Henry Ford sold his Model T with one caveat: "You can have any color-so long as it's black."
Health benefit programs weren't that much different a generation ago. Agencies shopped health insurers for the best price for major medical insurance. Employers had minimal choice in plan design and very few ways to control their costs.
Times have changed and so have independent agencies that help employers manage employee benefits, says Tim Templeton, chief operating officer of Senn Dunn Insurance, Inc., in Greensboro, North Carolina. "Today we spend a lot of time asking our clients how they want their employee benefit plans. And what they want to achieve."
The employee benefits business is about strategic design, Templeton says, and not so much about product sales. Employee benefit producers interview their clients about their business needs and help them design an approach to benefits that supports their human resources goals.
Senn Dunn, which was founded in 1927 as a property/casualty agency in Greensboro, North Carolina, has become the largest independent agency in the state. The agency also has offices in Raleigh, High Point and Wilmington.
Employee benefits services contribute about 40% of total revenue, commercial property/casualty insurance about 50% and personal lines about 10%. Templeton says the agency is growing at a rate of about 10% annually but, as a percentage of revenues, employee benefits is likely to remain stable, tracking the steady growth. "We do a great job cross-selling," he says. About two-thirds of the agency property/casualty customers also use the firm's employee benefit services.
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