There are a number of converging factors creating trying times for benefits brokers. Take your pick of these biggies:
- A weak economy
- Uncertainties surrounding health care reform
- Reduced employer contributions to major medical insurance
- Reduced commissions
The above realities are not small issues that will go away in the next few months. Even in a good environment, the sales process for employer-funded benefits can be long and difficult. With all of the macro-economic challenges that are currently hindering activity in this area, brokers need to find a way to fill their own sales pipeline. What can a broker do to get revenue moving upwards again? The answer could be voluntary benefits.
That is the subject of a new white paper by Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company titled: “Filling the Revenue Gap: How Brokers Can Use Voluntary Benefits to Build Business.” Times change and if brokers are to thrive, it is important to go with the flow. Voluntary benefits are a way to take control of the sales process again and thereby work around the major impediments that are hamstringing the sale of traditional benefits such as major medical and other employer-sponsored benefits.
By focusing on voluntary benefits, brokers may find a willing and powerful partner: employers! Employers are facing major fiscal challenges in being able to offer good programs to their employees. Costs for such benefits are often exceeding their ability to continue the benefits status quo. Voluntary benefits can be the answer, because they help solve the between-the-rock-and-a-hard place challenge that employers must confront. However, voluntary programs are still seen as a strong benefit by employees offered these plans.
The Colonial Life white paper does a nice job of revealing the challenges, the solutions, and how to get started. Best of all, the path to selling voluntary benefits is a relatively easy one with few major obstacles.
It may be time for brokers to explore this option in depth and possibly find a way to get revenues heading north again!
