What does CFH Insurance Consultants actually do?

We are an independent employee benefits consulting firm. We advise employers on group health, dental, vision, life, disability and voluntary benefits - plan design, funding, carrier and renewal negotiation, compliance, and the benefits administration that runs underneath all of it. The work is continuous rather than annual: the renewal is where it becomes visible, but most of it happens in the months either side.

How long have you been in business?

CFH has been operating since 2007. The people here have been in insurance considerably longer than the firm has existed, which is a different claim and worth keeping separate - the firm's own track record starts in 2007. The firm’s incorporation date is a matter of public record with the State of Michigan, if you want to check it.

Where are you, and where do you work?

Our main office is at 41000 Woodward Avenue, Suite 350 East, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with additional offices in Colorado Springs and Houston. Michigan is the home market and where most of the work is, but our licensing follows clients beyond it, which matters when an employer's people are not all in one state.

Are you independent, or owned by a carrier or a national group?

Independent. No carrier owns us and no national brokerage sets what we recommend, which is the whole reason a recommendation from us is worth reading. It is a fair question to ask of anyone advising you on a plan, because the answer determines whether the advice can ever point away from a particular carrier.

What size employers do you work with?

From small groups through the mid-market, and the work looks genuinely different across that range - under fifty the levers are plan design, contributions and carrier; above it your own claims start driving the number and funding becomes a real decision. If you want the version specific to your size, the pages by company size lay out what changes at each band.

What industries do you work in?

A broad mix rather than one niche, with real concentration in a few - manufacturing, health care, professional services, mortgage lending and hospitality among them. Industry matters less than workforce shape: a business with variable-hour staff across several sites has more in common with another business like it than with a competitor in its own sector.

Are you licensed outside Michigan?

Yes. Licensing follows the client rather than the office, which is what allows an employer headquartered here to be served properly when its people are spread across several states. If you have employees somewhere specific, ask us about that state directly - it is a factual question with a factual answer.

What happens in a first conversation?

Twenty to thirty minutes, no proposal. You describe what you have and what the renewal looks like, and we tell you whether the number is in line with what comparable employers are being quoted or whether it is not. If it is fair, we say so. Nothing is sent afterwards unless you ask for it. If you are comparing firms first, how to choose an employee benefits broker in Michigan lists the questions to ask each one.

Do we have to be a client to ask you something?

No. A large part of what we do before anyone signs anything is answering questions from employers who are working something out - a compliance date, a renewal that does not read right, whether an arrangement someone is pitching them is real. If it takes a few minutes, it takes a few minutes.

We are not a third-party administrator. We find, vet and manage the administrators our clients use, which means the administrator answers to somebody on your side of the table rather than to itself. We are licensed insurance brokers, not attorneys or accountants - though CPAs and ERISA attorneys are available to clients through the firm for the questions that need them.

Employee Benefits Broker in Southfield, MI

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Southfield, Michigan, metro Detroit's largest suburban office market

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS CONSULTING · SOUTHFIELD, MI

Southfield Benefits Consulting for a Dense Office Market

Southfield is Metro Detroit’s largest suburban office market — roughly twenty-seven million square feet of office space, second only to downtown Detroit. The work here is white collar: corporate headquarters, automotive engineering and supply management, finance, insurance, law and accounting. Benefits in an office town are a recruiting instrument first and a cost line second, and the two goals pull against each other.

Call 248.370.8853

Photo: Dave Parker, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

An Employee Benefits Broker for Southfield Employers

CFH Insurance Consultants is an independent employee benefits broker for Southfield’s office and professional employers, from small firms in the Northwestern Highway towers to mid-market headquarters. We place group health, dental, vision, life and disability coverage, then run the renewal, enrollment and compliance work through the year. For proper coverage of an account we work in teams of 5: an account executive, an account manager, a plan analyst, customer service and IT.

Small Business Health Insurance in Southfield

Professional firms often put off group coverage because they assume it takes a big headcount or a large employer contribution. It takes neither: a group plan can start with one W-2 employee, in any month, and an employee-paid plan with no employer contribution is allowed. Small-group premiums come from the carrier’s filed rates, adjusted mainly for each employee’s age and location.

If you already have a plan, send us your renewal and we will tell you whether it looks competitive before you decide anything. Changing brokers takes one broker of record letter; your plan, carrier and ID cards stay the same.

You Are Competing With the Building Next Door

In a market this dense, a candidate can change employers without changing their commute. That makes the benefits package unusually visible. Professionals compare deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums and whether a specialist they already see is in network — and they compare them against the firm two floors up.

The mistake we see most often is spending the whole budget on the medical premium. A modest employer contribution to an HSA, a dental plan that actually covers major services, and a straightforward short-term disability benefit usually read better to a professional hire than another few hundred dollars of premium subsidy on a plan they will barely use.

