The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. HIG recently announced its partnership with Origin to enhance its Group Benefits offerings with a financial planning tool. HIG will refer Origin’s Financial Planning tool to its employer customers aiming to help U.S. employees with financial education, planning and budgeting.

Per Hartford Financial’s Future of Benefits Study, nearly one-third U.S. workers feel insecure about their financial situation and encourage financial education tools to help with managing debt, retirement planning, etc. Hence, this move bodes well for HIG, enhancing its product suite and acting as a key differentiator. Moreover, as employers benefit from this, retention will improve as a result.

This tool is a blessing for U.S. workers who often get troubled by an unexpected accident, illness or loss of a family member. Enabling them to better manage their finances will increase employee satisfaction. Employers will gain from competitive benefits packages and be able to attract and retain talent in a competitive market. The company will benefit from new business and improved premiums in the future.

Origin’s platform for financial planning will be providing financial management tools for free to employees. Employees will also have an option to get paid services like tax filing or one-on-one interaction with a certified financial planner. Financial stress impedes employee productivity, therefore this new solution is a win-win situation for employers facing employee inefficiency and retention issues.

Moves like this builds on HIG’s strategic priorities to leverage its product breadth to drive organic growth. Group Benefits premiums improved 6% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and its core earnings margin stood at 9.8%. The company expects to deliver a core earnings margin of 6-7% in 2024.

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Hartford Financial currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Shares of HIG have gained 32.3% in the past six months compared with the industry’s 12.7% growth.

Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the Multi-Line insurance space are Horace Mann Educators Corporation HMN, Assurant, Inc. AIZ and EverQuote, Inc. EVER. While Horace Mann sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Assurant and EverQuote currently carry a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy) each. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The bottom line of Horace Mann outpaced estimates in three of the last four quarters and matched the mark once, the average surprise being 15.2%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for HMN’s 2024 earnings is pegged at $3.15 per share, which has more than doubled from the year-ago reported figure. The consensus estimate for revenues indicates a 9.2% rise from the prior-year reported figure. The consensus mark for HMN’s 2024 earnings has moved 5% north in the past 30 days.