77% of Employers Believe Access to Affordable Legal Services Can Help Improve Employees’ Financial Well-Being

Employee demand for legal services and identity protection continues to grow along with employers’ focus on overall financial wellness

ADA, Okla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LegalShield, the world’s leading provider of affordable legal and identity theft protection plans, released the results of The 2019 LegalShield Workplace Study* today. The study was designed to assess awareness, perceptions and availability of identity theft protection and legal service plans within workplace benefit offerings and how they can potentially influence financial wellness. The findings reinforce that employers have begun to see the value in focusing more on financial wellness benefits for their employees, in particular group legal and identity theft protection plans.

“Employers realize that improving the financial wellness of their employees, their most valuable asset, isn’t only the right thing to do, but also makes good business sense. Benefits decision makers are taking action by providing access to legal services and identity theft protection to help enhance their employees’ financial well-being,” commented Glenn Petersen, President, Business Solutions for LegalShield.

There is a growing interest amongst working Americans to learn more about managing their personal finances as a hedge against societal challenges such as bankruptcy, rising housing costs and out-of-pocket medical costs. They also want to protect their identity and personally identifiable information against intensifying cyber warfare.

“With employee concerns for protecting their identity increasing, especially given the recent large profile data breaches hitting large portions of the U.S. population, it’s understandable that more than 50% of employees believe their employer should provide identity theft protection plans as an option within their benefit offerings,” Emily B. Rose, SVP, Broker and Partnership Sales for LegalShield added. “The beauty of legal and identity theft plans is that they provide not only peace of mind in regards to financial wellness, but also peace of mind overall for plan participants.”

Top 10 Highlights from The 2019 LegalShield Workplace Study:

Top 5 Employee Findings:

1. 53% of employees admitted to having a legal event impact their job over the past two years
2. 60+% of employees believe that these benefits (legal and identity theft protection) increase their financial well-being
3. 89% of employees state that owning an identity theft product provides peace of mind knowing their identity will be protected
4. 66% of employees have come to see their employer for financial and or legal advice in the past year
5. 51% of employees believe that employers should offer an identity protection benefit. and 49% believe employers should offer a legal services benefit

Top 5 Employer Findings:

1. 77% of employers believe access to affordable legal services can help improve employees’ financial well-being
2. 61% of employers would consider offering identity theft and / or legal protection plans, and nearly 40% are already offering one or both benefits
3. 85% of employers find direct access to a qualified law firm an important feature in a legal services plan
4. Over 75% of employers find a comprehensive mobile app to be an important feature in both identity theft protection and legal service plans
5. Over 80% of employers find restoration to be an important feature in an identity theft protection plan

Petersen added, “Employers who are already offering legal benefits can attest to the advantages of providing these benefits to their employees, including improved financial well-being and reduced time out of the office to deal with legal issues. With LegalShield’s offerings, employees get direct access, through a mobile app, to highly qualified and customer-focused law firms.”

To view the full report findings from The 2019 LegalShield Workplace Study, including data referenced in the press release, please visit www.legalshield.com/FinancialWellness.

*The study was conducted in June 2019 among a random sample of 750 U.S. employees and 300 U.S. employers at companies with at least 100 employees. The overall margin of error is +/- 3.6% (Employees) and +/- 5.7% (Employers) at the 95% confidence level.

About LegalShield and IDShield

A pioneer in the democratization of affordable access to legal protection, LegalShield is North America’s leading provider of legal safeguards and one of the leading providers of identity theft protection, for individuals, families and small businesses. The 47-year-old company has more than 1.75 million members that are covered by its legal and identity theft plans. IDShield provides identity theft protection to one million individuals. LegalShield and IDShield serve more than 141,000 businesses. Both legal and identity theft plans start for less than $25 per month.

LegalShield’s legal plans provide access to attorneys with an average of 22 years of experience in areas such as family matters, estate planning, financial and business issues, consumer protection, tax, real estate, benefits disputes and auto/driving issues. Unlike other legal plans or do-it-yourself websites, LegalShield has dedicated law firms in 50 states and four provinces in Canada that members can call for help without having to worry about high hourly rates.

IDShield provides identity monitoring and restoration services and is the only identity theft protection company armed with a team of licensed private investigators to restore a member’s identity.

For more information about LegalShield, visit: https://www.legalshield.com/ or for more information about IDShield, visit: https://www.idshield.com/.