Benefits programs exist to protect the health, financial security, and well-being of workers. Employers invest tens of thousands of dollars per employee each year in these programs — yet most of that investment is quietly wasted, not because the benefits are bad, but because employees don't understand them. When guidance fails, workers suffer real consequences.
Studies show over 80% of employees struggle to understand their benefits packages. Nearly 74% can't explain what most of their benefits even are. This is a failure of communication, not a failure of people.
We have digitized the paperwork, but we haven't solved the confusion. For too long, the "modern" enrollment experience has been little more than a generic portal where employees are handed complexity and called it "choice."
MetLife's 2026 Employee Benefit Trends Study captures the growing tension: 61% of employees are concerned about the ethical and safety risks of AI — including bias, misinformation, and lack of accountability — while 67% of employers say AI is creating friction or mistrust in the workplace. Without validated, trustworthy guidance tools, that mistrust will only deepen.
"We reject the status quo."
Guidance is not new; it has simply evolved. We believe each of these forms has value. The challenge is not to choose one "winner," but to understand which tool is right for which population.
High-touch and effective, but episodic and hard to scale.
Embedded in the BenAdmin system, scalable but generic.
Personalized, always-on, and capable of navigating complexity at every stage of the employee journey — whether through an AI agent, a care navigation platform, an advocacy solution, or a combination of tools.
True guidance is not a single moment of "picking a plan." It is a continuous journey.
Helping employees understand the value of their benefits before they need to choose.
Empowering them to select the right protection for their unique life stage.
Ensuring they know how to use those benefits when they are sick, stressed, or planning for the future.
When people understand their benefits, they make better choices. Better choices improve health outcomes, financial security, and overall well-being — for workers and for the employers who invest in them. That is the purpose of every tool in this space, and the standard we are here to uphold.
"There is no single 'best' way to guide an employee. A simple, transparent calculator is perfect for some; a sophisticated AI agent is critical for others. We do not favor one technology over another. We favor clarity."
Members of the Benefits Guidance Consortium align around six foundational principles that define what good guidance looks like.
We commit to using plain language that empowers brokers and employers to explain value, not just features. Benefits communication should be comprehensible to every employee, regardless of their financial literacy.
We will be honest about how our tools work—whether they are deterministic calculators, actuarial models, or AI agents—so buyers can match the right tool to the right need.
We believe guidance requires trust. We advocate for rigorous data governance and security protocols that protect member privacy at every step.
We recognize that benefits are a major household investment. We build tools that help employees optimize their total financial picture, not just pick a plan.
We believe guidance serves employees at every stage — education, decision, and utilization. We commit to being transparent about which stages our tools are designed to serve, and to not overstating our scope or capability beyond those stages. Where our tools do not serve a stage of the journey, we support employees in finding the resources that do.
We believe in proving value. We commit to standards that help employers measure the impact of guidance on enrollment, utilization, and satisfaction.