5 Leading Voluntary Benefits to Boost 2025 Groups Benefits Insurance Packages

Discover Which Voluntary Benefits Are Trending in 2025 & How to Present Them To Your Group Clients

In the past decade, voluntary benefits have become increasingly popular as additions to benefit packages employers offer to their employees. This is mainly due to a more competitive job market and an increased focus on employee recruitment, retention, and satisfaction, and voluntary benefits can be a valuable tool for attracting top talent and improving employee retention rates. 

So, what are voluntary benefits? What voluntary benefits are employees most interested in the upcoming year and beyond? We’ll cover that information and more in this blog!

What Are Voluntary Benefits for Group Insurance?

Voluntary benefits are insurance products that are offered to employees during Open Enrollment that go beyond the typical standard, employer-provided benefits and health insurance plans. These supplemental and optional benefit plans can be a low-cost, high-value opportunity to boost your benefits package.

Trending Voluntary Benefits to Offer in 2025

There are many voluntary benefits that employers can offer to their employees. Here are five of the most popular they should consider and why your insurance organization might think about selling these types of plans.

1. Supplemental Health Benefits

When people think of voluntary benefits, chances are they often think of dental insurance, vision insurance, and more. And in 2025, these types of supplemental health benefits are still very important to employees.

Health insurance can cover a lot, but there are still gaps in coverage that can occur. Giving employees the opportunity to supplement their primary health insurance coverage with these supplemental health benefits can be a significant advantage. Examples of these types of supplemental benefits can include:

• Critical illness
• Personal accident/disability insurance
• Hospital indemnity insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Cancer insurance

Statista research in 2023 showed that the most widely adopted supplemental health benefit was dental insurance, with 59% of those polled enrolling in coverage. Vision insurance was third at 54%, and short-term and long-term disability rounded out the top five at 35% and 34%, respectively.

This type of voluntary coverage might seem insignificant to some, but in a New York Life study, half of currently employed people are interested in receiving supplemental health benefits. Job seekers are also drawn to companies who offer supplemental health coverage — it’s a top benefit they’re looking for in potential employers. 

2. Legal Plans and Services

At some point or another, an employee will probably need to seek legal representation for one reason or another. Divorce, estate planning, money matters, civil issues, and more can all be reasons to seek help from a lawyer. But, lawyers are notoriously expensive to obtain.

When employers offer their employees legal services as a voluntary benefit, it can be a significant financial weight lifted off their shoulders. Plus, it can be a game-changing talent attraction tool for employers. Over 75% of Fortune 100 and 55% of Fortune 500 companies offer legal plans and services as a benefit. As this voluntary benefit trends upwards, small businesses and employers should consider offering this type of coverage to remain competitive when recruiting new employees, even if it’s simply offering access to a legal service or providing a certain number of covered legal appointments.

Typical legal plans can include:

• Covered attorney networks
• Online legal resources and tools
• A variety of services, like estate planning, family law, traffic violations, and much more

3. Identity Theft and Cybersecurity Protection

As technology becomes more sophisticated and our world becomes more reliant on it, it’s no surprise that the risk of phishing attacks, hacks, data breaches, and more increases as well.

In the United States, the likelihood of identity theft is much higher than in other countries — nearly three times as high. Plus, reports have shown that 33% of Americans have faced some kind of identity theft in their lifetime.

Identity theft's effects on its victims are severe and consequential. Some effects that identity theft victims have faced include:

• Financial loss and damaged credit scores
• Arrest warrants
• IRS audits
• Failed background checks

Because of this, identity theft and cybersecurity protection can significantly benefit an organization's employees. These types of plans can include transaction and loan monitoring, credit restoration services, legal representation, identity theft insurance, and more.

Organizations can also benefit from offering this voluntary benefit. If an employee is suffering the aftermath of identity theft, they might need time off of work or be distracted on the job. However, this type of protection can ease some of the stress and anxiety experienced by the employee.

4. Pet Insurance

Everyone's family looks different, and in 2024, pets can often be an important part of a family unit, with 62% of Americans owning a pet. But just how important are they to their owners? In a Pew Research Center study, 97% of pet owners in America see their pets as a part of their family, and 51% say they are “as much a part of their family as a human member.”

Just like our human family members, pets need regular checkups to ensure they're healthy. Veterinary visits, vaccinations, and more can add up. Plus, our furry friends can also become sick or hurt, leading to expensive vet bills and medications. An emergency vet surgery has an average cost between $1,500 and $5,000!

As most people view their pets as family members, it’s hard to deny them the care they need, but the expensive costs can be an important factor in those decisions. However, offering employees an employer-provided pet insurance option could help ease the burden of paying for costly veterinary bills for their canine and feline companions. In fact, between 2020 and 2023, pet insurance as an employer-provided benefit has seen growth of 120%.

