive benefits communication and enroment program can hep HR departments preserve precious time and budget resources. Empoyee satisfaction. Offering vountary benefits aso provides a great incentive for workers to stay with their empoyers. Empoyees can receive more benefits with no direct cost to the empoyer. The empoyer is aso heping empoyees protect their heath, savings and everything they ve worked so hard to achieve. 3
A recent Unum study reveaed empoyees who are offered vountary benefits in the workpace are more satisfied with their benefits than those who are not offered vountary coverage. Fifty-three percent of empoyees at companies that offer vountary benefits are satisfied with their benefits packages, compared with 34 percent who say the same at companies without this type of coverage. 2 That kind of satisfaction is vauabe to empoyers since vountary coverage aows a company to offer more benefits and add perceived vaue to a pan without affecting the bottom ine. Vountary benefits create more satisfied empoyees Percent of satisfied empoyees 53% Companies with vountary benefits 34% Companies without vountary benefits Source: Unum, Beyond the Usua Benefits: How Empoyee Education Can Drive Workpace Satisfaction, August 2009. Brokers can expect to reaize these benefits: A reiabe new revenue stream. About 40 percent of empoyees wi purchase a vountary product when the enroment incudes one-to-one meetings. Each empoyee in an account coud potentiay represent $60 or more in commissions. 3 Even more can be earned with bonuses and renewas. Stronger reationships with group benefit cients. Brokers can provide their cients with a way to enhance their existing benefits package at itte or no cost whie heping meet their empoyees needs. Brokers aso can bring a ot of vaue-added services at no added cost. This heps position brokers as fu benefits providers, which means cients won t have to ook esewhere to meet their needs. Not ony have vountary benefits aowed us to better meet our cients needs, but they ve aso introduced an additiona income source for us, which is critica in today s market where medica commissions are being compressed. Matthew Gregory, Executive Director Leavitt Benefits Services Quick ramp-up without additiona overhead. Brokers don t have to become experts in vountary benefits or invest in any additiona overhead if they partner with an experienced vountary benefits carrier. A fu-service vountary carrier, for exampe, has proven enroment systems and benefits communication processes in pace, ready to go the minute they re engaged. Utah-based Leavitt Benefits Services is one exampe of a broker firm capitaizing on the opportunities that vountary benefits afford. We ve uncovered a serious interest from our groups around vountary products, which previousy we had not fuy or proactivey supported with them, says Matthew Gregory, executive director, Leavitt Benefits Services. Not ony have vountary benefits aowed us to better meet our cient s needs, but they ve aso introduced an additiona income source for us, which is critica in today s market where medica commissions are being compressed. 4
The Timing Is Right for Vountary Benefits to Grow 5
The Timing Is Right for Vountary Benefits to Grow Heath care reform by many accounts is the 800-pound goria: exerting pressure on some companies to change their benefits strategies to compy with the new egisation, forcing many working Americans to absorb more medica cost increases if their empoyers shift to ess-rich heath pans, and squeezing broker commissions as a resut of the mandated 80 to 85 percent oss ratios. If heath care reform creates dynamics and compexities in the marketpace, it aso creates opportunities for vountary benefits. Fifty-one percent of brokers expect the changes taking pace because of heath care reform to cause them to change the types of vountary products they currenty se. In particuar, more than haf expect to se additiona accident, critica iness, short-term disabiity, cancer and term ife vountary insurance. 4 Brokers who expect product saes to increase as a resut of heath care reform Accident... 69% Critica iness... 65% Short-term disabiity... 57% Cancer... 54% Term ife... 53% Long-term disabiity... 46% Long-term care... 45% Hospita/intensive care... 40% Suppementa medica... 40% Source: Eastbridge Consuting Inc., Producer Attitude Scorecard Service (PASS), TM Coonia Life Resuts, October 2010. If heath care reform has done anything, it s made empoyers more dependent on their brokers for benefits guidance. A recent study shows 57 percent of empoyers with fewer than 500 workers and 48 percent of those with more than 500 say they wi rey on their consutants, brokers and agents more than ever. 5 So, whie the egisation has probaby compicated business, it s aso made brokers more important to their cients. Empoyers who wi rey on brokers more than ever because of heath care reform 57% Fewer than 500 empoyees 48% More than 500 empoyees Source: Storey, Denis, Reform of the Union, Benefitspro.com, Jan. 26, 2011. 6
