Services

Full-scope group benefits advisory.

From plan design and carrier placement through enrollment, compliance, and every renewal — handled by a named advisor and service lead on your account.

Full scope

The complete advisory scope.

Beyond the core placement work — the strategic, specialty, and compliance services that distinguish a full-service advisory engagement from a transactional brokerage relationship.

Strategic & Executive Advisory 5 services+
Executive benefit packages

Custom benefit design for ownership, C-suite, and key employees — structured to attract and retain senior talent.

Total rewards consulting

Benefits, compensation, retirement, wellness, and leave integrated into a single employee value proposition.

Multi-year cost containment

2-to-3-year structured strategy — funding levers, plan design, wellness ROI, and pharmacy sequenced over time.

Benefits innovation

Telemedicine, mental health platforms, fertility benefits, and virtual care evaluated and placed where they add measurable value.

Benefits plan design consulting

Deductibles, copays, coinsurance, networks, and contribution strategies modeled before any carrier is approached.

Alternative Funding & Risk 4 services+
Captive insurance strategies

Group captive and benefits captive analysis for employers ready to take on insurance risk in exchange for long-term cost control.

Reference-based pricing

Health plans that reimburse providers based on Medicare-based pricing rather than negotiated carrier network rates.

ICHRA & QSEHRA design

Individual Coverage HRA and Qualified Small Employer HRA for groups where individual-market reimbursement outperforms group placement.

RFP management

Formal carrier request for proposal — identical plan-design parameters across all eligible markets, five-criterion scoring.

Carrier & Renewal Management 4 services+
Renewal negotiations

Formal carrier negotiation using claims data, market benchmarks, and competitive bids — not a rubber stamp on the incumbent's proposal.

Claims analysis

Medical, pharmacy, dental, and disability claims reviewed to identify cost drivers and utilization trends — the basis for any real cost-containment strategy.

Benchmarking analysis

Your benefits stack and cost-per-employee compared against peers by industry, size, geography, and workforce type.

Mid-year account review

Claim trend check at the six-month mark. If your group is running hot, we flag it early — not two weeks before the renewal letter arrives.

Pharmacy & Clinical Programs 4 services+
Pharmacy benefit management

PBM evaluation, formulary strategy, rebates, specialty drug costs, and prescription carve-outs to reduce pharmacy spend without reducing access.

Telemedicine & virtual care

Primary care, urgent care, mental health, and chronic care programs integrated so employees actually use them and cost trends move.

Behavioral health benefits

Therapy, psychiatry, substance-use treatment, and digital mental health access designed into the plan with parity compliance evaluated at placement.

Wellness program design

Prevention, biometric screenings, fitness incentives, and chronic-condition management built around your workforce demographics and claims trends.

Compliance & Administration 6 services+
COBRA coordination

TPA selection, payroll integration setup, and escalation handling — we coordinate COBRA, we do not run it.

ERISA wrap & Form 5500

ERISA wrap document preparation for all group health coverage. Form 5500 coordination with a specialist filer for plans with 100+ participants.

Section 125 cafeteria plans

Pre-tax premium conversion and cafeteria plan documentation — required for any employer running employee payroll deductions on a pre-tax basis.

HSA & FSA administration

Health Savings Accounts, Healthcare FSAs, Dependent Care FSAs — vendor selection, plan design, and enrollment integration.

Leave management consulting

FMLA, state paid leave, disability leave, and company policy design — coordinated with your HR platform and disability benefits.

Nondiscrimination testing

IRS compliance testing for cafeteria plans, FSAs, and self-insured medical plans — coordinated with plan administration.

Enrollment & Employee Experience 5 services+
Open enrollment management

Communications plan, group meeting, one-on-ones, enrollment platform (Employee Navigator or Ease), carrier paperwork, and ID-card follow-through.

Employee assistance programs

Counseling, crisis support, and behavioral health resources — placed and communicated so utilization rates reflect actual employee awareness.

Benefits administration technology

Enrollment platform selection, eligibility management, carrier data feeds, payroll integration, and employee self-service — evaluated and implemented.

Multi-lingual support

Spanish-language enrollment and employee communications for bilingual workforces — so every employee understands what they have.

Employee advocacy & helpdesk

Claim questions, billing disputes, prior authorizations, and coverage navigation handled by your named service lead — not an 800 number.

Employer Operations & Specialty Markets 5 services+
Municipal & government benefits

Benefit strategy and carrier placement for municipalities, county agencies, and government employers with civil service and union considerations.

Payroll & PEO consulting

Evaluation and selection of payroll platforms and Professional Employer Organizations when bundled HR services outperform standalone placement.

HR consulting services

Benefits strategy integrated with HR structure — total rewards design, job classification, and leave policy as part of a complete employee value proposition.

Benefits outsourcing

Full-service benefits administration for employers without dedicated HR staff — enrollment, eligibility, carrier feeds, and employee helpdesk.

Year-round HR support

Direct-dial access to your named service lead for claim questions, enrollment changes, carrier escalations, and mid-year coverage issues — all year.

Group medical

Fully-insured, level-funded, and self-funded.

