The devastating impacts of COVID-19 have continued to spotlight the need for insurance, particularly voluntary employee benefits that can provide financial protection for unexpected life events. While the need for benefits such as life insurance have been in the spotlight, what some employees might not be as familiar with are the additional services that often go along with them.
Value-added services that are often included with life insurance deliver extra layers of support for decisions that are made at an overwhelming and unsettling time of deep loss. Some of these services, include:
- Will and funeral preparation services, which can help employees pre-plan and work through key decisions before a crisis event with professional advocates, including licensed attorneys.
- Beneficiary counseling services, which can help bereaved employees cope with emotional, financial and legal issues.
- Accelerated benefit, which is a cash advance for employees diagnosed with a terminal illness. Employees have used it to pay off a family’s mortgage, start a college tuition saving account, pay medical bills not covered by health insurance and even take that one last dream vacation.
At its core, life insurance is a fundamental benefit to protect a family’s financial future. When coupled with value-added services, families can become even more prepared before they are faced with a loss.
How Employers Can Take Action
Employers play an important role in proactively communicating with their employees about the options that are available. Employers can help reduce employee stress with ongoing benefits education that enables them to take positive action and plan ahead.
Fortunately, there is an abundance of material available from benefit vendors and other industry sources that employers can provide to employees. And there are variety of avenues to deliver it. The employee intranet and/or company newsletter are excellent communications vehicles for informative blogs, articles and easy-to-understand FAQs. Employers also can work with vendors to host interactive online webinars to give employees a clear understanding of the support and services they may need someday.
When employers stay on top of their employees’ needs and understand the benefits available, they can be ready to pitch in with timely paperwork and other documentation needed to ease the process.