As empoyers ook to brokers for hep creating new benefits strategies to compy with heath care reform, vountary offerings wi be key components because: 2011 heath care cost increases 9% Source: Frank, Jackie, Empoyer Heath Costs to Rise in 2011, Reuters, Sept. 27, 2010. Heath care costs are continuing to rise. Recent reports show empoyers are expected to pay neary 9 percent more for heath care costs for their workers in 2011, the highest eve in five years. And empoyers wi more than ikey ask their workers to absorb 12 percent of these costs. 6 Amost one year after heath care reform was signed into aw, a new Deoitte study found there is $363 biion more in hidden heath care costs than reported in most officia government accounts. These hidden costs are attributed to expenditures that fa outside traditiona areas such as doctors, drug prescriptions, hospitas and insurance coverage and represent an additiona 14.7 percent of heath care spending not previousy captured in the Nationa Heath Expenditure Accounts data. 7 Empoyers are moving more toward consumer-directed heath pans. Consumer-directed heath pans are reappearing on empoyers radar screens. The timing seems right for a resurgence as these pans pace consumers in the driver s seat, counting on them to make more informed and fruga heath care decisions if given a bigger financia stake in the process. Seventy-nine percent of empoyers expect to offer account-based consumer-directed heath pans by 2012. 8 Empoyees wi shouder more out-of-pocket expenses. As empoyers continue to ook for ways to contro their heath care costs, empoyees wi see more cost responsibiity shifted to them in the form of increased premiums, co-pays and/or deductibes. When deductibes and out-of-pocket expenses increase, so does the empoyee s share of first-doar expenses. For exampe, the additiona costs captured in the Deoitte study support an increase in consumer discretionary spending on heath care from 16.2 percent to 19.9 percent, which surpasses housing and utiity costs at 18.8 percent. These cost-shifting strategies eave empoyees with more financia risk than ever before. Vountary benefits are exempted from market reforms. The impact of coverage mandates and tax provisions wi be minima when it comes to benefits other than medica. Vountary benefits wi not be offered through insurance exchanges and wi be exempt from changes to guaranteed issue and pre-existing condition requirements, as we as from the excise tax on heath pans when deducted on a post-tax basis. Accident, ong-term care and disabiity pans aren t subject to the excise tax whether paid for with pre- or after-tax doars. Empoyers have come to reaize a competitive benefits program is a vita business strategy for attracting and retaining quaity workers who can hep their companies grow and compete in the marketpace. 7
Empoyers wi count on benefits to hep drive business recovery. Not ony are empoyers deaing with the heath care reform measures, but they re sti recovering from the recession. Gone are the days when empoyers think of their benefits program as simpy perks for empoyees. Instead, they have come to reaize a competitive benefits program is a vita business strategy for attracting and retaining quaity workers who can hep their companies grow and compete in the marketpace. Even as the economy continues to improve and empoyers continue to rehire, companies wi ook to offer the most robust, yet cost-effective, benefits package and sti be competitive. Empoyees ook to fi financia gaps. Workers are more interested than ever in finding a soution to fi the gaps eft by changes in their benefits pans. Empoyees have expressed considerabe interest in purchasing suppementa coverage or vountary benefits to hep pay for some of the expenses not currenty covered by their insurance pans. Seventy-eight percent of fu-time empoyed aduts who are enroed in an insurance program provided by their empoyer and/or their spouse were at east somewhat interested in this type of coverage. 9 In turn, empoyers wi have to work harder to educate workers about the vaue of vountary products, such as ife insurance and disabiity products, to overcome the perception that they are discretionary at a time when higher out-of-pocket medica costs are shrinking disposabe income. Empoyees interested in purchasing vountary benefits Very interested 15% Interested 18% Somewhat interested 44% At east somewhat interested 78% Source: Coonia Life & Accident Insurance Company, Harris Interactive Survey, Apr. 23-27, 2009. When brokers work with businesses to design their benefits programs, they shoud aso incude strong communications and education strategies to hep empoyees earn more about their financia risk and how they can seect the right coverage to protect themseves. Benefits communications aso create more educated heath care consumers who make better financia decisions, which can hep empoyers save on heath care costs. 8
