Family building benefits can create a more inclusive and supportive workplace

Fall open enrollment may be just around the corner, but many benefits executives are already beginning to think about their offerings for 2025. Fertility and family-forming benefits are on the top of the list – for many good reasons. Here are a few:

• Staying competitive in attracting and retaining key talent - A recent fertility study¹ found that 88% of employees said they would switch jobs to get fertility coverage
• Saving on health care costs - Employees who have access to fertility benefits can have overall lower health care costs because they are making decisions with their doctors based on medical best practice, not on personal financial concerns
• Matching benefits to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging goals – Offering fertility benefits to all employees, including LGBTQ+ and single prospective parents, is a positive way to create a more inclusive workplace
• Supporting the overall well-being of their workforce

The International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans has been tracking fertility and family-forming benefits over the past seven years. According to a recent survey, 40% of U.S. organizations currently offer fertility benefits (an increase from 30% in 2020) and more are planning to look at their practices in 2025.²

Benefits employers are considering are expansive

They range from:

• Fertility treatments, provided through a host of carriers including supplemental health insurances, that are treatment based or diagnosis based
• Donor and surrogacy support, often in the form of cash reimbursement
• Adoption support, which may include paid and unpaid leave and financial assistance that includes all new parents

At Securian Financial, we further support family-building with innovative approaches like proactive labor and delivery claims payments with hospital indemnity insurance. We proactively pay the initial and daily benefit, for a three-day stay, when the birthing parent reaches 36 weeks gestation, so they can focus on their new family member, not paperwork. Or through our partnership with BenefitBump, a concierge program that connects employees with their available benefits, time-off programs and child care resources to support growing families. The program is designed for all paths to parenthood and connects employees with Care Navigators, who are master’s-level emotional health professionals and experts on employers' benefit plans to support planning pregnancy, adoption or infertility treatments.

Let’s connect and discuss how to think about this growing need in the employer benefits landscape.