New legal benefit targets advisers

Every year, 70% of households will face a legal issue, the American Bar Association reports. For those seven in 10, it can lead to distractions at work and lower productivity. Therefore, employers have begun using legal services as a benefit to keep workers engaged, even during stressful times.

Over the past two decades, the percentage of employers offering legal services as a benefit has increased from 13% to 25%, the Society for Human Resource Management finds. This benefit ensures lower costs for an employee facing legal issues from divorce, health issues or any number of situations.

Grahame Cohen
Grahame Cohen

“It’s a matter of a continuation of employers looking to increase benefit offerings and looking for new opportunities to reward staff,” says Grahame Cohen, founder and CEO of Epoq Legal. “There is convenience and accessibility, and it reduces the burden on staff when they have legal needs.”

Broker product
Cohen’s company recently launched LawAssure for Brokers, an interactive approach to legal service benefits. The goal is to make legal services more accessible, as many employers have been unable to offer the benefit due to its high cost.

“For us, this is about helping both the broker community, the employers and the employees themselves get access to legal services at a price that makes it positively available,” Cohen says.

President of Fortier Insurance Dan Fortier is an early adapter of LawAssure. He noticed that a lot of employees he spoke with weren’t getting the legal help they needed because it was expensive and time consuming to find someone.

“Once clients are made aware that this is available there is going to be more interest,” Fortier says. “Employees have these kinds of issues going on.”

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Voluntary benefits
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