What Is Aflac Insurance and What Does It Do?

Customer Review by Paxton Bailee

When we hear “Aflac”, we automatically think of the duck. While the duck is great, the insurance coverage with Aflac is absolutely the best in the industry. For those not familiar with Aflac, Aflac is supplemental insurance. They are not major medical nor automobile insurance. They have accident, cancer, intensive care, and disability insurance to name a few. They are the industry leader. One little known fact is they have NEVER had a rate increase. As new policies are made available, policyholders have the option of upgrading but are not required to do so. My Aflac policies have paid me triple what my policies cost. Yes, I said, “paid me”. Aflac pays me. They don’t pay the doctor, hospital, or pharmacy. This is money in my pocket when I need it. If your employer doesn’t offer Aflac as part of your benefit package, you should ask them to check into it. You will be glad you did.

I was in a near fatal auto crash a couple of years ago. Even though I had health insurance, my Aflac accident policy paid me based on the medical treatment I had received. My first check from them was over $11,000. Wow! That money really came in handy when I couldn’t work due to injury. Plus, each policy I had paid independent of one another. In other words, my accident policy paid and so did my intensive care policy. There aren’t many people who get paid when they receive medical treatment. Even after my accident, my rate did not increase. I am just so happy with Aflac and the people who I have encountered. They really have a superior product and superior service.

Aflac has made supplemental health insurance popular with our quirky duck. But what is a supplemental health insurance plan, how does it work and do you need it?

Of course, the first thing you want to have is a good health insurance policy. A good health insurance policy will pay for your health insurance bills just fine. Aflac Supplemental health insurance comes in to help you pay for what your health insurance does not pay or other expenses you cannot pay if something should happen where you temporarily or permanently cannot make an income to pay your bills.

Since you already have health insurance do you need any of these supplemental health insurance plans offered by Aflac Insurance and other insurance companies? Well, that depends on your risk factors and how much insurance you want to carry or can afford to carry and how much savings you have put back.

Aflac Supplemental Insurance Fills Holes in Insurance Coverage

Many Americans find out the hard way that most major medical plans are designed to pay doctor and hospital bills, but not all the incidental expenses associated with treatment and recovery: co-pays, deductibles, loss of earning power, special diets, medical equipment, travel and long-distance calls, to name a few out-of-pocket expenses. Hell, you can even cover your mortgage payments if necessary.

Ed Brancheau, an Aflac agent, said many unexpected expenses can be accrued when an employee is faced with medical expenses due to illness or accident.

For example, most major medical plans cover only 35 percent of an employee’s bills. However, 65 percent of these expenses are indirect costs such as loss of wages, deductibles or co-insurance, travel expenses, lodging and even childcare.

Aflac Insurance "helps people live their lives a little easier,” Ed said. “The last thing you need to worry about when recovering is how you are going to survive financially. AFLAC pays the policy holder cash and they can allot it as they need it".

Are You an Employer That Wants to Add Benefits Without Increasing Costs?

In the event of an disability or accident, your employees will benefit from Aflac insurance programs which pay cash directly to them, regardless of any other coverage they might have. What's more, life, accident, health, dental, and cancer insurance are available at no direct cost to the employer. Employees voluntarily pay for these programs through payroll deduction, thereby giving themselves important benefits paid for by pre-tax earnings, while saving their employer payroll taxes.

All Benefits are Paid Directly to the Employee

Supplemental insurance, such as what Aflac Insurance offers, pays a cash benefit to the insured. The amount of cash and how it is paid out depends on the supplemental health insurance plan or policy. Some popular supplemental health insurance policies are specific disease insurance such as for cancer, accidental death and dismemberment insurance or accident health insurance, and hospital indemnity insurance.

The company now offers several types of insurance products in the United States, including the following:

* Accident/disability
* Cancer indemnity
* Short-term disability
* Intensive care
* Hospital indemnity
* Sickness indemnity
* Long-term care
* Specified health event
* Fixed-benefit dental
* Vision
* Term life
* Whole life
* Juvenile life
* Unreimbursed medical and dependent day care flexible spending accounts

Aflac Insurance History: Three Brothers to One Quacking Duck

American Family Life Insurance Co., or AFLAC Insurance, is a public company (NYSE: AFL) headed by Chairman and CEO, Dan Amos, that was begun in 1955 and has its headquarters in Columbus, Georgia. Aflac (NYSE: AFL, TYO: 8686) sells supplemental health and life insurance in the United States and Japan. With 4,538 employees and $1.634 billion in net income, Aflac Insurance is one of the most stable insurance companies around and has A+ ratings from both Standard and Poor's and AM Best.

The company was founded by three brothers, John, Paul, and Bill Amos, in Columbus, Georgia, in 1955 as American Family Life Insurance Company (not to be confused with American Family Insurance). In 1964 the company’s corporate name was changed to American Family Life Assurance Company, and then in 1990 the acronym was formally adopted as the company's name. The company had 6,426 policyholders in 1956.

