Two to fifty
Above fifty the obligations and funding options change enough that you want a firm doing that work daily. We will say so.
About the firm
We sell calendar discipline, not access to better rates.
Every broker can reach the same carriers. What a group of eighteen does not have is anyone whose job is to start the renewal ninety days out — and that, rather than any relationship or rate, is what decides what you pay.
Why the firm exists
A company of two hundred has someone whose job is benefits. A company of eighteen has an office manager who also runs payroll, and a renewal packet that lands six weeks before the date. By the time there is room to look at it, there is no time to market the group.
So the group renews as-is and absorbs the increase. Not because anyone decided to, but because the calendar decided for them. We have watched that happen often enough to build a firm around preventing it.
Ninety days is enough. It is enough to read what you have, write a submission worth underwriting, take it to carriers, and put a real comparison in front of you with time to think. None of that is clever. It just has to start early.
How we are paid
Commission, disclosed in writing, before you appoint us.
We are paid by the insurance carrier when we place coverage. You will know what that commission is before you sign anything, in writing, without having to ask.
Premiums are filed with the state. They are the same whether you buy direct or through a broker — there is no version of the plan that is cheaper if you cut us out, and any broker implying otherwise is describing something that does not exist.
Where a fee arrangement makes more sense than commission, we quote it plainly and you choose.
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Boundaries
What we are not
This audience gets sold to by people who blur these lines routinely, so we state them plainly and early rather than in the footer.
Saying "that needs your lawyer" costs us an afternoon and occasionally a client. Guessing at it costs the client considerably more.
Not a law firm
Nothing we provide is legal advice. Classification, eligibility design and anything with a dispute in it goes to your employment counsel.
Not accountants
We tell you which filings apply to you. We do not prepare them and we do not advise on tax treatment.
Not a TPA
We do not administer claims or hold plan assets. Where an arrangement needs a third-party administrator, that is a separate appointment.
Where we work
Three states, deliberately.
Small-group rules, carrier networks and state paid leave differ enough between Washington, Oregon, Idaho that knowing three properly beats knowing thirty vaguely. Companies hiring across all three are where that matters most.
One renewal calendar
Medical and every ancillary line on the same date, so the whole programme is reviewed once rather than four times badly.
No contract
No notice period and no exit fee. If you want to leave, you appoint someone else and we hand over cleanly.
Send us your current plan documents.
About ninety minutes of your time, no charge, and no letter until you have seen the numbers.