Offering Voluntary Benefits ‘A Matter Of Survival’ For Brokers

ORLANDO, Fla. - As the health insurance market has changed in recent years, the health insurance broker’s business model has shifted away from offering individual health coverage and toward offering more voluntary benefits.

What benefit products are out there? How do brokers present the right products to the right target market? Where is this market heading?

Robert Shestack, chairman and CEO of the Voluntary Benefits Association, will present a road map for selling voluntary products at the 2017 Health Agents for America Agent Summit.

“Twenty years ago, we sold major medical, vision and dental, life and disability insurance,” Shestack said. “Life was good and commissions were high.”

Things have changed.

“Today we are facing more compliance issues than ever,” he said. “We have health maintenance organizations, health savings accounts, health reimbursement accounts – it’s more confusing than ever.”

Shestack’s presentations at the summit are aimed at giving attendees the background information on who the major players are in the benefits marketplace and what products are available.

“We want to go over what brokers are doing what, what are the big players doing, what should the boutique brokers be doing relative to voluntary benefits, and the things that could be considered agency survival or things that can help them compete in the marketplace against some of the bigger houses,” he said.

Shestack also is taking a “deep dive” into voluntary benefits.

“What is critical illness, what is accident insurance?  Where were they five years ago, where are they today? Where will we see those products migrating in the future? How to use those products with clients. Finding the right client where that product fits. Finding the right demographics in an employer and where those products fit.”

Explaining all the different products in the voluntary marketplace and how to determine which products fit with what employer is another topic.

The future of the voluntary benefits marketplace also will be covered in Shestack’s presentation.

“We’ll go over some statistics relative to the voluntary benefits space – where it is today, where it was over the last five or 10 years, where we see voluntary benefits in the future,” he said. “We’ll take a look at product development, product migration, enhancements to some products.”

Offering voluntary benefits has several advantages to health insurance brokers, Shestack said.

“First of all, it’s a matter of survival from the standpoint that brokers are not making the same commissions they used to relative to major medical and core benefit offerings. Voluntary benefits are a way for them to find alternative methods of revenue for their agencies,” he said.

“We believe voluntary benefits have a place in the market,” he continued. “With higher deductibles, higher coinsurance and more exposure passed on to the employee relative to out-of-pocket medical costs, voluntary benefits are a way for workers to counter some of this.”

“We’re going to talk about how voluntary benefits can help employees cover some of the expenses involved with higher deductible medical plans. We’ll go over some unique ways of using voluntary benefits for employers who may be funding a health reimbursement account.”

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at Susan.Rupe@innfeedback.com.

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