Few Employers Provide Individual Coverage Above the Group Plan
Every employer sponsoring a welfare benefit plan files an annual return with the Department of Labor, the Form 5500. Where the benefit is insured, a Schedule A attached to that return names the insurance company, the type of coverage and the number of employees covered. These filings are public.
Reading all of them from financial services produces this.
| Financial services employees with a group long-term disability contract | 2,912 |
| Employers with an individual or multi-life layer above it | 37 |
| 1.3% |
No hedge fund and no buyout firm appears among the 37
Sorting the census by the business code each employer declares produces no meaningful variation by firm type. Every category large enough to measure falls between 0.5% and 2.5%.
| Employer Type | Employers | With Coverage Above the Group Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Securities brokerages | 85 | 2 | 2.4% |
| Insurance Carriers | 371 | 7 | 1.9% |
| Credit Unions | 613 | 8 | 1.3% |
| Investment banks and securities dealiers | 85 | 1 | 1.2% |
| Buyout firms, hedge funds and asset managers | 428 | 5 | 1.2% |
| Commercial banks | 747 | 7 | 0.9% |
| Savings institutions | 143 | 1 | 0.7% |
Of the 85 employers filing as investment banks and securities dealers, only one reported providing an individual income protection layer. Five employers among the 37 file under the codes buyout firms and hedge funds use, and all five are something else, four asset managers and a bank holding entity.
Checking the same question by name rather than by business code produces the same answer. The census holds 33 hedge funds and proprietary trading firms and 17 buyout firms identified by name. None of the 50 provides an individual layer above the group plan.
Geography does not change it either. Of the 414 employers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, nine provide an individual layer, or 2.2%.
Every employer sponsoring a welfare benefit plan files an annual return with the Department of Labor, the Form 5500. Where the benefit is insured, a Schedule A attached to that return names the insurance company, the type of coverage and the number of employees covered. These filings are public.
Reading all of them from financial services produces this.
| Financial services employees with a group long-term disability contract | 2,912 |
| Employers with an individual or multi-life layer above it | 37 |
| 1.3% |
No hedge fund and no buyout firm appears among the 37
Sorting the census by the business code each employer declares produces no meaningful variation by firm type. Every category large enough to measure falls between 0.5% and 2.5%.
| Employer Type | Employers | With Coverage Above the Group Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Securities brokerages | 85 | 2 | 2.4% |
| Insurance Carriers | 371 | 7 | 1.9% |
| Credit Unions | 613 | 8 | 1.3% |
| Investment banks and securities dealiers | 85 | 1 | 1.2% |
| Buyout firms, hedge funds and asset managers | 428 | 5 | 1.2% |
| Commercial banks | 747 | 7 | 0.9% |
| Savings institutions | 143 | 1 | 0.7% |
Of the 85 employers filing as investment banks and securities dealers, only one reported providing an individual income protection layer. Five employers among the 37 file under the codes buyout firms and hedge funds use, and all five are something else, four asset managers and a bank holding entity.
Checking the same question by name rather than by business code produces the same answer. The census holds 33 hedge funds and proprietary trading firms and 17 buyout firms identified by name. None of the 50 provides an individual layer above the group plan.
Geography does not change it either. Of the 414 employers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, nine provide an individual layer, or 2.2%.