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Why It’s Time to Tell a Different Group Whole Life Story

Posted on: September 8, 2026

For decades, the Group Whole Life (GWL) Insurance story has started in the same place: permanent coverage, a death benefit, and protection for loved ones. Those fundamentals haven’t changed – and they remain important.

But the financial protection environment – and the challenges employees face – are evolving. Working Americans* are balancing rising costs and financial uncertainty with making progress toward long-term financial goals. As a result, their expectations of what life insurance can contribute to their financial security are expanding.

For benefits producers, that changes where and how GWL fits into the benefits conversation. Of course, the traditional protection messages still matter, but it’s no longer the whole story.

The protection conversation is getting broader

The story starts with what hasn’t changed: families still need the financial protection life insurance provides. According to a recent LIMRA study, 28% of employees say their households would have immediate trouble paying living expenses if they died unexpectedly, and more than half would struggle within months. Even among employees with workplace life insurance, only 30% say their households could cover living expenses well into the future following their death.¹

What has changed is the range of financial risks and uncertainties employees are balancing. Our latest Workforce Financial Stability Score research (Q2 2026) shows just how much employees are trying to manage at once. More than two-thirds (68%) of working Americans are concerned about rising prices on essential goods and services, nearly half (48%) are limiting discretionary spending, and 22% are carrying credit card balances month to month to pay for essentials.²

Not surprisingly, those pressures can push future financial goals down the priority list. However, even though Financially Challenged** employees are nearly three times as likely to choose what helps them most right now than what helps secure their financial future, the future is still very much on their minds. Nearly two-thirds (65%) want to learn more about financial topics that include protection and insurance and preparing for retirement. Similarly, 76% of Millennials are interested in learning more about financial topics, up seven points from May 2025.²

The interest in learning more about financial protection is a driver behind changing expectations related to life insurance benefits. As employees think about long-term financial security, they’re interested in life insurance features that can address risks while they are living.

Our research shows 74% of employees are very or moderately interested in life insurance benefits that can provide support if they become chronically ill, and 70% are very or moderately interested in benefits that can help pay for potential future long-term care needs.³

For GWL, that makes the protection story broader. The death benefit isn’t any less important, but employees are increasingly looking for coverage that can also provide value and financial protection throughout their lives.

A new way to talk about GWL’s strengths

This is where GWL can take on new relevance – not as a list of features, but as answers to help with the financial needs employees are managing.

Awareness of living benefits like long-term care has grown following the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent enactment of the Washington Cares Act, which aims to make the long-term-care benefits and services more accessible to Washingtonians. In a broader response, permanent life insurance products are evolving to make living benefits, like long-term care, more available and affordable for all Americans.

In addition to existing chronic care benefits, long-term care benefits are increasingly being incorporated into GWL products to help address financial needs associated with serious health and care events during an insured’s lifetime. This evolution is helping to fuel category growth. LIMRA reports voluntary permanent life sales increased from $385 million in 2020 to $665 million in 2025.⁴

Today’s environment also gives new relevance to the strengths that have long distinguished permanent life insurance coverage, such as predictability. At a time when rising costs are putting real pressure on household budgets, guaranteed level premiums are one less expense workers have to worry about increasing over time.

Guaranteed cash value adds another dimension, increasing over time regardless of financial market performance and building value that certificate holders can access during their lifetimes if a financial need arises.⁵ Participating GWL coverage can also offer additional value through the potential for dividends, which can be used in several ways, including to purchase additional insurance that can increase both the cash value and death benefit.⁶

Even portability takes on new relevance in the current environment. With 39% of working Americans concerned about job security², the ability to keep their GWL coverage through employment changes and retirement⁷ becomes even more appealing.

Translating the GWL story into understanding – and action

Telling a broader, more current GWL story is only effective when it resonates with employees. Carriers and benefits producers play a pivotal role in helping to connect coverage features to real-life financial pressures and needs.

At enrollment, employees need more than a list of product features. A mix of traditional coverage information with relatable scenarios that show the product in action – including its living benefits – along with helpful decision-support tools can help enable employees to better assess their own protection needs and the role GWL can play.

Equally important to the materials shared at enrollment, ongoing communications and educational content are essential for optimizing the value of benefits – for employees and employers alike. Our research tells us that 62% of working Americans say access to voluntary benefits improves their financial mindset. But, among those enrolled in voluntary benefits, 55% say they often forget they have the coverage, while 76% say it would be helpful if their employer or policy provider reminded them about it.²

A year-round approach to benefits communications and education helps reinforce enrollment decisions and ensure that employees connect their changing financial lives with their protection benefits over time. Benefits producers, along with their carrier partners, can help employers deliver GWL communications tied to moments when protection needs naturally come into focus, including reassessing coverage needs after marriage or the birth of a child, understanding portability when considering a job change, or incorporating permanent life insurance into retirement planning.

Connecting GWL to an employee’s overall financial well-being is the product story that can resonate with today’s workforce. Working together, MassMutual can help you bring it to life for your clients and their employees – connecting evolving protection needs with the value GWL can provide.