Life guards: to differentiate themselves from competitors, some group life insurers offer help planning funerals and writing wills.

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At a time when employees kick in a greater share for workplace health care plans and employers reduce or eliminate matching contributions to retirement accounts, several large life insurers are reversing the trend. They're adding benefits to their group life plans.

In the first half of this year, the Hartford Financial Services Group added funeral-planning services and online guidance in will preparation and estate planning at no additional cost to employers or employees. The ING USA Life Group added funeral-planning benefits, also at no additional cost. The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America added will-preparation services. And MetLife last year began offering estate resolution services as a standard feature to its supplemental term life, group universal life and group variable universal life, available through employers in a number of states.

Ron Gendreau, executive vice president of The Hartford's Group Benefits Division, said offering the new benefits is a way to differentiate the company from competitors.

"In this business, our life contracts look very similar," he said. "What we're trying to do is wrap some customer experiences around that life contract that makes this a richer program for employees and something that really meets their needs in a more holistic way."

The new benefits are also cost-effective, even though Hartford has not passed costs along to employers or employees. "We're actually paying for them through better sales results, more business and retention of customers," he said.

The company has contracted with Everest, a nationwide funeral planning and concierge service. Plan members or their families can call advisers at Everest at any time to plan for funerals years in advance or immediately following the death of an insured.

The advisers do not sell funeral goods or services and don't receive commissions. "It's not comfortable after a loved one dies to be running around to funeral homes trying to figure out what is the best deal," said Gendreau. "It's much better to get the services of professionals who really know that business to help you negotiate on your behalf and take care of those issues so you can focus your emotional energy where it should be focused, which is on the family."

Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America: Call Center Help

Guardian's WillPrep Services give plan members access to online planning documents and professional assistance with issues related to trusts, wills, guardianship, conservatorship, advanced health-care directives, estate taxes and financial and health care powers of attorney. The program is designed so that people will want to start online, but then can call a toll-free number for more information.

"The call center typically won't give callers specific legal advice, but would give them advice on how these different documents work and on where to go for more help," said Barry Petruzzi, second vice president, Group Life and Disability. "All that is included within the WillPrep product. If they are looking for an actual attorney, we will refer them to one for a small fee."

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Guardian provides plans to small- and midsize businesses, which often don't provide as much access to estate-planning products and services as larger companies, said Petruzzi. The WillPrep service is free to anyone who buys a Guardian voluntary or employee-pay life plan.

The employee assistance program helps Guardian stand out in the minds of producers, whom Petruzzi said often view group insurance as a commodity. The program helps plan members navigate through complexities in their lives. "We've done research that shows that people in general may spend more time shopping for Christmas presents and preparing their Thanksgiving dinners than thinking about their benefits and some of these financial issues, he said. "So the onus is really on us to try to help them through that."

Guardian Life Insurance Company of America

A.M. Best Company # 06508

Distribution: Career agents, independent agents, brokers

MetLife: 'Nice Value-Added Service'

MetLifebegan offering will-preparation services as a standard feature on supplemental term and group life plans in 2000. The services are provided by Hyatt Legal Plans, a MetLife subsidiary that has offered stand-alone legal coverage since 1997. Some 860 MetLife group-life customers now offer it.

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According to Marcia Bowers, Hyatt's marketing director, MetLife last year began offering more sophisticated estate-resolution services that involve probating an estate of a deceased life insurance policyholder. This includes legal representation for the executor or estate administrator, telephone and office consultations, preparation of documents and representation at court proceedings. Attorneys may also help with the transfer of nonprobate assets, such as proceeds from insurance policies and bank accounts.

"This program was announced in late 2008 and took effect in 2009," said Bowers. "So far, we have 150 customers, so we're thinking this is another really nice value-added service."

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

A.M. Best Company # 06704

Distribution: Career and independent agents, wirehouses, banks, brokers

ING USA Life Group: Predicting Proactive Planning

ING contracted last year with nationwide funeral planning and concierge service Everest and introduced funeral planning benefits on group products on Jan. 1. Ivan Gilreath, president of Employee Benefits, said it is "way too early" to judge whether the Everest service has boosted group life sales. The program was not in place soon enough to affect contracts written or renewed on Jan. 1. But he said ING expects it will be a factor for contracts beginning Jan. 1, 2010, "since we [lave a chance to communicate in a much more in-depth fashion than we did last year."

Everest is not a discount service like a preferred provider organization, Gilreath said. "But they certainly try to advise people on how to best budget and plan for a funeral without offering discount services per se," he said. He predicted that plan members will engage more in proactive funeral planning rather than after the death of an insured. He said the cost of the benefits is embedded in the group life insurance price and that it is a "very minimal part" of the total cost.

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"This is a very good sign that employers care about their employees and want to offer them these types of things, even in a down economic environment," he said.

ING Life Insurance and Annuity Co.

