Employer sponsorship of voluntary life insurance programs has plummeted at one large benefits compliance and communications firm.
Analysts from a unit of Gartner and from DirectPath, the benefits services firm, have reported that finding in a look at data from 907 DirectPath employers clients that use DirectPath’s benefits program benchmarking service.
Only 45% of DirectPath’s clients are offering voluntary supplemental life this year, down from 83% in 2017.
The percentage of DirectPath clients offering voluntary accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) coverage plunged to 27%, from 59%.
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DirectPath is a Birmingham, Alabama-based company that serves large employers all over the United States. About 70% of its employer clients have 8,100 or more employees, and the clients tend to be the kinds of employers that offer solid benefits packages.
Analysts say the sharp drop in the offer rate for voluntary life and AD&D coverage is the the result of improvements in the labor market, and in employer-paid benefits packages, rather than of efforts to cut benefits packages.