One group of employees is supremely confident in its benefits plan decision-making:

Millennials (born 1982-2001).

A new study by the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America finds:

• 96% of millennial-generation workers are “highly confident” they’ll make the right benefit decisions, while
• Only 66% of Generation Xers and 64% of Baby Boomers say the same thing.

So are younger employees more educated in financial and retirement planning, or are they just a tad overconfident?

Advisors should probably assume the latter. Younger folks haven’t seen their retirement portfolios go up and down (and up and down!) over the years, whereas older people have.

The Guardian study also provides an extra clue: 80% of all employees spend less than a total of two hours during open-enrollment evaluating their benefits options.

That’s something your company clients should know – and worry about – as well.

Tags: employee benefits, guardian life insurance, health insurance, millennial generation, retirement planning