The Benefit Your Clients' Employees Are Ready For
LegalShield has a new Senior Care Advisor benefit that gives employees the expert guidance they need — before a caregiving crisis becomes a workforce problem.
It starts quietly. A parent falls. A sibling texts: "Mom seems different lately." And suddenly a perfectly capable employee is Googling "what does Medicare cover" at midnight, trying to make life-altering decisions about someone they love — without a roadmap or an expert to guide them.
More of your clients' employees are in this situation than most HR leaders realize. According to the CDC, more than 53 million Americans are unpaid caregivers for an aging or ill loved one. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates the average caregiver spends 20 hours a week managing care on top of their full-time job — and that reality shows up in your clients' organizations as absenteeism, distraction, and quiet burnout.
Elder care is also operationally complex. What level of care does a parent need? How does Medicare interact with Medicaid? How do you evaluate a home care agency? These questions don't yield to a quick search. They require someone who knows the system — and can help a family navigate it without getting lost in it.
What "Support" Actually Looks Like
Most employees who are quietly managing a parent's decline don't need a pamphlet. They need a person. Someone who can sit with them — figuratively or literally — assess their loved one's situation, explain the options that actually exist, and help them build a plan they can follow. That's a different thing from a benefits hotline or a digital resource library, and employees know the difference.
The LegalShield 2027 Enhanced Plan addresses this gap directly. Through the new Senior Care Advisor benefit powered by Care.com, members now have access to a dedicated master's-level social worker who provides 1:1 guidance tailored to each family's specific situation. The advisor conducts a real needs assessment, builds a personalized care plan with prescreened provider referrals, and navigates financial options — including Medicare, Medicaid, and insurance — alongside the member. The relationship lasts 90 days at a time and members can return as many times as they need.
Crucially, when legal questions arise in the course of a caregiving situation — a power of attorney, a healthcare directive, a nursing home contract — the LegalShield provider law firm is already there. Members don't have to figure out which benefit to use. The legal and care guidance live in the same plan.
Why Sr. Care Advisor Belongs in Your Broker Conversations
For brokers, this benefit matters for a practical reason: the market has moved. Senior care advisory services are no longer an emerging differentiator among employee legal plans— it's a baseline expectation among sophisticated HR buyers. Recent RFI activity in the market has included requests for services for grandparents, and elder care support has been a deciding factor in competitive account reviews.
The LegalShield 2027 Enhanced Plan closes that gap — and the integration of legal and caregiving support under one plan is a differentiator that no competitor currently matches at this level. For employers who already offer LegalShield, this is a meaningful upgrade conversation. For prospects where elder care has been a gap or an objection, it removes the barrier entirely.
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT
Senior Care Advisor — Powered by Care.com
The LegalShield 2027 Enhanced Plan now includes Senior Care planning powered by Care.com. Members get access to a dedicated master's-level social worker who conducts real needs assessments, builds a personalized care plan with prescreened provider referrals, and navigates Medicare and Medicaid options alongside them.
That matters for your broker conversations because it closes a gap that has lost accounts. When legal questions arise — a power of attorney, a healthcare directive, a nursing home agreement — the LegalShield provider law firm is already there. One plan. For employers weighing benefit upgrades, this is a meaningful, differentiated addition at a negligible cost.
Ready to add this to your client conversations? Reach out to your LegalShield Business Solutions representative or email [email protected] to get updated proposals, enrollment materials, and talking points.