AIG has added a surrogacy reimbursement benefit and boosted its adoption reimbursement benefit in an effort to appeal to its increasingly diverse workforce The finance and insurance company will now reimburse U.S. employees up to $13,800 of eligible surrogacy-related expenses per child. Eligible expenses include agency fees for the cost of locating and managing a surrogacy, legal fees for negotiation of a surrogacy contract and domestic travel fees associated with the surrogacy arrangement. The company also increased its adoption reimbursement per child to $13,800 from $7,500. The combined lifetime maximum reimbursement amount per employee under the new program is $27,600. The changes went into effect at the beginning of the year for U.S. employees. AIG has 50,000 employees globally, although it does not publically break that number down by region. “We’re always looking for ways to enrich our employee benefit offerings to meet the needs of our ever-diverse workforce,” says Justin Orlando, senior director of employee benefits at AIG. “We have 115 employee resource groups at AIG, and our New York LGBT & Allies ERG encouraged us to offer policies that further support today’s diverse families, like the adoption and surrogacy assistance program.” In addition to these new offerings, Orlando says AIG offers paid parental leave, health retirement and savings, wellness programs and an employee assistance program. The company also provides emergency back-up childcare assistance and referral information regarding child, adult and pet care. “We understand that personal problems, planning for life events or simply managing daily life can affect our employees, their family, health and work,” Orlando says. “So we provide an array of benefits to help address our employees’ concerns.” Numerous employers are beefing up family-friendly benefits offerings, including paid parental leave, breast milk shipping and adoption and surrogacy reimbursement. For example, tech giant Cisco rolled out an egg storage reimbursement and a genetic testing benefit to workers last October. State Street, Pinterest and American Express also bumped up their fertility benefits over the last few years. The percentage of employers offering fertility benefits to employees is expected to grow to 66% in 2019 from 55% in 2017, according to data from Willis Towers Watson. See also: 50 companies that made big benefits changes in 2018 Orlando says employees value benefits when making decisions about where to work. He hopes the new benefits will be a retaining factor for workers long term. “While it’s a little early to say, we do hope our benefits, and the addition of the new adoption and surrogacy assistance program, help retain current employees as well as future employees,” he says. “What we do know, through our work with ERGs, is that our employees are extremely engaged and appreciative when we are able to listen and work with them to offer benefits that truly matter to them.”
AIG has raised its adoption reimbursement benefit and begun providing a surrogacy reimbursement benefit to US staff. The finance and insurance company said it was encouraged by its employee resource groups to offer benefits that better reflect and support its diverse workforce. Employees can now have up to $13,800 of eligible surrogacy-related expenses reimbursed, ranging from agency and legal fees to required domestic travel costs. AIG’s adoption reimbursement per child has also been raised from $7,500 to $13,800. “While we are pleased with the progress we’ve made in this area, there is still more work to be done,” said Michael J. O’Leary, president and CEO of AIG.