2nd January 2007
The UK’s leading disability insurer, UnumProvident, has strengthened its flexible benefits offering to allow advisers to recommend a more comprehensive package to employer clients. New product features include increased maximum benefits on Group Life cover and a built-in guarantee period for employee rates.
UnumProvident has offered flexible benefits to its employer clients for several years, but the recent product enhancements are part of a move to formalise its offering. As part of this, UnumProvident has also produced a range of new support materials.
Offering flexible benefits provides employers with a package of employee benefits that demonstrates that they have recognised that their employees have differing needs in terms of life and protection benefits. The package can include any of the following products, from which the employee can choose those that suit their needs best:
- Group Income Protection
- Group Life
- Group Dependents’ Pension
- Spouse’s/ Partner’s Group Life
- Group Critical Illness (with or without spouse/ partner cover option)
UnumProvident’s scheme also allows for a wide range of guaranteed insurability options, allowing employees to change benefit structures, often without medical evidence, at busy and significant stages in their life, such as marriage or becoming a parent.
The need for employers to recognise that employees’ needs and circumstances differ during their working lives is reflected in the recent UnumProvident US Buyers Study. The study looked at the trends that employers are facing, and found that almost half of employees in the US are unmarried, that this percentage is projected to grow and that there are also a rising number of couples without children. Although these are US figures, UnumProvident says that to a large extent they also reflect the workforce changes that we are seeing in the UK.
Paul Davies, Marketing and Business Development Director, UnumProvident, said:
Changing workforce demographics require changing benefit solutions and a move towards a mix of employer and employee paid contributions if we are to meet the needs of UK business. UnumProvident’s Flexible Group Risk Benefits scheme, along with other provisions, such as the new-to-market Pay Direct solution, have been developed in response to these new employment practices and provides a much wider menu of choice than traditional benefits options.
As flexible benefits form an increasingly important component of the workforce remuneration package, it is vital that we recognise this and innovate to meet this trend. We believe that by pioneering new flexible benefits solutions we will ensure that UnumProvident continues to maintain its position as a leading provider of Group Risk solutions in the UK. Flexible benefits, where there is an equality of contribution input, may justifiably be the long term solution to previous benefit patterns, which are now being questioned under the Age Discrimination legislation.
Other innovations from UnumProvident include its Capital Option product, where income protection can be replaced by a lump sum payment in the case of an extended incapacity diagnosis, and Pay Direct, where employers may elect to have benefits paid to the employee rather than retain them on the payroll.
For further details on UnumProvident’s products, advisers should visit the website at: http://www.unumprovident.co.uk/Home/Advisers/Literature/.
ENDS