What plans cover can vary by provider, but examples of what some plans cover include:

• Medicine
• Surgery
• Hospitalization
• Cancer, diabetes, and other illness treatment
• Exam fees and x-rays
• Dental cleanings

5. Mental Health Support

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted mental health and the need for more support. As more of the Gen Z population enters the workforce, this type of support has become more prominent. According to research by the MarshMcLennan Agency, “Gen Z places tremendous importance on mental health, and employers must provide ample support to ensure this cohort remains engaged and motivated.”

But not only Gen Z views mental health as a priority. 92% of employees think providing coverage for mental healthcare is “important to creating a positive workplace culture.” Additionally, twelve billion working days are lost every year due to depression and anxiety, and almost 17% of people experience mental health problems in the workplace. Mental health support and coverage should be a priority for workplaces everywhere.

By offering mental health support as voluntary coverage, employers can create a healthier, happier working environment for their employees, leading to higher productivity and job satisfaction.

Other Voluntary Benefits To Consider

Some additional voluntary benefits that more companies are offering include:

• Child and dependent care: The cost of child care in the United States has been a concern for most working parents in recent years. In 2023, families spent almost a quarter of their household income on child care. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “established 7% of a families income as the benchmark for affordable co-payments”. Plus, baby boomers are aging and becoming increasingly dependent on their adult children for caregiving, which can be costly. Offering child and dependent care coverage and flexible spending accounts (FSAs) can relieve the financial burden on many employees.
• Financial planning services: Only 1 in 4 Americans feels financially secure in 2024. Finances can be complicated and recruiting the help of a financial planner can be a huge help when it comes to feeling more confident financially. In a Northwestern Mutual study, those who worked with a financial planner or advisor expected to retire two years earlier than those who didn't, and also felt more positive about reaching their financial goals.
• Homeowners and auto insurance: The options are endless when it comes to finding homeowners and car insurance. There are many carriers, and it can take a lot of work to know which is right for you and fits your budget. When employers offer this as a voluntary benefit, it can eliminate the stress of decision-making and can often allow for discounted rates.
• Funeral planning/survivor counseling: The average funeral in the United States costs between $6,280 and $8,300; this can be a massive financial burden on employees when a loved one passes. Offering this type of voluntary benefit can be a huge help to employees and their families and can be a great way to show them they’re valued.
• Student loan repayment: Student loan debt has been a hot topic for several years. Only behind mortgages, student loan debt is the most common type of consumer-generated debt. Millennials especially see the value in employer-based student loan assistance. One drawback for employers to consider is that not every employee can benefit from this offering, so it’s essential to weigh the pros and cons and do the research before implementing this type of program.

Why Should Employers Offer Their Employees Voluntary Benefits?

So, why is it crucial for employer groups to offer their employees voluntary benefits? First and foremost, it can be a considerable employee retention tool. Recent studies have shown that almost half of employed individuals are more likely to stay with their current employer if they offer voluntary benefits. Having various voluntary benefit options available to employees allows them to customize their benefits package to their specific needs and desires, which can be a great retention tactic.

Offering these types of benefits can be a crucial strategy for retaining employees and recruiting top talent to organizations. The job market is competitive — recruiters in 2023 said that small talent pools were their biggest challenge. Employers can remain competitive when seeking and hiring new talent by offering a robust, appealing benefits package.

Voluntary benefits can also allow employers to provide more perks to their employees without incurring much additional cost. Most voluntary benefits options are either partially or fully paid by the employee and often have a good return on investment (ROI).

The Advantages of Voluntary Benefits for Independent Health Agencies

For independent insurance agents, expanding your insurance offerings to include these types of voluntary benefits can help create long-lasting relationships with your clients and can provide significant growth opportunities at your insurance organization.

Retaining your existing clients is much cheaper, easier, and less time-consuming than acquiring a new one. By cross-selling to them and offering them more solutions in one place, you lessen the risk of your clients seeking assistance elsewhere that might offer them more options. Plus, depending on the carriers you work with, you might be able to provide lower costs to your clients due to bundling discounts.

If you use an industry-specific agency management system (AMS), like AgencyBloc's AMS+ solution, you can easily identify these cross-selling opportunities. In AMS+, use the cross-sell report to quickly determine clients that are missing coverage in certain areas.

Then, use Quote+, an AgencyBloc solution, to gather quotes for medically underwritten, community-rated, and ancillary and voluntary plans — all in one place. Quote+ can also help you enroll your group benefits clients into their plans efficiently and effectively. Quote+ makes the enrollment process painless and increases the accuracy of your data. Gone are the days of manually reviewing and entering employee data before sending to the carrier — it’s all done for you.

As employees seek more sophisticated benefits packages from their employers, and employers want to attract and retain top talent, expanded voluntary benefits offerings can be a great way to keep both employees and employers happy.

Posted by Sarah Rosonke on Tuesday, October 8, 2024 in Group Benefits

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