The Best Voluntary Short Term Disability in the Market

By Dominic Siciliano

Former NAHU President, Mel Schlessinger, once proclaimed Companion Life’s Voluntary STD product the best in the market.  I happen to agree with him and here are the reasons why:

1.  Entry Age Freeze--once a member purchases this product he/she will always be considered by Companion to be that age.  This means simplicity for HR people and no hassle of updating age chart every year.

2.  Employer chooses the plan design but the employee chooses the weekly benefits.  The employee chooses what he/she can spend monthly from the paycheck and can always buy up.

3.  Guaranteed Issue at initial open enrollment and a waiver of pre-ex in a takeover situations.  This product should replace Aflac STD in every one of your groups.

4.  Minimum of 5 enrolled required for a group above 10 eligible and minimum 3 needed for a group below 10 eligible.

5.  Maternity and Mental Health treated as standard disability.

6.  Flat 15% commissions plus a bonus in 2013 for selling voluntary life along side.

Details of this program can be found here or if you'd like to have a discussion in your office, call 888.313.9571 to set up an appointment.

Consider This. . .

In a 10 person group, let’s say four people enroll in the benefit.  Employee 1 purchases a $350 weekly benefit for $32 monthly while Employee 2 purchases $700 for $64 monthly.  The other two total another $90 for roughly $182 monthly.  You make an extra $27 monthly on the case so your four person group just became a five person group. 

Multiply this by 10 and you have a 100 person group.  40 people take the benefit for a $2000 monthly bill.  You make $300 monthly and $3600 annually on the benefit.  That’s just like adding a small group to your book of business.

Lifetime Deductible Takeovers and Credit for Dental Max Rollovers

By Dominic Siciliano

It is common for agencies in the Michigan market to feature both lifetime deductibles and increasing dental maximums.  Companion Life and AlwaysCare were big drivers of the lifetime deductibles while Guardian and AlwaysCare featured the dental max rollover accounts.  

But as you know, dental premiums do increase and it is always possible to find a cheaper carrier.  It is tougher though to find a carrier who will give credit for lifetime deductibles and rollover maximums.  Kansas City Life Group Benefits will do just that.  

I know what you’re thinking—Kansas City Who? Kansas City Life is our newest dental partner.  They are A rated, very service oriented and relationship driven.  They have a solid dental network and they pay at the 90th percentile out of network.  They are very flexible with their plan designs and they are interested in takeover business.  

For more information on KCL, click here. 

If you quote with BPI, we will furnish you with quotes for Companion, MetLife, MMA and Kansas City Life.  If you have a Companion case you are taking to the market, we’d love to see what our other carriers can do to retain that business with BPI.  In addition, we can always ask Companion for experience and to review the increase for possible relief.

The Best Kept Secret—Free Will Preparation with MetLife’s Supplemental Life Insurance

By Dominic Siciliano

BPI is proud to represent MetLife for a variety of reasons.  Their dental contract is rich with a huge network and brand recognition, their financials are strong and their local service is top notch.  In addition, because Met is so big and services so many mega groups, their products tend to reflect very unique value-adds. 

This is notable in their supplemental life insurance program where Met offers free will preparation service for any member who purchases a minimum voluntary life benefit of $10,000 or more.  This will preparation takes place with an actual live attorney from the Hyatt Legal Network, a network that Met owns.  The benefit allows the member to meet face-to-face with the attorney at absolutely no extra cost.  Details of this program can be found here.

I have been through several enrollments now with Met Voluntary where this benefit alone drove more supplemental life sales and really became a great value to the employees.  Remember, voluntary life pays flat 15% commissions and you are doing your groups’ employees a great service in the process.  Studies have now shown that the majority of Americans do not carry life insurance and the majority of the ones who do buy it through work more than on their own individually.

Worksite Benefits from a Core Guy’s Perspective

By Dominic Siciliano

I grew up a Core guy.  I cut my teeth at Priority Health learning Medicare Advantage, then moved over to Agent Alliance to work with agents' Blue Cross in small groups.  Just as recently as a year ago, I had one thing in mind—how do we quote to get new medical groups or keep the ones we had. 

Sure we sold Companion Life and we talked Voluntary Dental—a sale that seemed natural and easy enough.  Medical benefits are expensive enough, it made sense to me groups would offer the opportunity to purchase dental as a voluntary add on.  And voluntary life—that made sense.  Even STD and LTD seemed like a nice, easy way to offer employees financial protection on a voluntary basis.  

But what about that other stuff—critical illness or accident?  I have to admit, I was skeptical.  I saw how expensive the medical benefits were—I see how agents continued to move and change benefits just to keep plans in place.  How could we ethically recommend even more spend of the employee’s dollar? 

So I started asking agents about it.  Do you sell voluntary, more specifically worksite?  If so, how do you do it?  What carriers do you sell?  The answers were varied from agents who told me they despise the very idea of it to those who told me they are experiencing great success and their groups are really enjoying the benefits.  But the process still seemed odd to me.  How does it work?  How do they sell it?

I began talking to the carriers.  The answers were hard to come by.  Some told me they had to accompany the agent on every sale because they are the experts.  No, that doesn’t feel right.  Others told me the products ‘sell themselves’ and they just need the opportunity to quote.  That’s not right either.  Then finally I found one who told me their style is to find areas they can enhance the benefits experience, lower core costs or even solve employer issues through their varied resources with several enrollment platforms.  This started to fit.  I finally began to see how it could work—if through the enrollment process (which is necessary for voluntary benefits) the agent can solve essential employee or employer pains, then the sale becomes a solution.

BPI, Allstate Benefits and You—The Professional Solution

By Dominic Siciliano

What about the cost of worksite benefits?  I know how much employees are paying for the core benefits alone.  How do we reconcile selling them even more?  These are questions I struggled with as I ventured into this side of our business.  I discovered the answer in our very first Allstate sale. 

It’s a 70 person group.  The group owner is passionate about her employees and is proud to offer medical, dental, disability and life.  But she had to make a tough decision this renewal and raise her deductible to $4000 a single.  You all have heard this hundreds of times.  The owner just didn’t want to force an increase of the employee contribution but she couldn’t absorb the increase.  But she was worried about that exposure for the employees.  She knew an event would ruin them financially—that very few of them had $4000 of dispensable income.  

So the agent went looking for a solution.  With Allstate he found she could offer her employees a chance to buy protection from much of this exposure on a voluntary basis.  They offered group critical illness and accident.  These are guaranteed issue group products with blended rates.  The agency ran the meetings and enrollment in a day.  The employees, although not thrilled with the increase in medical deductible, were happy to have at least an option of protection and many enrolled.  The group decision maker was pleased that she wasn’t leaving them totally in the lurch.  And the agent increased his commission and his value in one of his best client relationships.

I’m not trying to sugar coat anything though.  No one thinks that this is a great situation for employees.  But the reality is agents get paid to offer solutions.  In this case, Allstate was a great brand with very unique, group-filed worksite products that acted much more like traditional benefits than individual worksite products. 

More and more, these situations will require a partner like Allstate. Benefit Profiles Inc has access to a variety of systems, products and ideas surrounding the voluntary benefits.  Give us a call to discuss a meeting where we can dive more deeply into the details of products and where they would work in some of your groups.

Introducing Benefit Profiles Inc

By Dominic Siciliano

Benefit Profiles Inc is a group benefits General Agency with the mission of partnering with agents to help grow their business.  We have a commitment to personal service and we work with carriers who share this same commitment.  All our carriers are A rated and dedicate themselves to getting the job done right. 

To learn more, click here.