BofA starts selling benefits packages to corporate banking customers

Bank of America last week launched a full-service workplace benefits program in hopes of landing more business from its corporate banking customers.

The massive financial services company had soft-launched the initiative about a year and a half ago, but it officially made the program available to employers last Wednesday.

That program, which the bank calls Financial Life Benefits, is a response to demand from employers and workers for comprehensive financial well-being and health care benefits, said Steve Ulian, managing director at Bank of America.

“Employees are basically crying out for help around their financial well-being and are looking to the employer to do something about it,” Mr. Ulian said. Employers are also using full-service benefits to retain talent and help keep employees productive, he said.

“Fifty-six percent of employees surveyed are stressed when it comes to their financial situation, and 53% said that stress interferes with their productivity at work,” he said, citing survey figures from the company’s workplace benefits report.

Through the new service, the company is providing 401(k)s, defined-benefit plans, health savings accounts and nonqualified deferred compensation plans alongside its banking services. Together, the services address short-term and long-term financial planning, Mr. Ulian said.

The service also includes in-person guidance from Merrill Lynch advisers.

Bank of America’s corporate banking service is aimed at companies with at least 800 employees, though it also has small and midmarket banking options, Mr. Ulian said.

Roughly 100 companies have signed up for the packaged service since the soft launch, though Bank of America now has many more opportunities to add clients, he said. About 40% of midsize to large U.S. companies have a banking relationship with Bank of America, including 95% of Fortune 1,000 companies, according to the bank. In addition, it works with about 3 million small businesses.

“We have all of these services in-house. We aren’t a strict 401(k) provider that has to go out and find an [health savings account] provider to partner with,” Mr. Ulian said. “We are uniquely positioned to bring this to [banking clients].”

To help sell the benefits package, the company is hiring between 100 and 140 field specialists who will work with corporate bankers, he said. The company has also recently made related investments in technology, including a feature that allows clients to view their consumer banking accounts alongside their employer-sponsored benefits and wealth management accounts, he said.

“We know that employees aren’t looking at their financial lives in silos,” Mr. Ulian said.