Finding a good health, employee benefits, or retirement plan services broker can sometimes be challenging. In today’s world, there are so many versions of this particular role. A new KFF analysis that looked at premiums and other out-of-pocket costs shows that families with coverage through a large employer paid 67 percent more for their health benefits and care in 2018 than a decade earlier.
According to a Glassdoor survey, roughly 60% of employees say benefit offerings are a significant factor in their decision on whether or not to take a new job.
Selecting the right partner to be a part of your professional team is more important than ever.
An essential first step before finding a broker or replacing your current broker is understanding the distinction between a Broker, a Consultant, and an Advisor, or a combination of all three. Are they an Expert Services Firm? Which one would be the best fit for your organization?
A good Benefits Broker will bring an array of options to the table for you and your company. The role can often be transactional, and the broker is normally compensated by the selected service provider or carrier.
Depending on the broker model, they may also provide additional support to you and our staff throughout the year. You should review various broker service models depending on how much support you think you, your staff, or your employees might want or need throughout the year.
A Benefits Consultant will often be able to provide the brokerage and service experiences of a broker (above) but will also be able to facilitate a process whereby you can assess the best designs, costs, and solutions before going to market to select the best service provider. Benefits Consultants are sometimes paid consulting fees in addition to (or instead of) brokerage commissions and fees.
A Benefits Advisor will often be able to provide the services of the broker and the consultant. However, where a consultant will normally provide options and ideas but seldom give advice. Advisor will provide options and ideas and provide best practices, advice, and guidance. An experienced Advisor may also be able to tie in more than just benefits to the overall strategic objectives including exit planning, organizational perpetuation, cultural wellness, hybrid, remote, or in-person work modeling, employee engagement initiatives, and more.
It is important to know the personalities and preferred service experience of your internal leadership or decision team to optimize your ability to select the right kind of external broker partner. It would be a shame to hire an advisor when you do not want or need advice. Likewise, it would be problematic to hire a transactional broker when you do want proactive advice and guidance.
Things to look for as you consider the ideal partner firm
- What is their service model? They should be able to answer this question.
- Are they proactive or reactive?
- How do they define these terms?
- How do you define these terms?
- Are they selling a product or solving a strategic business decision?
- How do they anticipate needs?
- Are they independent, private equity-owned, or publicly traded? The service experience can suffer if leadership is consumed with satisfying shareholder expectations and achieving specific profit margins.
- Does the originating salesperson or broker stay with you? Should they?
- How is their infrastructure designed to support their promises or claims?
- How do they manage the capacity of their service teams to ensure against overload?
- What processes do they have to ensure a consistent experience for each client?
- How do they go about identifying and adapting to the changing needs of clients? What is their process for this?
- Do they have internal experts in various areas, or is the lead advisor an expert in all areas? Do they expertise in:
- Population Health?
- Technology Suitability?
- Executive Benefits and Compensation?
- Disability Benefits?
- Retirement Plans and Financial Planning?
- Compliance and Risk?
- Medicare and Senior Benefits
- Do they have expertise in enterprise, mid-market, small business?
- What are their employee engagement, education, and communication strategies?
- Do they plan in using one-year terms or multi-year terms?
- How do they define cost-containment and ROI?
- How do they deal with pharmacy costs, disease management, and preventive care?
- Do they understand reference-based pricing?
- What is their approach to technology?
- How do they support compliance? In-person support, a hotline, or a newsletter?
- How do they charge fees? Are the fees connected to the cost of the plan? Do they get a raise when you get an increase?
- Do they understand your industry?
- Do they have a discovery process, or do they tell you all about themselves?
I hope you find this information helpful. These questions will assist you in your information-gathering and decision-making process as you consider your next health, benefits, or retirement plan partner.
For more information on our services, please email paul.younkins@tribridgepartners.com.
TriBridge Partners – Your health and financial wellness partner.
