Transamerica: Small Employers Know Health Benefits

At small companies, 77% said offering life insurance is important, and 74% said offering disability insurance is important.

The large-company participants were slightly likely than they were in 2008-2009 to call disability insurance, life insurance and 401(k) plans important benefits to offer. But the percentage of large-company participants who said a defined benefit pension plan is an important benefit to offer increased to 72%, from 65%.

At small companies, the percentage of participants who said defined benefit pension benefits are important fell to 57%, from 63%. But the percentage who called disability insurance, life insurance and 401(k) plan benefits increased by 1 to 2 percentage points in each category, and the percentage who called offering long term care insurance important increased to 36%, from 33%.

Other survey findings:

- Only 13% of the participants predicted that their company's financial situation would get worse in the next 12 months, down from 29% a year earlier.

- The percentage of employers with an automatic defined contribution retirement plan enrollment program that use diversified investment funds as the default investment option fell to 40%, down from 53% in 2008-2009, and the percentage that use a money market fund or stable-value fund as the default option increased to 33%, from 12%.