When you take the commission, you owe clients the consultation

Prior to becoming an employee benefits adviser, I worked as a sales rep at a group life and disability carrier. Our CEO would say, “Insurance policies are promises. That’s what we sell. We sell promises.” I loved the simplicity of this explanation and his passion for taking care of disabled employees and the families of the recently deceased. 

Today, as an employee benefits adviser, it’s no longer my role to make insurance coverage promises. Instead, as an adviser, I help clients understand the integrity of the promises they are purchasing. 

When it comes to your clients’ group life and disability policies, do the promises they’re purchasing have integrity? If the policy fails, will they feel you did your job of challenging them on the particular point of failure and letting them know their alternative options? 

Expanding expectations
Doesn’t it seem like your clients’ list of expectations of advisers is expanding and shifting nearly as fast as healthcare costs soar? There is exponential growth in the array of products, tools and potential business partners available that need vetting, learning, processes built around and presenting. 

Read more: Why your company values should be your compass for guiding benefits design

Employers expect help navigating the relentless evolution of benefits-related technology and compliance. Advisers also serve as many clients' primary resource for staying on the vanguard of evolving wants and needs across the multiple generations of employees in their workforce. 

Our entire industry is suffering from responsibility creep. Advisers must diligently prioritize, streamline and partner effectively with third parties to keep up with the growing demand. Amidst all this busyness, what have you and your agency unintentionally sacrificed? Where does client education regarding plan integrity rank among your client-deliverable priorities? Where do you think it ranks on your client’s list of expectations? 

Many clients would list such consultation as the most important responsibility. It’s almost definitely in their top five. If so, are you aligned with their expectations? Let’s do a quick test. Describe to me, with vivid detail, what your group life and disability consultation looks like for a prospective client. If you get as far as, "It contains a plan summary and rates aligned from lowest to highest,” and you have little additional picture to paint, you are the norm. 

Read more: Bad habits from the pandemic can (and need to) be broken

While this price-check can secure the lowest possible rate on an existing set of benefit plans, it overlooks more essential questions. 

• Does the employer have the correct plans for their evolving population, compensation objectives, rising salaries, revised PTO programs, new state leave legislation, new owner business continuity planning, etc.? 
• Do their plans have a level of integrity they are comfortable standing behind come claim time? 
• Does the client fully understand through dynamic claim illustrations the massive financial impact the contract’s limitations present to the claimants? Do they understand the likelihood of these limitations playing out on a longer duration claim?”

The problem is that you can't ask clients such questions before a thorough education. They lack the insight to answer such questions in a way they will stand behind should the policy fail. They look to you, their adviser, for analysis, guidance and recommendations. 
Unfortunately, clients receive little policy stewardship from advisers regarding group life and disability insurance. When challenged, advisers point to more pressing healthcare cost issues, the low incidence of such claims, and that they are doing their part by aligning to benchmark. 

These plans get price checked every few years, but plan integrity education is almost always skipped entirely until a policy fails. This oversight is not malicious. It is most directly the result of busyness.

Consulting and policy integrity
Today, as an employee benefits adviser focused primarily on traditional group life and disability insurance, I help employers understand the integrity of the policies (promises) they have purchased.

Read more: How to build economic diversity into benefit plan design

By integrity, I mean how often will the final claim outcome match the client’s simple intent for purchasing the policy. For instance, when an employee becomes disabled, will the claimant receive the full stated salary replacement until a physician says they are no longer disabled?

Anyone in this industry for an extended time knows that this is a rare outcome. Taxes, limitations, exclusions and other tricky wording will almost always lead to an outcome other than the benefit matching the face page of the policy for the full duration of the claimant’s disability.

Clients deserve better. If you pound the table demanding better healthcare consulting, client education and transparency on medical policies, why is the standard any less for the products that insure these same employees in the event of their death or serious long-term disability?

It’s time for a shift away from spreadsheets and recycled plan designs to consulting that empowers clients to make informed plan decisions that they can stand behind at claim time. 

Whether or not your agency has the time or capability to perform such analysis does not relinquish the consultative duty we have to clients. If your team lacks resources, there are business partners who can help lift the burden. 

Truly delivering on the adviser's promise “to provide client’s comprehensive consulting” is tough business. If being an adviser were simple and straightforward, there would be no need for employee benefits advisers and the pay for top performance wouldn’t be so high. 

When we take the commission generated by a policy, no one is coming behind us to educate our client for free, except for potential competitors. There is an unwritten code of duty that says, when you take the commission, you owe the consultation. 

If insurance policies are promises, how will you prioritize consulting around a policy’s integrity?