Deveoping a Vountary Practice Is Easier Than Brokers Think 9
Deveoping a Vountary Practice Is Easier Than Brokers Think As competition grows among brokers and more of them begin to turn to vountary benefits, it becomes more important than ever for them to differentiate themseves. To do so, brokers need to focus on services that address their cients top concerns, not simpy provide products. Brokers can quicky ramp up a vountary benefits practice and begin maximizing their revenue by partnering with a carrier that speciaizes in vountary insurance and has proven expertise in the industry. Working with a company that offers a broad portfoio of products and a host of vaue-added services gives brokers the abiity to offer turnkey soutions to their cients without the overhead and aows them to focus on what they do best without needing to become an expert in other areas. Brokers want to ook for a carrier that offers a highy competitive compensation package, but shoud aso insist on one that is financiay stabe and easy to do business with. It s a no brainer for anyone offering heath insurance to offer vountary benefits to make up for oss of commissions. There s a ot of opportunity for brokers to rethink this ine of business and ook at strategic partnerships to deveop vountary programs. Les Backwe, President and CEO Benefit & Investment Soutions Inc. Because of heath care reform, brokers are now turning to carriers for vountary benefits which is a significant change, says Brazze. They re moving from a push to a pu strategy, and it has changed the dynamics of the marketpace. In particuar, Brazze sees brokers reaching out to vountary benefits carriers that offer strong support services aimed at heping them with everything from pan design to enroment to the caims process. With the heath insurance market changing ike it is, it s a no brainer for anyone offering heath insurance to offer vountary benefits to make up for oss of commissions, especiay for under-100 empoyers, says Les Backwe, president and CEO, Benefit & Investment Soutions Inc. We used to see vountary benefits as something we had to tak empoyers into, more of an add-on but not a service that added vaue to our operation. That has changed. There s a ot of opportunity for brokers to rethink this ine of business and ook at strategic partnerships to deveop vountary programs. 10
When ooking to deveop a successfu vountary benefits program, brokers shoud evauate potentia partners on their abiity to offer the foowing important capabiities: One-to-One Benefits Counseing A one-size-fits-a approach to benefits communication no onger works. Insurance is compex, and reying on sef-education or technoogy aone isn t reaistic. Having access to trained benefits counseors who personaize the decision-making experience for empoyees can create rea satisfaction. Empoyees appreciate having someone hep them understand a the terminoogy and choices, as we as give them the confidence they need to make good decisions for their famiies. Surveys of empoyees who meet individuay with benefits counseors during their enroments prove the effectiveness of the one-to-one method. Virtuay a (97 percent) empoyees surveyed by Coonia Life say persona benefits counseing improved their understanding of their benefits and that this type of communication is important (98 percent). 10 Empoyee opinions on effectiveness of 1-to-1 benefits counseing 97% 98% Improved their understanding of their benefits Session was important Source: Coonia Life Benefits Post-enroment Survey, Jan. to Dec. 2010. Persona benefits counseing can aso increase empoyee participation during benefits enroments. A recent study by Eastbridge Consuting Group, Inc. found the average vountary benefit participation rate for face-to-face enroments is 46 percent higher than the participation rate for a sef-enroment. 11 That means 46 percent higher commissions for brokers. A majority of brokers (55 percent) agree individua sessions with benefits counseors are very effective enroment toos, but ony 17 percent currenty use them as the primary way to enro empoyees in benefits. 12 This discrepancy appears to point out a significant ost opportunity for penetration, participation and broker income. The average participation rate for face-to-face enroments is 46% higher than the participation rate for a sef-enroment. 38% One-to-one enroment participation 26% Sef enroment participation Source: Eastbridge Consuting Group, Inc., Vountary Participation Rates, Spotight Report, August 2010. 11
