Voluntary Group Lines

[PL & Associates]

Aflac makes the most sense

For the smaller groups, I like what AFLAC has to offer if you want to be able to bring in multiple products on the same platform. Not too many small employers get excited about writing checks to each carrier for different product lines. I also like Colonial for this situation.

maintain of a Section 125 Plan

P&L, correct me if I'm wrong, because I would like to know. My understanding was that AFLAC will draft the document for free, but they don't maintain it after it's initiated. Also, I assume the employer is on their own to administer it if there is anything beyond a POP plan?

Delta:

The Aflac's Section 125 (Flex One) is drafted for free, and is maintained for free also. A friendly plan, businesses can place their other health coverage on Aflac's Flex One Plan.

For FSA's, we will set up the plan for the company, for a small fee. Aflac offers free payment cards for participants, which eliminates the need for out of pocket payments of FSA eligible items.

PL

 

[Delta76]

The Aflac's Section 125 (Flex One) is drafted for free, and is maintained for free also. A friendly plan, businesses can place their other health coverage on Aflac's Flex One Plan.

For FSA's, we will set up the plan for the company, for a small fee. Aflac offers free payment cards for participants, which eliminates the need for out of pocket payments of FSA eligible items.

Thanks for letting me know. A number of my clients have the AFLAC flex plans and if the plans are updated and it doesn't cost them a thing, all the better for them. I have run across a couple of clients paying outrageous fees to ADP (payroll service) for a simple POP plan.

 

[erikcg123]

Giving away free 125 plans and maintenance is not legit i believe...

 

[warrenins]

Samarco
I might have a few good ideas for you. Email me sometime [email protected] If you think they sound good to you and you think they are worthy I will post here for everyone to see but I don't want it to look like I'm soliciting product. Mike
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Oh wait, I just noticed that was over a year ago that you posted that. Sorry about that

 

[stuy119]

AHL/Allstate is worksite.

I really don't want to fool with that. Just looking for something simple (and inexpensive) to introduce to small employers who do not provide ANY benefits. Offering an inexpensive life, dental, STD plan for a few bucks a month is a start.

Especially if I can convince the employer to throw in $20 or so toward the cost.

Somarco-

Look at Colonial. They have one of the better mini-med plans available, and it can be voluntary (with some participation requirements).

 

[Virtualinagency]

anyone know anything about colonial lifes product line?

 

[DS4]

For STD, I really like Illinois Mutual

I always thought penicillin was best??

 

[rphillips]

anyone know anything about colonial lifes product line?

Here is an article with the Reader's Choice awards for "Benefits Selling" magazine; Colonial is very well represented...

Readers' Choice Awards 2009 - Consumer-Driven Health Care - Benefits Selling Magazine

 

[stuy119]

anyone know anything about colonial lifes product line?

Excellent in every aspect.

 

[Tri-State]

Okay, what is the difference between worksite and voluntary?

Voluntary plans are set up to essentially replace what are commonly thought of as employer paid coverages - Life, LTD, Dental. In the case of Life, it can be a supplement to employer paid base life. LTD can be a buy-up with some carriers with the employer providing either the first x months or the first x dollars of coverage. With Voluntary, the employer "owns" the policy, and makes any plan design changes.

Worksite plans are all supplemental in nature, and do not replace Life, LTD, or Dental coverage. In a word, AFLAC is worksite. They market small indemnity plans and write what are essentially individual policies to each employee that enrolls. Those employees "own" those policies. These plans are typically Cancer, Accident, Critical Illness policies that pay a fixed amount after a certain occurrence.

As for 2-50 lives, for voluntary you're going to have a limited selection below 10 lives. UHC's ancillary will write down to 2 lives. Lincoln and Sun have products that are geared towards the 2-9 market that are different from their 10+ products. Assurant, Guardian, Hartford, and all others are 10+ lives IIRC.

When marketing voluntary, and particularly voluntary, get out of your "best cost" mentality. The goal for voluntary is to make the employer's job and your job as easy as possible, because the employer isn't paying for the benefits. As long as the cost for the benefits isn't so high that it discourages participation, it's priced right.

What you don't want to do is introduce the cheapest voluntary lines to your client, and have it be an administrative nightmare. You've just promised that they won't have to pay anything for these benefits, but now they're paying their benefits administrator to fix all of the billing errors.

Those are real costs too.

If you're dealing with one of the bigger group carriers, don't hire an enrollment company to come in and take your commissions to do your enrollments. Even if you've never written a voluntary case before, the carrier will handle enrollment meetings for you with professional staff, and they will provide the enrollment materials. If they don't, that should be your first red flag.

Voluntary is a huge opportunity as employers look to cut costs, and employees become even more aware of the value of their benefits. Additionally, commissions schedules are generally richer on voluntary because you won't have 100% participation, but premiums are higher than employer paid lines because of the higher pricing based on pricing the risk of adverse selection. It can be a huge revenue builder for you, a huge relationship builder for you (you get more touches on your client), and it's easy to renew (prices are generally very stable).

My $0.02.