Human Resources: Veritude Launches New Thought Leadership

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (Feb. 28, 2007) – Unum expands its analysis of the employee benefit landscape with the recent release of trends impacting nine industry sectors. A complement to its Buyers Study released in September, this supplement is a playbook of buying patterns and benefits decisions specific to these industries.

For example the education market is expecting 17 percent growth between 2004 and 2014[i], which will require balancing the need to fill positions with the need to balance a budget. So what’s the answer? Look into employee-paid or shared-funding benefit plans that offer a broader benefit package at an affordable price.

Providing a deeper level of detail for each industry, the supplement supports the message of the Buyers Study – that employers are looking for new options to offset healthcare costs, and supplemental insurance continues to fill that void at a rapid pace.

“Benefits are important to employees – so much so that they are willing to negotiate for them or leave a job because of the lack of them,” said Mike Simonds, senior vice president of marketing and product development. “This supplement allows employers in these specific industries a source that they can reference. Now they can say, ‘This is where the industry is going, and here’s how we can differentiate ourselves from the pack.’ As we look forward to a looming labor shortage, these kinds of conversations will take place more and more for companies that want to succeed.”

The supplement, available exclusively online at www.unumprovident.com/buyerstudysupplement, is designed to assist brokers, HR directors and business decision-makers in making informed choices about their employee benefits packages.

“In the Buyers Study, we set the stage for the issues that all companies will face in the coming years and current sales trends.” said Simonds. “With the supplement, we’re giving employers our insights regarding where each industry is headed and recommendations to consider that are specific to each industry’s changing needs.”

Industry Snapshots: What’s Inside

Education

·        Most short term and long term disability insurance plans are employer-paid (68 percent total inforce).

·        For educational institutions with 250 employees or more, short term disability (STD) benefit durations tend to be longer. For those with 2,000 or more employees, nearly half choose durations of greater than 25 weeks.

·        The most popular supplemental offerings sold in 2005 were individual STD, life and critical illness insurance.

Engineering, Architecture and Related Services

·        Fifty-one percent of STD plans issued from 2003-2005 were employer-funded, while 33 percent were 100 percent employee-paid.

·        The market is split almost evenly between employers who choose group coverage with residual definitions of disability (47 percent) and total definition of disability (46 percent).

·        The two most common choices for maximum benefit amounts for group life insurance are the $50,000 to $99,999 range (33 percent) and the $10,000 to $24,999 range (29 percent).

Financial Services

·        During 2005 a declining proportion of financial services cases offered an employer-paid long term disability (LTD) plan, and in the past three years, there has been a trend toward 100-percent employee-funded group STD.

·        Fifty-five percent of cases sold in the past three years selected LTD benefit maximums in the $5,000 to $7,499 range. In addition, 89 percent of recent cases in the past three years selected the 60 percent benefit package.

·        This sector is expected to grow by 30 percent between 2004 and 2014.

Health Services and Research

·        Over the past three years, the number of plans requiring 100-percent employee funding has grown from 28 percent to 35 percent of inforce STD plans.

·        Benefit maximums for 72 percent of STD plans are in excess of $500 per week, with 36 percent offering a benefit greater than $1,000 per week.

·        During 2003-2005, more than 80 percent of LTD plans sold featured a 60 percent of salary benefit.

Information Services

·        Historically, 66 percent of customers chose employer-paid funding for their LTD plans. But, in the past three years, policies show a shift toward employee-funded plans, with employer-paid dropping to 57 percent.

·        Fewer employees choose spouse or child life insurance on their group policies than in many other industry sectors, likely a reflection of this young workforce.

·        The trend of choosing a residual definition for LTD has increased from 66 percent of inforce cases to 79 percent since 2003.

Legal Services

·        When comparing sales from 2003-2005, there is a shift toward more 100 percent employee-paid LTD plans. Legal, along with education and retail trade, is one of the top three industries to follow this trend.

·        STD benefits for this sector are becoming richer. Current trends show 80 percent of plans offer a maximum weekly benefit of $500 or more, and many offer a maximum benefit of $1,000 or greater.

·        Law firms are among the most highly targeted and penetrated industry sectors for executive coverage. This sector tends to offer a richer critical illness benefit than average, purchasing twice as many plans in the $20,000 to $40,000 benefit range than the average for all industries.

Management Consulting and Marketing

·        There has been a strong shift towards employee contributions for LTD coverage. Forty percent of policies sold in this industry are now 100 percent employee-paid. Employer-paid plans now represent only 49 percent of all policies.

·        STD benefits are becoming richer with the majority of policies offering $501-$1,000 per week and greater than $1,000 weekly maximums gaining in popularity.

·        Supplemental life insurance is the supplemental benefit most often purchased for this segment at 47 percent of total sales, followed by critical illness, with 18 percent of sales.

Manufacturing

·        More than half of these LTD customers chose employer-paid plans last year – a decrease compared to the two-thirds of inforce business that offer employer-paid plans.

·        While LTD shows some cost shifting to employees, there is no clear trend away from employer-paid STD plans. In the past three years 60 percent chose employer paid and 23 percent chose 100 percent employee-paid.

·        Manufacturing is moving toward longer waiting periods for LTD policies, with waiting periods of 180 days on the increase, while 90 day waiting periods are on the decline.

Wholesale/Retail Trade

·        Retail trade is the only industry studied in which 100 percent employee-paid is the No. 1 funding choice for recently issued LTD policies.

·        For wholesale trade, nearly 70 percent of inforce LTD cases select employer funding, although that percentage lessened in 2005 to just under 54 percent.

About Unum

Unum (www.unum.com), formerly UnumProvident, is the largest provider of group and individual income protection insurance, and one of the leading providers of employee benefits products and services in the United States and the United Kingdom. Through its subsidiaries, Unum insures more than 21 million people and provided $6 billion in total benefits to customers in 2006.