It’s all about the costs, isn’t it? Not so much anymore.
For decades, health care costs and rising group insurance premiums have driven employers to shop their group health benefits coverage annually, and change brokers frequently as they look to cut a few percentage points from annual premium increases.
But today, regulation-swamped employers need more than a small financial incentive to support their choice of agent or broker, says Greg Carlton, CLU, ChFC, RHU, ChHC, principal and senior vice president of employee benefits and wellness at Peel & Holland in Benton, Kentucky.
Carlton, who joined the 90 year-old agency in 1994, has seen the employee benefits business evolve from an ancillary service to an essential component of the firm’s risk advisory practice. Costs matter, he explains, but most employers now realize that controlling benefits costs is not just about shopping insurers more effectively.
“After more than 60 years as an exclusively property/casualty insurance agency, Peel & Holland got serious about benefits services and incorporating benefits expertise into our approach of helping our clients manage and lower their overall cost of risk,” he says.
The decision tracked other evolutionary steps for the firm, including a key merger with an employee benefits specialty firm and a philosophical switch from insurance marketing to risk advising services.
“From our perspective, we have become true risk advisors, focusing not just on matching clients with insurance coverage, but on working strategically to lower their cost of risk,” Carlton says.
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