SMART STRATEGY SPECIALISTS    New York firm's Employee Benefits Management Group generates 40% of total agency revenues Collect the employee census, pick a plan design, and choose a deductible. Then ask the health insurers to make their best offer. Do it again next year. Twenty-five years ago, that was the extent of employee benefits services provided by most agents and brokers. But evolving employer strategies, consolidation of the group health insurance marketplace and dramatic changes in federal regulation have completely remade the employee benefits business, says Robert Kuelzow, CLU, RHU, REBC, CEBS, senior vice president of Rose & Kiernan, Inc., based in East Greenbush, New York. "Benefits have been changing at breakneck speed," he says. As costs steadily increased over the past three decades, employers pressed their agents and brokers and group health insurers for more tools and plan alternatives that would allow them to get better control over their future costs. As a result, employers have been seeking more hard data upon which to base their decisions and more strategies for long-term change. Self-funding has become more common and employers expect more sophisticated negotiation from their agents and brokers. Kuelzow says this trend has also changed his agency's approach to employee benefit management, creating more specialization among its services, greater transparency in its compensation and much more frequency in its interaction with clients. Click here for the complete article …

GENERATION TRANSITION    The Hartford focuses on the future with outreach to Millennials Baby Boomers, the long-time rock stars of marketers' hearts, are gradually retiring. Employee benefits providers will continue to cater to Boomers' significant interest in retirement products, but long-term-let's face it-it is future generations that will supply the growth for employee benefits products. The departing Boomers will slowly give way to a generation of new benefits buyers. About a year and a half ago, The Hartford embarked upon a broad-based effort to understand the special needs and perspectives of Millennials, (currently ages 18-31), also known as Gen Y. There are approximately 80 million Millennials and, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, by the year 2020 Millennials will represent almost 50% of the U.S. workforce. The Hartford, which offers both employer paid and voluntary products, began by conducting an online survey of Millennials' attitudes towards benefits products, noting how they differed from those of Baby Boomers (ages 57-65). The independently conducted research came up with some revealing differences in the two groups, and some potential opportunities for marketing to Millennials, particularly for disability insurance. In The Hartford's 2012 Benefits For Tomorrow Study, 48% of Millennials rated voluntary benefits as "extremely important," compared to only 30% of Boomers. The annual consumer survey also showed significant differences in how the two groups make their product choices: • 27% of Millennials would turn to their parents versus 2% of Boomers. • 16% of Millennials would seek help from a close friend versus 3% of Boomers. • 12% of Millennials would ask their manager, compared to 2% of Boomers. Among the findings which point toward significant opportunities for disability sales to Millennials: 56% of Millennials overestimated the cost of disability insurance by hundreds of dollars. Click here for the complete article …