Last month I brought up the idea that we're going to see a lot of change in the industry over the next 10 years--change that is in the best interest of both plan sponsors and their employees. This change will include adding a new benefit that offers lasting behavioral change and lower health care costs: financial education.
For brokers, this will mean changing the individual benefits you include in the comprehensive benefits package you offer your clients. These changes will develop subtly over time, tied to many of the changes already being seen in sponsored programs today. Here are three major ones to watch for in the next 10 years:
#1: Financial wellness will become a common branch of company wellness programs. As the wellness movement grows, more plan sponsors are realizing that physical as well as financial health are equally important factors in reducing costs and helping employees reach their wellness goals. Once enough has been done to determine the effectiveness of wellness programs that include both related benefits, we'll most likely begin to see insurance companies offering discounts or cost advantages to plan sponsors with these programs.
#2: New recruits will consider financial education when weighing job opportunities. There's no doubt employees who have access to financial education at work value it. Our own studies at Financial Finesse show that over 98 percent of employees who've used their financial education benefit find it an important one. In 10 years, when the benefit is more widely recognized as part of larger wellness programs, employees will not only value it, they'll choose companies to work for based on how thorough their benefits, and particularly their wellness benefits, are.
#3: Health care plans will begin to incorporate financial wellness or brokers will sell the benefit individually. Employee assistance plans also may begin to incorporate financial wellness into their plans. For brokers, that means a change in the landscape of health care benefits packages. Companies will want the benefit and brokers will want to provide it.
John M. Richardson, Jr. once said "When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened." Which one will you be?
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