LTC Fastest Growing Benefit

Business Wire 8/18/2005.

Amid rising healthcare costs, employers are seeking cost-effective ways to enhance their benefits offerings, minimize administrative costs, and address the diverse work/life needs of their employees. The result: many companies are expanding their benefits packages by supplementing employer-funded offerings with voluntary benefits, for which employees pay some or all of the costs. That is one key finding of a study conducted in April based on MetLife's client database of benefit trends and offerings at 88 of the top one hundred FORTUNE 500 companies.

Over the past few years, some of MetLife's largest corporate customers have expanded their employee benefits offerings in several key areas. In particular, long-term care insurance (currently offered by 33% of the companies included in the analysis) is the fastest growing employee benefit, up 61% over the past four years. Disability insurance (39%) is the second most popular in terms of growth, up 28% during the same period.

"As the workforce ages and employee diversity increases, large employers are boosting the breadth of their employee benefits offerings," notes Lee Launer, president of MetLife's Institutional Business. "Products such as long-term care insurance - which help employees protect their retirement assets or balance caregiving responsibility for parents/in-laws with work demands - are expected to grow even more quickly over the next five years than they have in the past."

For a copy of the entire study or to talk about offering long term care insurance to your employees, please contact us.