Your 5-question Checklist to Finding a Benefit Advisor

By Trey Hinson  

Today's businesses are inundated with benefit advisors offering to represent their business’ healthcare and voluntary benefit plans. While the days of country club relationships are still prevalent in the industry, as an industry insider, I can assure you the options are far greater in this complex and highly compensated space.

The goal of this piece is to provide you with a simple approach to finding the right benefit advisor, conveying your business needs and getting the most out of your plans through alignment.

A brief look back:

From the mid-’90s to 2010, many benefit advisors approached the space like a travel agent approached business. Relationships were created through chance encounters, sometimes even via door-to-door sales efforts. The next thing you know they'd show up with a spreadsheet filled with green and red numbers comparing the top five plans they thought matched your company profile.

Considering benefits are not as interesting to most people as a trip to the Caribbean, 9 times out of 10 decisions are purely made on price alone. While it was obviously much more complex, the sentiment was the same, benefit advisors are your personal shoppers and guides for how benefits could be used.

As a business owner, your decision greatly exceeds how much you wanted to spend and who you wanted to send your premium to. I've had the honor of knowing some of the best advisors in the business, and what separates the successful ones from the struggling ones comes down to how much they can match their offerings to your needs. This is how you create true value and savings for this massive line item.

"As a business owner, your decision greatly exceeds how much you want to spend and who you want to send your premium to."

Today’s options:

As we sit here in 2024, businesses are fortunate to have more accessibility and options than ever when it comes to their benefit guide. You can use online benefit brokerage services, national brokerage houses, regional brokers or even the single agent with a three-person shop down the road.

With each of these options, there obviously are benefits and liabilities. But if you start with the right mindset, you can truly find someone who matches your needs today and potentially for tomorrow.

So, the next time you field one of these outreach efforts, here are some ideas to determine the motivators and decide if you should stay right where you are or, if it is time to open your horizons to new options.

• How many different payer partners have you written business with in the past two years?
• How are you compensated for benefit selections including overrides, base commissions and cost sharing?
• What are the Top 3 trends you have seen across your block of business, and what products have you used to combat these to keep benefits affordable?
• Can you provide some case studies on businesses like mine and how their trends have been for the past three years?
• Do you primarily offer self-funded, fully insured or individual products?

By determining the motivation of the products shown, the options available and the previous track record, you can quickly determine if your interests align with the benefit advisor. The days of settling for a 6%-10% rate increase year over year and being excited about it are over.

Take the power you have at your fingertips and get more out of your benefit plans today.