Your clients’ employees are more vulnerable than they may realize.
You’ve seen it before—companies that overlook the financial and emotional toll of caregiving end up paying the price in lost productivity, turnover, and burnout. But there’s another risk that often goes unnoticed: financial fraud and identity theft targeting caregivers.
Caregivers, on average, spend 26% of their income on care expenses (AARP), making them financially stretched and more susceptible to scams like:
- Phishing attempts from fraudulent healthcare or caregiving organizations.
- Insurance fraud targeting health or long-term care benefits.
- Financial exploitation by bad actors offering “quick financial relief.”
And these aren’t just any employees. Caregivers are often some of the most dedicated and productive workers. When financial strain pushes them to the brink, your clients don’t just lose an employee—they lose institutional knowledge, experience, and tens of thousands of dollars in turnover costs.
As a benefits broker, you have a real opportunity to step in—not just to help employees, but to help your clients safeguard their workforce and bottom line.
Caregiving Employees Are at Risk—And So Are Your Clients
Many employers assume their workforce is resilient—until they take a closer look at the numbers:
- One in five employees is balancing their job with caregiving responsibilities.
- When caregivers leave, replacing them costs employers 50% to 200% of their salary in recruitment, training, and lost productivity.
- In 2023, the U.S. lost over $10 billion to identity theft (FTC), and caregivers—who often manage multiple financial accounts—are prime targets.
Your clients may not realize it, but they already have a powerful tool at their disposal to help employees mitigate these risks. And it doesn’t require a big budget or a complicated rollout. They just need to use their existing benefits more strategically.
Turning Underutilized Benefits Into Lifelines
The good news? Employers don’t have to overhaul their entire benefits package to make a real difference. Many already offer benefits that could protect caregivers from financial exploitation and legal risk—they just aren’t positioning them in a way that resonates.
This is where you, as their broker, become invaluable. By helping clients map their benefits to real-world caregiving challenges, you can:
- Identify existing benefits—like employee assistance programs (EAPs), legal assistance, and financial counseling—that directly support caregiving employees.
- Ensure employees actually know these resources exist and how to access them when they need them most.
- Proactively address financial stress before it leads to absenteeism, disengagement, or turnover.
This isn’t about selling a product. It’s about protecting employees and, in turn, strengthening the organization as a whole.
How Brokers Can Help Employers Protect Caregivers from Identity Theft
Caregivers routinely handle sensitive financial and medical information for both themselves and their loved ones—making them prime targets for fraud. A single instance of identity theft can throw an employee’s finances into chaos, leading to stress, missed work, and even job loss.
As a broker, you can help your clients implement simple, cost-effective solutions to protect their employees:
- Review their current benefits package to identify underused resources like identity theft protection through voluntary benefits or EAPs.
- Introduce low-cost identity protection services that provide credit monitoring, fraud alerts, and financial recovery assistance.
- Ensure caregiving employees are aware of these protections through targeted benefits communications.
Taking these proactive steps helps employees stay financially secure—and keeps them engaged and productive at work.
The ROI of Caregiver-Specific Legal Assistance
Beyond financial fraud, caregiving employees also face complex legal challenges, including:
- Establishing power of attorney for aging parents.
- Navigating healthcare proxies and advance directives.
- Managing estate planning and financial affairs for loved ones.
Without access to legal support, employees can spend hours—or even days—trying to resolve these issues, leading to increased absenteeism and stress.
Offering legal assistance as part of a benefits package provides a high return on investment:
- Employees gain affordable access to legal professionals who can handle time-consuming caregiving-related matters.
- HR teams reduce their administrative burden by directing employees to pre-vetted legal resources.
- Employers prevent costly turnover by providing the support employees need to stay focused and engaged at work.
For your clients, offering legal assistance isn’t just about benefits—it’s a workforce retention strategy that keeps employees from walking out the door.
The Cost of Doing Nothing
Failing to address caregiving-related financial risks has real consequences.
Picture this: A long-term employee—a top performer in their organization—becomes a victim of identity theft while also managing care for an aging parent. The financial and emotional strain becomes overwhelming, forcing them to cut back hours, take unplanned leave, and eventually resign.
Now, your client is scrambling to replace them, spending thousands on recruitment, training, and lost productivity—all because a preventable financial crisis forced that employee out.
As a broker, you can help your clients avoid this scenario. By recognizing the hidden risks caregivers face and connecting employers to the right resources, you position yourself as an indispensable partner in workforce protection and retention.
Conclusion: Your Role as a Trusted Advisor
Your clients don’t just need a policy manager. They need a strategic partner who helps them navigate real workforce challenges.
By guiding them to leverage existing benefits like identity theft protection and legal assistance, you’re giving them the tools to:
- Protect their most loyal and productive employees from financial exploitation.
- Reduce turnover costs by providing real, practical support for caregiving workers.
- Strengthen workforce stability and engagement without adding significant costs.
Caregiving stress, financial fraud, and identity theft aren’t just future risks—they’re happening right now. The time to act is today.
By stepping up as a true benefits advisor, you help your clients safeguard their workforce before financial crises push employees out the door.
