Guardian Launches New Online Educational Tool to Help Employers and Employees Prepare for First Benefits Open Enrollment Season Since New Healthcare Legislation

NEW YORK, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian), one of the largest mutual life insurers and a leading provider of employee benefits, announced today the launch of its Life and Disability Insurance Explorer, a new online educational tool to assist people in determining their insurance coverage needs through four simple questions.

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The Life and Disability Insurance Explorer is part of a new suite of online tools and resources to simplify the employee benefits open enrollment process, the annual opportunity for employees to make changes to their workplace benefit plans.  This fall will mark the first benefits enrollment season for American workers since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law in March, and Guardian's suite of tools assists employers and their employees seeking simple solutions to optimize their coverage options.  

"When it comes to Life and Disability insurance, people have an especially harder time knowing if they are making the right choices, and being overwhelmed often just results in taking no action.  Our Life and Disability Insurance Explorer gives people a contemporary way of looking at their financial protection needs," said Elena Wu, Group Marketing and Worksite Officer, Guardian.  "This is a tool that brokers and employers can easily use with employees to help them navigate through all the information out there so they can choose the best benefits plans for their needs.  It's an innovative way to learn about the kinds of coverage out there that add value and simplify the process for employers."

Guardian's web-based Life & Disability Insurance Explorer asks four simple questions such as, "What do you eat for dinner?" and translates that into a personal recommendation for insurance protection.  The Life and Disability Insurance Explorer can be accessed at About Employee Benefits, Guardian's online employee benefits resource center.

Launched in July 2010, About Employee Benefits was designed to help employers and brokers maximize employee benefits offerings by making information about industry trends, insights into perceptions and behavior and real-world benefit strategies easily accessible.  Highlights include:

• Proprietary Research Reports – Based on market research with benefit decision makers and consumers, a series of reports that reveal insights and trends to watch to help make benefits programs more effective.

• Legislative Updates – Information about regulations impacting the employee benefits industry, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

• Case Studies – Successful real-world strategies brokers & employers implemented for benefits enrollment, communications and helping employees return to work after a disability.

• Interactive Tools & Videos, including calculating a person's chance of becoming disabled, to help employees understand what personal protection needs.

• Tips for making the most of employee benefits, including a quiz and downloadable tips sheets, which employers and brokers can leverage with employees to help simplify decisions about workplace benefits.

SUPPORTING QUOTES

"We have found through our research that most employees are poorly informed about the risks they face and confused about how their benefit choices can best protect themselves and their families. Tools like these that engage and educate employees and help them prepare and plan for the unexpected are very valuable at a time when employees are increasingly responsible for benefit decisions which can profoundly impact their financial security."

- Barry Lundquist, President, The Council for Disability Awareness

"Making the enrollment process as simple as possible is a priority for employers.  They're looking to ensure their employees are getting the information they need to make informed benefits decisions.  Employers have increasingly been turning to the Internet for immediate and easy access to the latest information, trends and resources for their employee benefit needs.  These types of tools make it easier for them to get the personal attention they need to make informed benefit decisions."

- Peter Whitely, Broker and President, The Sinclair-Whitely Company, Brentwood, TN

About Guardian

A mutual insurer founded in 1860, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America and its subsidiaries are committed to protecting individuals, business owners and their employees with life, long-term care, disability income, group medical and dental insurance products, and offer 401(k), annuities and other financial products. Guardian operates one of the largest dental networks in the United States, and protects more than six million employees and their families at 120,000 companies. The company has more than 5,400 employees in the United States and a network of over 3,000 financial representatives in more than 80 agencies nationwide.

For more information about Guardian, please visit: www.GuardianLife.com.  For Guardian's new online resource center for employee benefits, please visit: aboutemployeebenefits.com.

SOURCE The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America