Traditionally, U.S. employers have offered to their employees benefit programs that provide financial protection to meet employees' personal and family needs. The basic objective is to develop an insurance program that meets employees' needs by transferring a portion of the employee's financial risks to a third party. The financial risks can include a hospital stay, or a disability preventing an employee from working, or an unexpected death in the family.

Employers provided such benefits to full-time employees and subsidized a portion of the cost. However, today's diverse workplace represents many different lifestyles, and employers can no longer assume that a traditional benefits program will effectively meet the needs of all employees.

Flexibility and choice are now important issues to employees. They want to participate in the buying decisions for their benefits. A number of recent studies indicate employees are willing to pay for benefits, if they can have the ability to choose them. These findings support the recent increase in the number of employers who offer voluntary benefits that are fully paid for by the employees.

Voluntary benefits provide employees choices in buying additional benefits to meet their personal and family lifestyle needs -- with no direct costs to the employer. By integrating a menu of voluntary benefits into a traditional benefits program, employers can create a win/win situation for everyone involved:

• Employees receive flexibility and choice to build a voluntary benefits program that meets their personal and family protection needs.
• Employers can expand their current benefits program to include more benefits, at no direct cost.
• Employees can often purchase voluntary benefits through the convenience of payroll deduction, and the employer may realize savings from the Section 125 FICA program.

Employers who expand their benefit programs through employee-paid voluntary benefits can help employees save their premium dollars through an employer-sponsored arrangement. If employees purchased similar benefits on their own, their would generally pay higher premiums, with less favorable underwriting rules. CBG works with client companies to develop a benefits program that integrates employee-paid voluntary benefits with employer-provided benefits, to help both the company and its employees get the most out of its overall benefits program.