A.M. Best Company # 06895

Distribution: Independent and career insurance agents, banks, broker/dealers

Hartford's 'Conversation' With Customers

Funeral benefits are part of the "Life Conversations from The Hartford" package. Plan members may also go online to create a legally binding will or explore estate planning. "Will preparation is one of the things people avoid more than anything else," said Ron Gendreau, executive vice president of The Hartford's Group Benefits Division. "It really forces you to answer some very tough questions. And that's one of the benefits of having a service like this. It enables people to at least start to think about the kinds of decisions they need to make."

Hartford hired Opinauri Inc., an independent market research firm, to survey 1,019 U.S. adults ages 18 to 64 in April. Some 82% of employees surveyed said it would be helpful to have access to funeral planning, will preparation and estate planning services through their employers. And while 94% of respondents indicated it was important to have family discussions on end-of-life issues, 58% had not had any about funeral plans, and 65% had not discussed the contents of their will.

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"That was a real significant gap," said Gendreau. "When we saw this kind of a need expressed and that kind of a gap, we felt that this program made a lot of sense for us."

The financial pieces are not the most difficult ones, Gendreau said. "The toughest pieces are who should care for the kids, who do you leave money to, who do you protect?" he said. "Do you have any special family situations that require additional thought, like a dependent parent or a child with special needs?"

An online tool may be enough for most people because most do not need complicated arrangements, said Gendreau. "It's really a great enabler to help a husband and wife face these questions in a safe environment without having to be in front of an attorney," he said.

Hartford Life Insurance Co.

A.M. Best Company # 06518

Distribution: Independent agents, brokers, banks, wirehouses

In a Touch Economy, Group Plans Step Up

It's a sign of the times: layoffs, early retirements and tough decisions about all things financial. In response, ING's U.S. Retirement Services launched a new suite of services in June to help employees in its large corporate and government defined-contribution retirement plans to navigate the complexities of workplace transitions.

In its Taking Control program, ING offers holistic advice in three areas: Transition Counseling, a service for plan participants who are being laid off or are moving to a new company; Retirement Readiness, counseling for plan members over 50 or within five years of retirement; and Benefits Solutions, help for employers undergoing large work-force reductions, the closing or sale of a business, retirement plan terminations or other complex transitions.

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Many individual decisions involve whether to stay in a former employer's retirement plan; roll over assets, either into a new employer's plan or into an Individual Retirement Account; or take cash distributions, along with planning for retirement income. But the ING program also helps displaced employees that have lost health or group life insurance explore their options.

On the health insurance side, for example, ING has partnered with United Health and Golden Rule to help laid-off employees obtain high-deductible individual insurance, said Julie Kozlowski, vice president of ING's Financial Solutions Group. On the life insurance side, it has partnered with Crump Life Insurance Services, a life insurance aggregator, to help survey the field to help individuals find life insurance products that best meet their needs.

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The program can help ING to retain retirement-plan assets and generate some revenue from the health- and life-insurance sales. But providing holistic and objective advice "are good things for our participants and sponsors, and it's the right thing to do," Kozlowski said.

"Our hope and expectation is that as these individuals retire or go through a transition, the counsel and guidance we've provided them is going to resonate, and that when they're ready to make some financial decisions, they'll come back to ING and look to us to help provide solutions for them," she said.

The recession is also generating unusual activity at MetLife and its subsidiary, Hyatt Legal Plans, which provides stand-alone, voluntary legal-assistance plans through sales at the work site. Hyatt said plan member usage in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the first quarter of 2008, was up 171% for refinancing and home equity loans, 135% for property tax assessments, 65% for personal bankruptcy and 26% for debt-collection defense. Hyatt's group legal plans provide access to a network of attorneys for advice and representation at a cost of $16.50 to $19.50 a month; the fees are deducted from paychecks.

"The recession, oddly enough, has fueled demand among employee users and employer buyers," said Marcia Bowers, Hyatt Legal Plans' marketing director. "We are experiencing some attrition of about 5% to 10% due to layoffs, but that has been offset by demand, so 2009 isn't looking quite so bad as we thought it would be last year."

* The Trend: Several writers of group life insurance have launched services for policyholders in their golden years.

* What It Means: Writers want to alter the perception of group life as a commodity that competes primarily on price.

* What's Next: Other group life writers will have to decide whether to add funeral planning, will preparation and estate-resolution services to their plan offerings.

Cost of Living
Group life insurance per employee * ranked by company size

Company Size         Less than 100    100-499    500-999    1,000-2,499

Annual Dollars                  82         81        177             99
Cents Per Hour                 3.8        3.9        8.6            4.7
% of Payroll                   0.1        0.2        0.3            0.2
% Receiving, FT/PT            69/8      91/23     100/44         100/90

Company Size         2,500-4,999    5,000+    All Companies

Annual Dollars               214        76               87
Cents Per Hour              10.6       3.7              4.3
% of Payroll                 0.3       0.2              0.2
% Receiving, FT/PT        100/50    100/60

* In premiums and death benefits paid, 2007

Source: U.S. Chamber of Commerce