What You Can Do To Increase Worksite LTC Insurance Enrollments
The keys to successful enrollment of worksite products are the same for all products.
However, employee-level sales become more difficult when the products involved are more complex, cost more than other products, cover a risk that is distant in time, are relatively new in the market, or can be perceived to be a low likelihood of need.
To some degree, worksite-sold long term care insurance meets each of the above criteria. That means you have to be "hitting on all cylinders" in order to be successful in enrolling this product. This article offers some specific steps you can take to do that.
Before examining them, we should note that hybrid products currently are being developed that aim to mitigate some of the shortcomings in worksite LTC products. For example, a disability product that morphs into LTC insurance at retirement addresses the issue of providing relevant coverage earlier in life; however, such products also increase the complexity of what to communicate at enrollment.
A lot is changing in the worksite marketing world. Employee benefit brokers are getting more involved; many products are being written on a group contract rather than on an individual basis; one-on-one enrollments are often not practical from an expense perspective; and technology is being used to fill the gap with Web sites and Internet-based enrollment.
As a broker/agent, you need to be sure to keep things simple for the plan sponsor and the employees youre enrolling. Here are some things to keep in mind, regardless of the sequence of steps you take to enroll LTC insurance for particular accounts.
Make it simple. When communicating with employees, you cannot cover all of the details of LTC insurance. Its just not possible. So focus on giving people a sound understanding of the principles behind the product. Repeating these principles in different media will help, too. The simpler you make it, the more likely it will be that people become interested in your product.
Provide plenty of information. This may sound like a contradiction to the first point, but this is a given when dealing with LTC insurance–because the product is so highly regulated. All details must be covered well in the materials. The Long-Term Care Insurance Shoppers Guide from National Association of Insurance Commissioners is an excellent source of guidance for employees. The simpler you make things on your part, the more likely it is that employees and their families will dig into these materials.
