Before the Enrollment Deadline Closes, Open This Conversation
As many of you know, open enrollment is the annual period during which employees can make changes to their employer-sponsored benefits (health insurance, dental, vision, life insurance, disability, and more.)
For most employers, this window runs from mid-October through mid-November, with coverage changes taking effect January 1st.
For many employees, it’s the only time during the year they’re actively thinking about their benefits. And for most of them, they default to last year’s elections. They check the same boxes. They skip the supplemental life insurance option because the premium looks like one more thing to pay for. And they move on without understanding what they’ve actually chosen or what they’ve left on the table.
The Group Life Insurance Gap
The reality most employees don’t understand is that group life insurance through an employer is a starting point, not a solution.
Most employer-sponsored group life plans offer coverage equal to one to two times an employee’s annual salary, often with a flat cap. For a 40-year-old with a mortgage, young children, and a household that depends on their income, that coverage might replace six months of what their family would actually need. Not ideal.
Another dynamic worth understanding is that group life insurance is tied to employment. If an employee changes jobs, gets laid off, or retires, that coverage might disappear. The portability options that exist are often limited and expensive. Clients who have relied exclusively on employer-provided coverage can find themselves without meaningful life insurance at exactly the moment when their needs are highest and their insurability may have changed.
Individual life insurance, purchased outside the employer plan, travels with the client regardless of what happens at work. It’s a conversation that open enrollment season makes naturally timely and one that most employees are never prompted to have.
Financial Literacy Is the Missing Piece
The problem is that employees don’t have the financial literacy to evaluate what they’re choosing or not choosing. Benefits packets are dense. The difference between group term life and supplemental coverage isn’t obvious. The relationship between employer-sponsored disability and individual DI protection isn’t explained. And nobody in the HR department is sitting down with each employee to help them understand what a smart elections strategy actually looks like.
That’s the gap financial professionals are uniquely positioned to fill.
Employees who can see the difference between a one-times-salary group policy and what their family would actually need make fundamentally different decisions. They’re more likely to elect supplemental options where they’re available. They’re more likely to seek out individual coverage to complement what the employer provides
And they’re far more likely to feel financially prepared, which is a conversation that naturally leads to a deeper advisory relationship.
How Financial Professionals Can Use This Season
For advisors and brokers, open enrollment is one of the most effective natural entry points of the year. Clients and prospects are already thinking about protection, already making decisions, and already more receptive than usual to a conversation about whether they’re making the right ones.
A few ways to use the season well:
Reach out Proactively to Clients in the Workforce
A simple message like “Open enrollment season is here! Have you had a chance to review your life insurance elections?” signals that you’re paying attention to more than their portfolio. It opens a door for financial professionals to walk through.
Offer a Benefits Review as a Value-Add
For clients who are willing to share their benefits summary, a quick review of what they’ve elected versus what they actually need is a high-impact, low-pressure service touchpoint. It frequently surfaces gaps that clients maybe had no idea existed like in life insurance coverage amounts, in portability, and in the relationship between group and individual protection.
Use Financial Literacy as a Relationship Builder
The financial professionals who explain things clearly and who help clients understand why their group policy isn’t enough and what the alternatives look like are the ones clients remember and refer. Education builds trust faster than almost anything else in this business.
Position Individual Life Insurance as the Complement
The goal isn’t to steer clients away from their group benefits. It’s to help them understand that group coverage is a foundation, not a finish line. Individual life insurance fills the gaps, travels with them through career changes, and provides the kind of long-term certainty that an employer plan simply can’t.
The Window Is Short
Open enrollment has a hard close. Once the deadline passes, clients are locked into their elections until next year. And for those who made the wrong choices or defaulted to last year’s coverage without thinking it through, that’s twelve months of living with a gap that didn’t have to be there.
If you show up during this window. If you reach out, offer to help, and position yourself as a resource at the moment clients are making these benefits decisions, you will build the kind of relationships that compound over time. But more importantly, you will help your clients make a financially sound decision.
Open enrollment is open. Make sure your clients know you’re available.
