Eventually, we will move past the pandemic and enter a "Wild West" scenario due to the hit to the industry's in-force book of business.
In the first month of the COVID-19 outbreak, more than 26 million U.S. workers lost their jobs and filed for unemployment benefits; that equates to about 1 in 6 American employees. To give a parallel, COVID-19 accomplished in 30 days what took a year to reach in terms of job losses during the 2008 recession. And things have only gotten worse from there. If your revenue collection method is payroll deduction—as is voluntary benefits—this is a life-changing event as a producer, broker or carrier.
When there is a "new normal," business models must change. The last example of this was 9/11. Although we eventually re-entered skyscrapers and started flying on planes again, some changes that arose during that time became permanent. Today, we still have clear plastic bags at sporting events, metal detectors everywhere, and employee ID badges—none of which were mandated prior to that event 19 years ago.
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