Loca Enroers Using an enroment firm that reies on per-diem enroers who trave from other ocations can add expense and create a ack of continuity in your accounts. Brokers can encourage ong-term cient reationships by using a nationa team of oca, estabished professiona benefit counseors who can conduct enroments and are avaiabe for new hire and re-enroments year after year. This method increases cient satisfaction and persistency, which, in turn, increases overa income. Brokers wi aso reap the benefits of a consistent benefits message within their accounts. Consider the net commission. Brokers can end up paying a significant sice of their gross commissions to fund an enroment firm. By instead using a carrier that offers individua benefits counseing and enroment at no charge as part of its services, brokers keep more of their commissions without the added cost of enroment fees and expenses. Gross Commission Rate for Short-term Disabiity Product... 65.0 % Typica Enroment Costs: 70% of gross... - 45.5 % Net After Enroment: 30% of gross... 19.5 % See Appendix for more detaied revenue mode Enroment fees and expenses can erode brokers take-home income, eaving them with ony a portion of their initia commission. With a vountary benefits carrier handing enroment, the commissions brokers see are the commissions they get. They won t incur any surprises of additiona fees bied to them after the enroment. Strong Benefits Communication and Education Don t underestimate the importance of a good education, especiay in today s benefits marketpace. Companies worry about how to communicate the many benefits changes and options facing empoyees today. Change, both positive and negative, creates a need for enhanced communication and education. By providing benefits communication services to cients, brokers wi hep empoyees better understand and vaue their benefits and their empoyer s investment in them. Brokers can aso hep them understand any new changes brought about by heath care reform egisation. Offering this service at no cost to cients can differentiate individua brokers within the marketpace, giving them a strong competitive advantage and increasing their vaue significanty. Our cients spend a ot of money on their benefits programs, and they need to communicate that better with their empoyees. Our vountary partner heps us do a better job when it comes to benefits communication and education. Cients are now getting vaue for what they re paying in terms of core coverage because empoyees now see the bigger picture when it comes to their overa benefits package. Les Backwe, President and CEO Benefit & Investment Soutions Inc. 12
Our cients spend a ot of money on their benefits programs, and they need to communicate that better with their empoyees, says Backwe. Our vountary partner heps us do a better job when it comes to benefits communication and education. Cients are now getting vaue for what they re paying in terms of core coverage because empoyees now see the bigger picture when it comes to their overa benefits package. Increasing empoyees understanding and appreciation of their benefits programs shoud be among companies top goas. More than three-quarters of brokers see the abiity to hep empoyees understand their benefits programs as very important to both their cients as we as to their own agencies. 13 Additiona research conducted by Coonia Life indicates human resources professionas agree. Ninety-three percent of empoyers say it is very important to their business that empoyees understand and appreciate the vaue of their benefits. However, ess than 19 percent of HR executives think empoyees actuay have a very good understanding and appreciation of their benefits. 14 The Benefits Reaity Gap Athough 93 percent of empoyers think it s important for their empoyees to understand and appreciate their benefits, ony 19 percent beieve they actuay do. Percentage of empoyers who fee it s important that empoyees understand and appreciate their benefits 19% 93% Percentage of empoyers who beieve their empoyees actuay do understand and appreciate their benefits Source: Coonia Life Survey of HR Professionas at SHRM Nationa Conference, June 2009. Commitment to Customer Service Choose a carrier that exces in customer service. Ask about the company s caims-paying track record, biing services and support for poicyhoders. And if the company participates in any customer satisfaction surveys, brokers shoud ask to see the resuts. Brokers see itte compromise when it comes to service. In fact, brokers ist the top three most important factors in choosing a carrier as service for the empoyer, service for the empoyee, and responsiveness to the needs of the broker. 15 13
14 Brokers See Success with Vountary Products: Case Studies
