The Verdict is In: Legal Insurance Continues to Be a Valuable Voluntary Benefit
By Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc.
We would all agree health insurance is essential to help protect us from both routine and unexpected medical costs — but what about legal costs? From wills and real estate transactions to divorces and bankruptcies, professional legal services can cost hundreds to many thousands of dollars, often at an already stressful time. That’s why many voluntary carriers, brokers, employers and employees are showing significant interest in legal insurance. These prepaid legal plans offer advice, drafting and review of legal documents, and consultation or representation in court, typically at a fraction of the cost associated with hiring a lawyer. If this nontraditional benefit isn’t already on your radar, it might be time to consider it.
Employee ownership of legal insurance has dropped in recent years, but there’s still strong interest in buying it. Fewer employees own nontraditional products such as legal plans, identity theft protection and pet insurance than before the pandemic, possibly due to inflationary pressures on worker wallet share. But Eastbridge’s 2023 “Market Vision™—The Employee Viewpoint©” report shows that more than a third of employees who don’t own legal insurance are interested in buying this coverage on a voluntary basis.
