How Your Employees Can Save on Auto and Home Insurance
Voluntary insurance isn’t just for life and health. You can help your employees save significantly on their auto and home insurance by offering coverage through a voluntary employer group plan.
According to a survey on insurance literacy conducted by Zogby International for MetLife, only 19 percent of consumers surveyed knew they could get a discount by buying their auto insurance through an employee group. That’s too bad, because members of an employer or other legitimate group, such as a nonprofit service organization, might save 20 percent or more off what they would pay for auto insurance as an individual.
Group auto and home insurance offer other advantages in addition to savings.
- Other family members residing at the employee’s home also qualify for group rates.
- You can offer employees the option of paying premiums through payroll deduction, making payments easy and convenient. The insurer will work with you to make administration simple.
- Most programs allow members to select other forms of payment, such as automatic credit card payments, etc. Many also allow flexible payment terms to meet the insured’s financial preferences, such as monthly or quarterly billing.
- Employees can retain coverage if they retire or leave your organization, as long as that policy is available in their state of residence.
- Participation is always voluntary. If your employees opt not to participate or find better rates elsewhere, they can cancel their coverage.
- As a voluntary program, group auto and home insurance cost you, the employer, nothing. Participating employees pay 100 percent of premiums.
- Shopping for auto and home insurance isn’t fun. It takes time and research, but if employees can buy coverage through an employer group and get a discount as well, they can save both time and money.
Group property/casualty coverages differ from group life and health coverages in one significant way. Federal and state laws require all health insurance plans sold to small groups (employers with 2-50 employees) to be sold on a guaranteed issue basis. This means the insurer cannot turn down any small group based on a member’s health status. Any individual in the group, no matter what his/her health, can obtain coverage.
The same does not hold true for group property/casualty coverages. When you offer a voluntary group auto or home program to your employees, the insurer will underwrite applications individually to the extent allowed by law. This means the insurer could refuse to cover an employee based on driving record, credit risk or other factor. Still, for the majority of employees who will qualify, a voluntary group auto or home policy offers significant savings, convenience and features they might not find under individual insurance programs.
For more information on enhancing your benefit portfolio with group auto, home or other voluntary coverages, please contact us.
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