Brokers See Success with Vountary Products: Case Studies BB&T Impements New Enroment Pan in Less Than Three Weeks Cient Description: Construction company with 930 empoyees across five ocations in three states and one ocation in the Caribbean Chaenges: Faced with a agging economy and rising benefits costs, yet a desire to provide the best insurance options possibe, the company decided to withdraw major medica coverage from 200 of the 388 empoyees currenty receiving this benefit. The company had aso recenty canceed the group ife pan for these same workers. The cient had previousy reduced saaries by 5 percent across the board. The company aso decided to reduce its contributions for the 188 empoyees who remained on the medica pan. Despite these chaenges, the cient wanted to make the enroment experience as positive as possibe but needed to impement a new enroment pan in ess than three weeks. Soutions: Working with a eading vountary benefits carrier, the broker designed a program that offered different eves of benefits to empoyees based on their cassifications: The nonbenefited empoyees were given options for accident insurance, term ife insurance and imited benefit medica pan for the first time. The benefited empoyees were given additiona options of accident insurance, term ife insurance and hospita confinement indemnity insurance. Benefits counseors deivered an upbeat message. A key focus for nonbenefited empoyees was to express the empoyer s gratification in providing them with benefit options for the first time, whie expaining the underwriting process so workers woud fuy understand the vaue of getting these benefits in the workpace. For benefited empoyees, the counseors expained how vountary term ife was a repacement for the canceed pan and aso gave detais on the simpified underwriting offered with the new insurance. Personaized benefits education and consistent messaging were used that incuded customized training, enroment guides and benefits books, as we as group meetings, one-to-one empoyee counseing and a ca-center enroment option for Caribbean empoyees. Resuts: A job sites reported a smooth, we-received enroment. Benefits counseors effectivey communicated the new core benefits and new vountary offerings. Of the 330 empoyees who spoke with a counseor, 54 percent participated in the new pans, representing approximatey $190,000 in premium generated. 15
Assurex Goba Agency Neace Lukens Achieves Consistency, Adds Vaue to Its Cients Agency Description: Neace Lukens, based in Louisvie, Ky., has been in a growth mode for more than five years and now has 54 ocations in 40 states. Chaenges: Ten new brokerage offices added in the ast five years sti operated autonomousy, creating a ack of standardization. The agency wanted to seect the best carrier partners offering the right ines of coverage and strongest benefits communication and enroment capabiities for a of its offices. Leveraging a trusted brand was one of the key criteria in seecting a vountary benefits partner. Soutions: Neace Lukens seected a nationa vountary benefits expert, which assembed a team of more than 15 benefits counseors and two enroment speciaists. The vountary partner heped move cients from paper-based enroments to eectronic or web-based enroments. The vountary partner successfuy transitioned cients to core benefits communication and enroment. The vountary partner provided 1-to-1 benefits counseing sessions at mutipe sites and for various cient companies shift schedues. A these benefits communication and enroment services were provided to Neace Lukens cients at no direct cost. Resuts: Just six months into the new partnership, the vountary carrier had provided benefits counseing and enroment to 14 accounts and more than 5,000 empoyees with no additiona staffing cost to the agency. Enroments incuded a 275-ife manufacturing pant, a arge rura hospita with mutipe shifts, a muti-ocation nursing home and an automatic bank teer service with 27 ocations. Neace Lukens account managers now understand the vaue their vountary benefits partner brings to the agency and their cients. The agency is abe to protect and grow its revenue stream with no additiona overhead. 16
Tomorrow s Broker Must Have a Vountary Strategy to Fuy Manage Cients Needs 17
Tomorrow s Broker Must Have a Vountary Strategy to Fuy Manage Cients Needs Change has definitey arrived. In today s workpace benefits environment, both cients and empoyees need guidance now on how to proceed. At the same time, the competition is ooking for ways to attract new cients, and medica carriers are ooking for ways to reduce costs, incuding broker commissions. There is no better time than now for brokers to be proactive and initiate or revisit a vountary benefits program. Empoyers wi be ooking to work consutativey with brokers to find benefits soutions that meet their unique needs. Brokers shoud integrate vountary products into their overa benefits strategies and not just cross-se them as an add-on. Offering products that are reevant to cients most pressing concerns provides far more vaue than simpy adding vountary products as a fee good benefit for empoyees. The right vountary benefits partner can hep brokers create a reiabe, renewabe income stream for themseves whie heping cients contro costs and promote empoyee satisfaction and retention. No matter what the future brings, with an expert vountary benefits partner and strong benefits communication services, brokers can differentiate themseves from the competition. Simpy negotiating a reduction in major medica insurance premiums is not going to hep companies reaize a strong return on investment from their benefits programs. In fact, poor empoyee understanding of a pan is cited by 30 percent of empoyers as a significant chaenge in maintaining affordabe benefit coverage. 