MetLife Legal Plans
Offer employees easy access to legal guidance for those important life moments. A legal plan can help at every stage of life, at no cost to you.
A Legal Plan That's Here For Your Employees When They Need It Most
MetLife Legal Plans provides employees with easy to use, cost effective legal services at no cost to your organization. With a legal plan, you can provide real value to your employee benefits package by giving employees access to attorneys for many common legal issues they face, from starting a family to buying a home or caring for aging parents.
Our over 40 years of experience providing legal benefits to companies of all sizes translates to a simple benefits experience with a team you can trust. We make the legal plan an easy to implement benefit, that is also easy for employees to use with no waiting periods, usage limits, copays or claim forms.
Why MetLife Legal Plans?
Largest Attorney Network
Our nationwide network of over 18,000 pre-qualified, experienced attorneys means that your employees will have an attorney near them to assist with their legal matter.
Unlimited Access
Employees get access to an attorney as if on retainer.
Flexible Service
Employees can meet face-to-face, discuss matters over the phone or by email or complete estate planning online through our digital estate planning solution.
Complete Coverage
Our attorneys provide fully covered legal help - from consultation to drafting or reviewing documents, to representation in court, if necessary, for many legal matters.
Did You Know?
80% of employers said that one of the main benefits of a legal plan is access to above average legal services.1
Legal FAQs
MetLife Legal Plans is the market leader in group legal plans, serving more than 3,000 organizations. These include over 200 Fortune 500® companies, all major accounting firms and the world’s top benefits consulting firms. We have an excellent track record of service to our sponsors and their employees. According to a recent survey of our legal plan sponsors, 99% of respondents said that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the legal plan and 93% said the legal plan was very easy to administer.2
For about $20 a month, our legal employee benefits program offers employees value, convenience and peace of mind by giving them easy and low-cost access to attorneys for a wide variety of personal legal services. Legal issues arise when employees get married, have a baby, buy or sell a home or become a caregiver for a spouse or parent. On average, lawyers charge upward of $370 an hour for legal help, an amount that is significantly more than the cost of a legal plan for a year.3
When an employee uses a network attorney for covered services, all attorney fees are covered by the legal plan. Advice and consultations on an unlimited number of personal legal matters are also included. When an employee enrolls in the legal plan, they have a lawyer on their side for just pennies a day. Payments are made conveniently and easily through payroll deductions.
“Fully covered” means all attorney services related to the covered matter are paid for by the legal plan when an employee uses a network attorney. There are no copays, deductibles, or claim forms when a network attorney is used.
The legal plan covers consultation most personal legal matters. What’s more, many personal legal matters are fully covered. The following matters are excluded from all plans:
- Employment-related matters, including company or statutory benefits
- Matters involving the employer, network attorneys, MetLife and affiliates
- Matters in which there is a conflict of interest between the employee and spouse or dependents, in which case services are excluded for the spouse and dependents
- Appeals and class actions
- Farm and business matters, including rental issues when the plan member is the landlord
- Patent, trademark and copyright matters
- Costs and fines
- Frivolous or unethical matters
- Matters for which an attorney-client relationship exists prior to the participant becoming eligible for plan benefits
MetLife Legal Plans will assign to your company an experienced account manager under the supervision of the Director of Plan Administration. The role of the account manager is to assist your organization with employee education and communication, billing and enrollment transmissions and ongoing plan administration. Our account managers are highly experienced in the support and assistance of implementing and maintaining legal plans.
We provide standard communication materials at no charge. We will print the materials and ship them to the sponsor to distribute to employees. We are also happy to help the sponsor create a link from their intranet to our website. Our rate does not include the cost to do home mailings.
Initial enrollment rates average around 6% to 8%. You will find that enrollment tends to grow yearly as satisfied employees discuss the value of the legal plan with their coworkers.
The average annual retention rate is 85%.
Yes, we can customize legal plans for groups of 3,000 and more benefit-eligible employees.
Getting started is easy. Members simply choose an attorney in any specialized area of practice from our network, which is available online or via one of our representatives. It’s that simple.
Members can speak to our network attorneys face to face, by phone or submit questions online to our Law Firm E-Panel® – whatever works best. And for certain legal matters, an attorney can represent a member in court without having them make an appearance.
Need Help?
Ready to offer this plan for your employees? Request a proposal
* Except for divorce and reproductive services
1 ORC study, conducted on behalf of MetLife Legal Plans, between June and July of 2017.
2 MetLife survey of legal plan sponsors conducted in 2017.
3 Average hourly rate of $370.00 based on years of legal experience, National Law and Journal and ALM Legal Intelligence, Survey of Law Firm Economics (2018).
Group legal plans provided by MetLife Legal Plans, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. In certain states, group legal plans are provided through insurance coverage underwritten by Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, Warwick, RI. Some services not available in all states. No service, including consultations, will be provided for: 1) employment-related matters, including company or statutory benefits; 2) matters involving the employer, MetLife and affiliates and plan attorneys; 3) matters in which there is a conflict of interest between the employee and spouse or dependents in which case services are excluded for the spouse and dependents; 4) appeals and class actions; 5) farm and business matters, including rental issues when the participant is the landlord; 6) patent, trademark and copyright matters; 7) costs and fines; 8) frivolous or unethical matters; 9) matters for which an attorney client relationship exists prior to the participant becoming eligible for plan benefits. For all other personal legal matters, an advice and consultation benefit is provided. Additional representation is also included for certain matters. Please see your plan description for details. MetLife® is a registered trademarks of MetLife Services and Solutions, LLC, New York, NY.