If you are looking for Group Insurance or Group Benefits for your company, its important that you understand that there are many compliance issues that businesses have to deal with. The Affordable Care Act mandates that companies have certain documents on hand and issue notices to employees. Those that don’t comply, face harsh penalties and sanctions by the Dept of Labor. Companies that have brokers that don’t specialize in Group Health Insurance or Group Benefits are at a disadvantage….most of them are unaware of all of the crazy mandates. I learned a long time ago, you can’t be an expert at everything. If a broker consults on many different kinds of insurance, there is no way they can become proficient at them all. With Group Health Insurance, it is changing constantly. Anyone not keeping up with all of the nuances, cannot advise their clients properly
Being an expert at Group Health Insurance is a full time job
When I started doing insurance back in 2003, I picked Health Insurance and Group Insurance as my specialty. This was before everything blew up in 2010 with ObamaCare. I have to admit, because we only do Group Insurance and Health Insurance, we’ve become one of the leading Bay Area experts. I’ve been featured on KPIX Channel 5 several times on ObamaCare segments, taught Employee Benefits and Group Insurance at the UC Santa Cruz Extension and spoken on the ACA many times. Because this is such a highly specialized area now, agents that are not Group Health specialists, fall behind. We have brought on so many businesses over the last few years that needed expert advice on Group Benefits simply because their current broker was not able to help them.
Being a Group Health Insurance specialist is unique
The first question you have to ask your current agent is; “what are you doing to help us get….and stay compliant with the new laws”. If your broker has a confused look on their face, its probably time to find a Group Health Specialist. Whether you use us or not, you need to find a Benefits Broker that you trust and that has good reviews, and qualifications. Anyone can throw plans around and help you renew your plan. That takes no skill. Its the brokers that have a strategy that can help you as a business person…that is what is important
Steve Brauer, Principal, Brauer Insurance Services LLC