16 It s pretty important to have a strategy around offering vountary benefits to cients to fuy manage their needs. These products provide a vauabe resource in an industry where it s our obigation to ensure cients have access to effective coverages. Matthew Gregory, Executive Director Leavitt Benefits Services Empoyees who are knowedgeabe about their benefits are amost 30 percent more ikey to be satisfied with the benefits pans offered. 17 The more satisfied and engaged empoyees are, the more productive and more ikey they are to produce higher quaity work and exhibit increased oyaty to their empoyers. According to Leavitt Benefits Services Gregory, It s pretty important to have a strategy around offering vountary benefits to cients to fuy manage their needs. These products provide a vauabe resource in an industry where it s our obigation to ensure cients have access to effective coverages. 18
Appendix Broker Compensation Exampe 1st Year Net Income Using Enroment Firm Using Vountary Carrier with In-House Enroers Iustration based on Coonia Life & Accident Insurance Company typica commissions. Assumes 2,000 eigibe empoyees with 50% participation at $400/year and $400,000 annua premium on three products. Broker Compensation Exampe Five Year Net Income Using Enroment Firm Using Vountary Carrier with In-House Enroers 5 Year Broker Net Income: $261,518 5 Year Broker Net Income: $322,275??? Iustrations based on gross saes. Commissions wi vary based on resuts of actua coected premium. Subsequent year saes based on Coonia Life averages: 2nd year saes at 60% of 1st year, 3rd year saes at 70% of 2nd year, 4th year saes at 80% of 3rd year, and 5th year saes at 85% of 4th year. 19
About Coonia Life Coonia Life & Accident Insurance Company is a market eader in providing insurance benefits for empoyees and their famiies through the workpace, aong with individua benefits education, advanced yet simpe-to-use enroment technoogy and quaity persona service. Coonia Life offers disabiity, ife and suppementa accident and heath insurance poicies in 49 states and the District of Coumbia. Simiar poicies, if approved, are underwritten in New York by a Coonia Life affiiate, The Pau Revere Life Insurance Company. Coonia Life is based in Coumbia, S.C., and is a subsidiary of Unum Group. For more information on vountary benefits, ca Coonia Life at (803) 798-7000 or visit cooniaife.com. 20
References 1 Eastbridge Consuting Inc., Producer Attitude Scorecard Service (PASS), TM Coonia Life Resuts, October 2010. 2 Unum, Beyond the Usua Benefits: How Empoyee Education Can Drive Workpace Satisfaction, August 2009. 3 Coonia Life & Accident Insurance Company saes records. Assumes 100 empoyees, 50% participation, $500 annua premium per person, and product mix of 20% disabiity, 40% Medica Bridge 3000 and 40% universa ife ($5,900 annuaized first-year commissions per account). 4 Eastbridge Consuting Inc., op.cit. 5 Storey, Denis, Reform of the Union, Benefitspro.com, Jan. 26, 2011. 6 Frank, Jackie, Empoyer Heath Costs to Rise in 2011, Reuters, Sept. 27, 2010. 7 Deoitte Center for Heath Soutions and Center for Financia Services, The Hidden Costs of U.S. Heath Care for Consumers: A Comprehensive Anaysis, March 2011. 8 Towers Watson, Rethinking Empoyer Strategies in a Post-Heath Care Reform Word, Dec. 1, 2010. 9 Coonia Life & Accident Insurance Company, Harris Interactive Survey, Apr. 23-27, 2009. 10 Coonia Life Benefits Post-Enroment Survey, Jan. to Dec. 2010. 11 Eastbridge Consuting Group Inc., Vountary Participation Rates, Spotight Report, August 2010. 12 Empoyee Benefit News and Empoyee Benefit Advisor, Enroment Effectiveness Survey, October 2009. 13 Empoyee Benefit News and Empoyee Benefit Advisor, op.cit. 14 Coonia Life Survey of Human Resource Professionas at SHRM Nationa Conference, New Oreans, June 2009. 15 Eastbridge Consuting Inc., The Evoution of the Worksite Broker, Spotight Report, October 2010. 16 Watson Wyatt Wordwide, The Effects of the Economic Crisis on Heath Care Programs, March 2009. 17 Shepherd, Leah Carson, Benefits Knowedge Leads to Retention and Benefits Satisfaction, Benefits News, Jan. 1, 2009. 21
Coonia Life 1200 Coonia Life Bouevard Coumbia, South Caroina 29210 cooniaife.com 4/11 2011 Coonia Life & Accident Insurance Company. Coonia Life products are underwritten by Coonia Life & Accident Insurance Company, for which Coonia Life is the marketing brand. NS-11776