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March 24, 2002 at 07:00 PM
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Where should critical illness insurance stand in the corporate benefit package?
As a core benefit.
First, lets remember why companies provide benefits. Benefits provide a way for the employer to take care of workers so the workers can take care of their work. A benefit-rich program is a good-will gesture, an attracter and retainer, and a universally known necessity for competitive U.S. employers.
According to the most recently published “Principal Financial Well-Being Index,” released by the Principal Financial Group, employees feel their most important benefit is health insurance (see www.principal.com). No surprise there.
The index further revealed that, in the wake of September 11 and the whispered recession, employees are placing far more value on traditional core benefits. They rank health insurance, retirement plans, and life insurance as the top benefits.
Therefore, it is todays high stress and financially volatile climate that begs for CI insurance as a core benefit.
Employees are looking for security in an increasingly insecure world. Yet because of company downsizing and economic slowdowns, one in three employees expect their benefit packages to decline over the next year (Principal Financial Well-Being Index).
However, now is not the time for employers to let benefit programs decline. Rather, it is a time to restructure the benefits package to fit todays benefit needs. They can do this by placing more emphasis on financial protection benefits such as disability, life insurance, and, yes, critical illness insurance.
Compare CI insurance to other typical employer-sponsored core benefits. Employees are becoming increasingly more concerned with their long-term financial stability, yet corporations continue to place emphasis on benefits that, however useful, are not made to protect the number one concern for employees today–their assets.
