Benefits executives at OneAmerica Financial Partners Inc. have an idea for how to improve Americans' life insurance coverage: Make sure employers know that workers like having access to voluntary life insurance benefits programs.
OneAmerica, the Indianapolis-based parent of American United Life Insurance Company, is using a national press release to make the case that workers value voluntary life benefits more than many employers realize.
OneAmerica is one of the companies supporting Life Happens' Life Insurance Awareness Month outreach campaign for 2017, which started Friday.
In the new press release, which was distributed through PRNewswire.com, OneAmerica contends that there's a gap in employers' level of voluntary life benefits value awareness.
Figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics show that 59% of private U.S. employers offer group life insurance benefits. The take-up rate for those benefits is 98%.
In many cases, however, the group life benefits amount to just 100% to 200% of the workers' annual salary. Many financial planners say family breadwinners' need benefits equal to at least 700% of their annual earnings.
OneAmerica sponsored a survey of 2,167 employed U.S. adults in March. Just 45% of the participants said they had voluntary life insurance.