The medical line is where most of the work lives. We run a formal RFP across the carriers each employer is eligible for, with five weighted criteria: deductible, out-of-pocket max, Rx coverage, total cost, and copays. The output is a side-by-side comparison, not a wall of carrier logos.

For groups 25 lives and up, we model level-funded against fully-insured as a matter of course. For groups 100 and up with stable claim history, we run a self-funded feasibility against your run-rate — specific stop-loss, aggregate stop-loss, breakeven and downside cases on paper. If level-funded does not beat fully-insured at your group, we say so. If self-funded is the wrong move for your risk profile, we say so.

What we will not do is hand you a single carrier quote and call it a market check. Every renewal cycle is a real RFP.

Voluntary benefits

Dental, vision, life, disability, accident.

The ancillary lines that actually get used. Dental and vision have high employee perceived value at low employer cost, which makes them an easy win on the benefits-richness side of the ledger. Short-term disability is an easy sell for groups with younger workers; long-term disability becomes more important as the median age rises.

We model employer-paid, voluntary, and mixed funding before recommending. Enrollment runs on Employee Navigator or Ease so open enrollment is not a paper-and-spreadsheet exercise. Critical illness, hospital indemnity, accident, and pet are available where the carrier we use offers them.

One rule we keep: voluntary benefits are not bolt-ons to inflate the recommendation. If a line doesn't pencil for your group, we don't pad the proposal with it.

The education layer

Your employees get the benefit they think they're getting.

A great plan that nobody understands is a bad plan in practice. The placement is half the job; the other half is making sure the people using the plan know what they have. This is the part most brokers skip.

Plain-English benefit guide

One-page summary for every plan we place. Deductible, out-of-pocket max, copays, Rx tiers — the way you would explain them to a friend. Not the 60-page carrier SBC.

In-person enrollment walkthrough

Your dedicated advisor on site for open enrollment. Group meeting first, then one-on-ones with anyone who has a specific question. Same week the carrier locks the rates.

Year-round access to your service lead

HR question on a Tuesday morning? Employee confused about a claim? Your service lead picks up. Direct line, no ticket system. Same person, all year.

Sample enrollment-week timeline

A 50-person group's open enrollment is typically a 10-day window: Mon group meeting, Tue–Thu one-on-ones, Fri paperwork, following week ID cards. We share the timeline upfront so HR can plan around it.

Alternative funding

Level-funded and self-funded analysis.

For groups 25 lives and up. We model your claim run-rate against the proposed funding structure, layer in specific and aggregate stop-loss attachment points, and show the breakeven and downside cases on paper.

Level-funded sits between fully-insured and self-funded. You pay a fixed monthly amount that funds projected claims plus admin plus stop-loss; if claims run under projection, you get a surplus refund. Self-funded means you pay claims as incurred plus admin and stop-loss, and keep the entire surplus when claims run light — in exchange for taking on more month-to-month variability.

The right answer depends on your group size, claim history, cash flow tolerance, and how much administrative bandwidth you have. We will tell you when fully-insured is still the right answer for your group.

Reimbursement structures

ICHRA and QSEHRA design.

An Individual Coverage HRA lets an employer reimburse employees for individual-market premiums rather than offering a group plan. It can work well for groups with high turnover, multi-state remote workforces, or sub-50-life census that cannot get competitive group rates.

It does not work well if you have strong group-rate options or if your employees want a richer plan than the individual market offers. We model both before recommending. A QSEHRA is the small-employer flavor, capped at lower reimbursement amounts but simpler to administer.

Compliance and reporting

ACA, COBRA, ERISA wrap, Form 5500.

Applicable Large Employers (50+ full-time equivalents) must file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C with the IRS annually and distribute the 1095-C to each employee. Smaller groups with self-funded coverage file 1094-B and 1095-B. We can prepare and file these on your behalf or coordinate with your payroll provider when they handle ACA reporting in-house (ADP, Paychex, Gusto, Paylocity all offer the service for an additional fee).

COBRA administration is something we coordinate, not run ourselves. Most groups outsource COBRA admin to a third-party administrator such as WageWorks, P&A Group, or Tasc; fees run $1.50 to $3 per qualified beneficiary per month. We help select the COBRA admin, set up the integration with your payroll, and step in when something escalates.

ERISA wrap documents are required for any employer offering group health coverage. We handle the wrap. Form 5500 coordination — for plans with 100+ participants — we coordinate with a specialist filer.

Annual cycle

Open enrollment services.

We build the open-enrollment calendar 60 days out. The communications plan goes with it: email cadence, in-person meeting dates, recorded video for employees who can't be on site, and a plain-English enrollment guide.

Most employer groups complete enrollment in a two-to-three-week window: group meeting first, one-on-ones with anyone who needs them, then carrier paperwork, ID-card timing, and dependent eligibility verification. We handle the moving parts so HR doesn't have to chase the carrier.

Find out if we are the right fit for your group.

One 45-minute call. We review your current program, identify any gaps, and tell you plainly where we can improve it — and where we can't. No proposal, no pressure.