With food prices, gas prices, foreclosures and general credit issues, employees have a lot to be worried about. That's why Marcy Foster, director of HR for Arlington County, Va., added four financial advisers to her HR staff this year to help support the needs of employees and also expanded the internal employee assistance staff.

Employers say products that offer financial and emotional assistance have an enormous value right now. That's why it may be time for funeral services to shine.

"Unlike a lot of things, death does not take a holiday," says Mark Duffey, CEO and president of Everest funeral planning services. "Especially in the economic times that we're facing now, people need all the help they can get."

Duffey says his product could be viewed as a highly-specialized EAP provider. Being "highly-specialized" may sound like a disadvantage in a market where employers and employees have fewer expendable dollars. However, a noninsurance voluntary trend is afoot to secure the place of boutique products next to voluntary mainstays.

"There's a big move to package services together, so it's a one-and-one-is-three type of offering, where some nontraditional types of services, like funeral advisory services, are combined with [traditional] benefits," says Duffey.

Recently, his company combined its service with a group life product from ING. This move could help noninsurance services transcend the physical and digital limits of what employers can offer in their payroll deductions, as well.