The term “voluntary” benefits -- insurance productsoffered by employers but paid primarily by employees -- ismisleading. Increasingly, these offerings play a key role inbenefits offerings to recruit and retain the best team members.Voluntary benefits expand the employee’schoices while allowing far greater personalization for a diverseworkforce.

Once a nice-to-have, voluntary benefits are now nearlymandatory: More than 90 percent of U.S. employers considervoluntary benefits to be important to their value proposition toemployees over the next three to five years.

Traditional voluntary benefits include life insurance, vision,dental, disability, cancer and critical illness insurance, andaccident insurance.

The greatest opportunity for broker differentiation is innontraditional benefits, which are expanding the boundaries ofoptions for brokers and their customers alike. Employers are taskedwith providing optional benefits that address the most criticalneeds of a multigenerational workforce, from long-term care and critical illness protection topet insurance.

Today, one of the fastest-growing areas for benefits brokers isidentity theft and fraud prevention services --and it’s no wonder, given the preponderance of data breaches andoverall growth in identity theft.

As employers seek to create a full portfolio of voluntaryproducts which address the financial wellness of differentgenerations, benefits such as student loan repayment plans andsocial monitoring products will be attractive to younger workerswho spend more time online than any other age group. At the sametime, experienced employees who have more at risk financially fromID theft after a data breach can utilize identity protectionservices alongside other premium benefits.