Professional firms compete on people, and benefits are part of the offer.
Lenders, accounting firms, law firms and consultancies along Big Beaver run on a small number of experienced people, often with a wide pay range inside one office. Their benefits have to be competitive for the senior staff, affordable for the rest and simple enough that a small administrative team can run them.
Six areas where professional and financial firms win or lose on benefits.
Each card opens the full guide.
Contribution Strategy
A wide pay range in one office means the same employee contribution feels very different. Modeling by tier and by group shows where to spend the employer dollar.
Total Rewards
Partners, producers and support staff weigh different things. We design the package across all three groups rather than for the average.
Executive And Owner Benefits
Owners and senior producers often need group life, disability and supplemental coverage that goes beyond the base plan.
Financial Wellbeing
Student debt, savings and emergency funds shape how employees use the plan. The benefits can help without raising the base cost.
Professional Services Practice
How we approach accounting, legal, consulting and engineering firms: utilization, billable-time pressure and compliance load.
Fiduciary And Governance
A firm with a retirement or welfare plan needs documented decisions and a calendar. We help put both in place.
Three questions that come up in almost every first meeting.
Is Our Renewal Fair?
Send it and we will tell you whether it looks competitive.
What Are Our Funding Options?
Fully insured, level-funded and self-funded, compared side by side.
What Is Driving The Increase?
Reading the renewal against your own experience.
The questions financial and professional firms ask us.
Ten questions Troy-area lenders, accountants, attorneys and consultants bring us, answered the way we answer them in a meeting.
Our firm has a few high earners and many support staff. How do we set contributions?
Usually by tier rather than by salary, with the employer paying a larger share of employee-only coverage and a more modest share of dependents. Modeling the split shows what each group pays and whether anyone drops coverage.
What can we do for owners and partners that we cannot do for everyone?
Within the rules, group life and disability can be structured with higher benefit levels for certain classes of employee. Other arrangements raise nondiscrimination issues, so we check them with your tax advisor before proposing.
Should a small professional firm self-fund?
Rarely at fewer than about fifty covered lives, and only with stop-loss designed carefully. Level-funded plans are the usual step between fully insured and self-funded. Our comparison of the three sets out the trade-offs.
How do we keep a small HR function from drowning in administration?
Use a benefits administration platform connected to payroll, keep the plan menu small and have the broker handle carrier issues. That is the service we provide.
Can a firm with a mix of salaried and commission staff use the same plan?
Yes. Eligibility should be written by job class rather than by compensation type, and the waiting period should apply evenly. Producers’ variable pay does not change the plan, but it can change what contribution they find acceptable.
What do mortgage and lending firms need that others do not?
Seasonal volume swings, a mix of salaried and commissioned employees and, in some cases, licensing-related compliance on top of benefits compliance. We build the plan around that mix.
How should we think about telehealth and virtual care?
As a way to improve access and reduce lost time, not as a stand-alone cost saver. Check what the carrier already includes before buying a separate service.
What happens if one employee has a very large claim?
In a fully insured plan the carrier absorbs it and prices it into later renewals. In a level-funded or self-funded plan, stop-loss coverage limits the firm’s exposure. Our guide to high-cost claimants explains what employers can and cannot do.
Do we need to worry about benefits compliance as a small firm?
Yes. Several notices and filings apply regardless of size, and more apply as you grow. The compliance calendar lists what is due and when.
What do you need to look at our plan?
The renewal letter, the current plan summary, the contribution split by tier and the enrolled counts by tier. Send them here.
Ready? Upload your renewal, or talk it through with someone first. No cost, no obligation.
General information about professional and financial services benefits, not legal or tax advice. Plan-specific questions belong with your counsel and tax advisor, and we will bring them in.
Where this connects.
Troy Employee Benefits
Everything we do for Troy employers, in one place.
Engineering And Technology In Troy
Competitive packages and flexible funding.
Cost Containment
Nine levers for controlling group health cost.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents, two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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