SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ease, a leading HR and benefits software solution for small businesses, insurance brokers, and insurance carriers, announced today that Ethos is partnering with the company to offer Employer Personal Life Insurance. With the assistance of Ease, employers and employees will now be able to access Ethos’ simple, ethical, life insurance policies.
Ethos policies are affordable, tailored to individuals’ lives, and, with the use of technology, can be approved in a matter of minutes—not weeks. If employees wish to elect term life insurance coverage during the upcoming open enrollment season, they'll be asked to answer a single health question before being taken to Ethos to view personalized policies. Once there, they can select their preferred policy and complete an application in less time than it takes to buy a coffee.
Unlike traditional voluntary insurance offerings, Ethos underwrites each employee individually to ensure they are getting the right amount of coverage at a fair price. Because employees won’t be paying for the risk placed on an entire group of people who enrolled in life insurance, they’ll be getting a product priced just for them, resulting in lower monthly premiums. Most employees will never have to take a medical exam, blood test or even complete a paper application. Further, employees who enroll will have this policy at a set price for life, regardless if they move on to another job.
Ease has witnessed a tremendous spike not only in the number of employers offering term life insurance but the number of employees enrolling in the same. Ease cites a staggering 280% increase in the number of employers offering term life between 2016 and 2018. At the employee level, Ease has seen an 11% increase in term life participation between 2017 and 2018 with a 10x increase in the number of millennials enrolling between 2016 and 2018. Overall, participation for employees enrolling in voluntary and worksite benefits grew from 29% to a whopping 47% between 2015 and 2018.
“Ease is continually looking to bring the most effective and efficient offerings to small and medium-sized businesses,” said David Reid, CEO and co-founder of Ease. “A natural extension of that is partnering with innovative insurers like Oscar Health and Beam Dental. We’re excited to add Ethos to our offering.”
Both Ethos and Ease have been garnering a tremendous amount of traction. In August, Ethos announced it raised a $60 million Series C financing led by GV (formerly Google Ventures). In addition to GV, Goldman Sachs is a new participant alongside existing investors Sequoia Capital and Accel, bringing Ethos’ total funding to-date to more than $100 million. Ethos also maintains a lofty Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 86, a key barometer of customer loyalty.
Ease too has witnessed unprecedented growth and mass adoption of their solution. To date, Ease has partnered with more than 1,500 agencies, from family-run to nationally known (Leavitt Group Enterprises, Keystone, Brio Insurance), who have rolled out Ease’s software to over 65,000 businesses, from 2 to 7,000 employees, greatly improving HR team efficiency and effectiveness. Since its inception in 2012, Ease now services over 2 million employees and is the #1 rated benefits administration and HR software for small and medium-size businesses powered by brokers.
“Our mission is to give millions of families access to the protection they need via simple, ethically designed life insurance. This new partnership with industry leader Ease will help us give many more employers and employees affordable access to modern policies,” said Joe Schmidt, Head Strategy & Partnerships at Ethos. “Ease already helps millions of people decide what benefits are right for them. We’re eager to leverage that expertise to help people find the right insurance offering for their unique life circumstances.”
About Ease
Ease is an online benefits enrollment system built for insurance brokers and employers. Ease makes it simple to set up and manage benefits, onboard new hires, stay compliant, and offer employees one destination for all their human resources information. Started in 2012 in San Francisco by employee benefits veteran David Reid and web and engineering architect Courtney Guertin, Ease works with insurance brokers and small businesses to create seamless HR and benefits processes on an easy-to-use system. Ease has offices in Las Vegas, New York, Omaha and San Diego. In 2015, Ease was launched on the West Coast and is among the most widely adopted, fastest growing solutions for brokers and employers in the area, with over 65,000 employers and over 2 million employees. For more information, head to www.ease.com.