Do you want an employee benefit advisory firm or just a traditional broker?

Is your broker only giving you the bare minimums? You know spread sheet policies, only focused on securing the lowest policy with no reason behind the spending or long term strategy.

Clients today are looking for a lot more from their benefits firm, as Sarah Lucas points out in a November article in the MarshBerry letter.

What they want, she says, is a trusted advisor to give them advice, perform, analyze, provide up to the minute communication on changes, and streamline payroll, HR, and benefits with one click of a button.

Contrary to some beliefs that benefit advisors will become obsolete, which in a recent article by Vin Capozzi of Harvard Pilgrm states the polar opposite. In his piece, a study done by LIMRA in 2013 states that 94% of small businesses believe the need for an outside advisor to help manage employee benefits will increase or stay the same in the next few years.

So the question becomes... is it time to seek out an employee benefits advisory firm and get rid of your traditional broker?

In the next few paragraphs we will take a look at some of the advantages a full service agency or advisory firm has over the traditional broker.

Striking a balance between employee expectations, rising benefit costs, an employer's capabilities, and watching the bottom line has become an increasing challenge these days.

Obtaining the lowest price from aggressive brokers is not the only consideration when it comes to handling your employees' benefits. An advisor or broker must be strong in these areas as well.

1. Supporting Varied Business Needs

2. Keeping up to date in Federal, State and Local Compliance

3. A thorough understanding of Human Resources

4. Health and Wellness

For the most part, in today's marketplace, brokers offer similar pricing but pricing alone does not show you the complete package. Considering a complete and comprehensive package is necessary when choosing.

An Employee Benefit Advisory Firm Can Offer the following:

An advisory firm can offer more benefits to your business then just a broker who is more concerned about placing your coverage. Consider a firm to be a strategic partner in your business.

They will roll up their sleeves, study and learn your achievements and challenges by observing your day-to-day operations. By understanding your business, he or she can step in and support you with a variety of resources and services.

An advisory firm does not deal with one and done sales. They stick with your business, serving an advisory role, they can look years ahead and develop a multi-year strategic plan to help companies identify money saving opportunities such as lower medical costs.

They improve your HR function by helping you streamline or identify duplicate functions that are a waste of time.

Additionally, by implementing a wellness program a company can not only help their employees achieve better health, but also realize cost benefits by just such a program.

By setting up this comprehensive and all-encompassing wellness program, you can easily reap benefits that lead to a healthier workforce that potentially reduces absenteeism because of illness.

A full service advisory firm can offer health and welfare consulting, health care analytics, human resources, retirement services, voluntary benefits, and executive benefits.

How can an Advisory Firm be an Educational Resource?

With the ever-changing health care legislation and numerous regulations and mandates coming out daily from government agencies, an advisor can keep you up to date and keep you compliant by providing you timely legislative bulletins that detail and explain new and changing rules, regulations and delays.

In addition, an advisory firm's role can provide you educational materials relating to benefits, wellness and other topics of concern and interest.

HR Supportive Role?

An advisory firm can be a supportive tool to your HR department and provide employee newsletters, benefit announcements in addition to sample documents and expert advice in crafting policies, forms, benefit summary statements, handbooks and much more.

Advisors can offer employees, at their convenience, easy and self-serve access by running an online portal for them. A firm can design a system that incorporates payroll, employee benefits and reporting capabilities to ensure ongoing compliance with the Affordable Care Act.

At Accurate Insurance Solutions we can offer a full range of services. We strive to earn your trust as a resource and advisor for a variety of issues you face. We are a full service agency, employee benefit and HR consulting firm, helping educate and become your resource for your Insurance solutions.

Our recent article, a 10 point service checklist, provides the necessary ammunition you need as an employer when choosing your next advisor or broker.

Learn more about Accurate... visit our website or call us at 813-994-4114.

Have more questions on how an advisory firm can help your benefit program? Cick our button below and ask us a question or set up an appointment today.

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