We've written several articles about the change that hasoccurred in benefit managers' attitudes toward the types ofcoverages that are suitable for their employees. Twenty years ago,benefit managers only offered those products that most/all of theemployees wanted and needed.

Today, with voluntary benefits being an integral part of anemployer's benefit package, the mindset is “if some of my employeeswant this, why not offer it?” The result is a much more robustpackage of benefits—especially voluntary benefits.

While brokers have become comfortable with most traditionalplans, pet insurance, identity theft coverage, legal plans andemployee purchase programs also are becoming increasingly common inbenefit packages.

Employee ownership of these products is still low but this isn'tsurprising since many of these products have only recently begun tobe accepted as employee benefits. Employee purchase programs areamong the most popular, with 13 percent of employees owning theproduct through work. Next is legal plans, with 8 percent ofemployees owning the product through work; identity protection at 3percent and pet insurance at 1 percent.

Perhaps more importantly, employees express interest in buyingthese types of plans. The interest levels are very similarregardless of whether the employee currently owns any voluntaryproducts or not. (See the sidebar at right.)

As a result, many brokers have added these products to theirvoluntary portfolio, but many have still not made the leap. Thebroker that tends to specialize in voluntary or worksite productshas been adding these products at a somewhat faster rate thanbenefit brokers.

Brokers who have not yet added these coverages need to rethinkthe role these coverages can play. They might provide an offensiveweapon that can open new discussions with employers and enhancerevenue, as well as a defensive weapon to compete with the brokersthat do offer them.

If you haven't yet made the leap, it's time to take anotherlook.