Peanut butter and jelly. Movies and popcorn. Health care and retirement plans. Some things just go together.

While financial professionals have long separated health care and retirement plans in their work, the two live together in employers’ minds as part of a total benefits package. Indeed, the association is so strong – and the combination so compelling – that financial professionals may want to embrace packaging the two.

To do this, consider forming an alliance with benefits consultants. Together, you can present a cohesive “wealth care” solution that strengthens your competitive advantage – and theirs.

Before we delve into details, let’s review the landscape.

Benefits are overwhelming

Employees are increasingly fatigued and overwhelmed by benefits complexities.
 

• Of people with employer coverage, 51% say it is difficult to understand at least some aspect of their health insurance, based on a KFF survey done in early 2023.¹
  
  
• More than half (52%) of employees identify as caregivers, but only 39% are aware of the caregiving support offered by their employers, according to 2024 Bank of America research.²
  
  
• 55% of employees express a desire to have a better understanding of the well-being programs offered by their employers.³

Education is also lacking. According to a 2023 report from Optavise, only 27% of employees say they received their information from their employer’s HR team.⁴

Team up to level up

Because benefits consultants offer extensive health care knowledge, they often have the ear of employers, but they are not competitors to financial professionals who work with retirement plans. Rather, they can be teammates and collaborators.

Both benefits consultants and plan professionals have value to offer one another in what could be a fruitful and symbiotic relationship.
 

• As a retirement plan professional, you have existing relationships with large organizations that could prove valuable to benefits counselors.
  
  
• Benefits counselors have fluency and nuanced knowledge in matters of health care and can include you in conversations that might otherwise happen without you.

What is wealth care?

By combining the wealth management experience of a retirement plan professional and the health care knowledge of a benefits consultant, you can create an employer-centric total benefits package. That’s wealth care.
 

As a bundle, wealth care can be greater than the sum of its parts.
 

• It can make employers’ lives easier with joint meetings and materials.
  
  
• A combined retirement/health benefits plan would be more difficult for competitors to subvert. To change solutions, the employer would need to unbundle the solution they have in place with you.
  
  
• A joint value proposition speaks to more of employers’ top concerns at once.
  

Here are four things you can do to put together a wealth care package:

1. Align schedules

Save the employer time by scheduling meetings together to work in tandem on a total benefits package. When you coordinate your timelines with a benefits consultant and visit together, you’re able to increase impact by telling a joint story.

Think about employees starting a new job. They get to discuss the 401(k) at the same time they make their health plan elections, making their lives easier and the employer’s ability to retain top talent greater. This best practice should happen not only in the onboarding process but also annually or even quarterly.

2. Co-brand materials

A co-branded pack of resources for the employer and employee is a tangible takeaway you can offer. It can include combined resources, like:
 

• Biometric screening forms
• Mail service pharmacy information
• Financial wellness resources
• List of preventive services
• Information on using telemedicine
   

The joint resource pack can help make it easier for the employer to pass along valuable benefits information to workers, which, in turn, demonstrates their (and your) commitment to employee well-being.

3. Hone your pitch

You’re used to crafting a value proposition for clients and plan sponsors, but while pitching the idea of collaboration to a benefits consultant, you’re speaking to an entirely different audience.

Your value proposition to a benefits consultant includes:

• Education for the employer and employee
• Industry connections and client network
• Market intelligence via similar clients
• Investment knowledge
• Partner resources
   

You can also indicate if you have knowledge in health care matters that affect retirement, like health savings accounts (HSAs) and Medicare.

HSAs

HSAs can be powerful, triple-tax-advantaged investment vehicles, and their adoption rate is rising⁵ along with high-deductible health plan (HDHP) enrollment.⁶ In a joint discussion, the benefits consultant can refer the investment discussion to you. These may be dollars that you can keep on your side of the benefits/retirement equation.

Medicare

Medicare is a key retirement consideration for many people, but benefits consultants and employers lack incentive to talk about it. Here you can make a difference.

Key Medicare topics to cover:

• Medicare Part A vs. Part B
• Medigap
• Medicare Advantage Plan (“Part C”)
• Medicare Plan D
• When HSA assets can be used without incurring a penalty

4. Refine your knowledge

To make yourself indispensable in benefits conversations and improve your pitch, take time to brush up on the language of health care and resources that may help participants in unexpected ways.

Explore and bookmark sites like:

• Social Security Administration
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 
• Life Expectancy Calculator based on the largest study of people who live to 100
• Caregiver Action Network for employees taking care of elder relatives
• USAging
• Eldercare Locator, sponsored by the Administration for Community Living, to find local services
• National resources for parents of children with special needs

Regardless of your approach to aligning with benefits consultants, becoming more conversant in issues employers and participants care about will only help increase your value.

Stronger together

As the benefits environment expands, benefits consultants and aggregators will likely continue to gain significance. This shift in dynamics can be an incredible opportunity if you embrace these professionals as allies. Together, you have the tools and knowledge to help employers create a cohesive benefits package that cares for employees’ health and wealth. That’s the synergy of wealth care.

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