American Family Life pioneered cancer insurance in 1958. Beginning in 1964 the company decided to focus sales on worksite settings. By 2003, more than 98 percent of the company's policies in the United States were issued on a payroll-deduction basis, making the company the U.S. leader in that sales approach.

In 1973 American Family Life established a holding company, the American Family Corporation. The company's 1990 adoption of the "AFLAC" name set it apart from the many other insurance firms that include the word "American" in their names. (The official name on the firm's Web site, and for legally selling insurance, is "American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus.")

Since 1999, the company's identity has become more widely recognized, as the result of commercials featuring the Aflac Duck, who frustratedly quacks the company's name to unsuspecting prospective policyholders.

In 2005, the logo was changed to incorporate a duck character, which is prominently featured in its advertising. In addition, the official spelling of the company name became "Aflac."

The Aflac Duck: Who'd Have Thought a Mascot for an Insurance Company Would Become So Recognizable?

The Aflac Insurance brand has developed wide recognition recently with commercials starring the famous Aflac Duck (with Gilbert Gottfried providing the voice) on television which started airing in December 1999. The duck concept and all of the commercials to date have been created by The Kaplan Thaler Group, an advertising agency based in New York City. Struggling to come up with a concept to make the big but relatively obscure insurance company's name memorable, art director Eric David stumbled upon the duck idea by walking around Central Park at lunchtime uttering, "Aflac, Aflac." He soon realized how much the company's name sounded like a duck's quack. David provides one of the duck's two voices: Although Gottfried handles the duck's screams, David does the normal Aflac quacks. The Aflac Duck character has now starred in more than 30 different commercials. Aflac competitor Geico had a commercial in the late 1990s that featured a duck that removed his bill to show a smaller one in its place, and said "smaller bill" for comedic value and is a time cat

The creation of an effective, new, and recognizable brand identity for the company surrounding the duck is regarded as a significant modern branding case study.

The effect is created through a combination of footage of real ducks, CGI effects, and lifelike puppets for close-ups. Most commercials feature humans discussing the insurance that Aflac provides, although they are unable to remember the name of the company. The duck quacks the Aflac name, trying to jog their memory. The duck also has a temper, which leads it to angered outbursts that invariably backfire. Misfortunes befalling the Aflac Duck include falling into the Grand Canyon, getting hit by a train, sliding off a snowy rooftop and onto a snowman, getting placed on an intense roller coaster, and being hit by a falling automobile. In many commercials, it seems that there is only one person who actually notices the duck, a character played by Earl Billings. This character was in many of the earlier ads with the duck. The character, however, has never spoken during the ads and seems to be unnerved by the presence of the duck.

There have also been some celebrities to star in the ads, such as Chevy Chase, Yogi Berra, Yao Ming, Donald Trump's wife Melania Trump, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards,and the United States Olympic synchronized swimming team. Berra's first ad, "Berra at the Barber," takes place in a barber shop and features three new Yogiisms:

"It's the one you really need to have. If you don't have it, that's why you need it."
"If you get hurt and miss work, it won't hurt to miss work."
"They give you cash, which is just as good as money."

The Aflac Duck also appears in commercials in Japan, though with a slightly different voice quacking "Aflac!" The personality of the Japanese Aflac Duck is less grumpy than in the U.S. commercials. The duck also smiles in some of the Japanese ads, sings along to songs and happily stamps its feet in time to music. The Aflac Duck appears in Japanese commercials as a reassuring character.

The most recent Aflac Insurance commercial features an orangutan who represents a non-Aflac insurance company. The organutan shakes its head "No" and creates chaos as a factory worker asks her boss if their non-Aflac insurance will offer the same benefits that Aflac Insurance does.

Aflac Insurance sells plush Aflac Duck dolls, and the proceeds benefit the Aflac Cancer Center. The sales are made through the company's Web site and also through retail partners such as Macy's department stores. Since 2001, more than $1 million has been raised to benefit the center.

Aflac Insurance Recognition

Aflac Insurance has been included in Fortune magazine's listing of America's Most Admired Companies for seven consecutive years and in the magazine's list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America for nine consecutive years. Aflac is also noted by other sources for providing an excellent workplace environment. It has been recognized by Computerworld magazine's list of the 100 Best Places to Work in IT, as well as by Training magazine's Training Top 100 list of companies with outstanding workforce development programs. Aflac Insurance has also been recognized repeatedly by Fortune magazine's listing of the Top 50 Employers for Minorities and Working Mother magazine's listing of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers.

Want to Discover More and Find Out If Aflac Insurance Is Right for You?

I understand that I might not have answered all of your questions about Aflac Insurance yet. So, if you have more questions then feel free to call me, Ed Brancheau, at 619-495-3537 between 9am and 6pm Pacific Time or contact me via email.

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