Partners, Associates and One Plan

Law firms, accounting practices and consultancies concentrated in Southfield often carry a compensation structure where partners and associates sit in very different places. Benefits get designed around the partner group and then applied to everyone, which is both expensive and, under the affordability test, occasionally non-compliant.

For a longer view of cost, see how a year-round health and cost strategy works between renewals.

Defining benefit classes properly — by role, by hours, by location — lets you fund a partner tier differently from an associate tier inside one plan. It is a document exercise, not a carrier negotiation, and most firms have never had it done.

Structures Worth Comparing in an Office Market

An HSA Plan for Office Professionals

Well suited to a professional population that uses little care and values the account. The employer contribution is visible, portable and cheaper than the equivalent premium subsidy.

Level-Funding for a Healthy Office

A healthy office group is usually subsidizing someone else inside a pooled fully insured rate. Level funding gives that group its own experience with a fixed monthly cost and a possible surplus return.

Contributions Set by Role

Fund partners, associates and support staff at different rates inside one plan, documented properly, rather than running separate programs or overfunding everyone.

Self-Funding for Headquarters Groups

Realistic from roughly a hundred lives with stable claims. For a firm with several offices, it also removes the multi-state rating complications of a fully insured program.

Compliance Points for Southfield Offices

Affordability for Support Staff Wages

The test applies to the lowest-paid full-time employee, not the average. In a firm with a wide pay band, reception fails it long before anyone else does.

Affiliated Firms Counted as One

Professional firms with affiliated entities, management companies or separate PLLCs are frequently a single employer for benefits purposes. That changes the fifty-life count and the testing.

Putting the Cafeteria Plan on Paper

Pre-tax premium deductions require a written cafeteria plan document. A great many firms deduct pre-tax without one and have done for years.

Multi-State Employees

A Southfield firm with remote staff in other states needs network access where those employees live, and the rating rules follow the employee, not the office.

Frequently Heard in Southfield

How do we look competitive without spending more?

Move money from premium subsidy to things people can see and use — an HSA contribution, a real dental schedule, a disability benefit. Same budget, considerably better recruiting story.

Our people are spread across several states now. Does that break the plan?

No, but it changes which plans work. Network footprint becomes the constraint, and a national network on a self-funded or level-funded chassis usually solves it more cleanly than stacking regional fully insured plans.

Who Employs Southfield

An Office Market Built on Headquarters and Engineering

Southfield had 76,618 residents at the 2020 census, but its daytime population is far larger — it is a commuter destination, not a bedroom suburb. Lear Corporation, a Fortune 500 automotive seating and electrical systems supplier, has its global headquarters here. DENSO runs its North American regional headquarters across a multi-building campus. Credit Acceptance Corporation and Sun Communities are both headquartered in the city, as is Piston Group, one of the largest minority-owned automotive suppliers in the country. Blue Care Network has a substantial Southfield operation, and Lawrence Technological University sits in the city as well. Henry Ford Providence Southfield Hospital, with 359 beds, is the anchor acute-care facility; it moved from Ascension to Henry Ford Health in the joint venture that took effect on 1 October 2024.

Check the Hospital Name on the Contract

Providence Southfield is now a Henry Ford hospital. Network documents, employee communications and provider directories written before October 2024 still say Ascension, and employees notice.

Headquarters Employers Attract Scrutiny

A corporate headquarters payroll tends to be well documented and well benchmarked. Plan documents and 5500 filings should be in the same condition; often they are not.

Office Density Cuts Both Ways

The same density that makes recruiting competitive makes carrier competition strong. There is usually more than one good quote in this market, which is exactly why the renewal deserves a real market test.

Communities Bordering Southfield

All Detroit metro cities we serve · Every Michigan city we serve

Straight Answers for Southfield Owners

Does CFH work with firms in Southfield?

Yes. Southfield headquarters, engineering offices, law and accounting firms use us for plan design, funding and carrier comparisons, renewal negotiation, compliance and enrollment. We are licensed insurance brokers, and for proper coverage of an account we work in teams of five. The first step is a look at your current plan and renewal.

Our partners and associates are on one plan. Can their contributions differ?

Yes, if it is done properly, and it usually lowers cost. Classes by role or hours let a Southfield firm fund partners and associates differently inside one plan, provided the plan document spells them out and the affordability and nondiscrimination tests are passed.

Can CFH look at our plan while our broker stays?

Yes, at no cost and with no obligation. We will explain what drove a Southfield firm’s increase and whether a class-based design would help. If the current price is right, we will say so.

Losing people to the building across the parking lot? See how switching to CFH works.

Getting a Southfield Review Underway

Send the Southfield renewal letter, plan summary, contribution and enrollment by tier, and two more documents at fifty or above. Tell us where your partners and associates sit today and we will show whether classes would cost less. 248.370.8853 or info@cfhic.com.

Start the Review Email info@cfhic.com Call 248.370.8853

An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.

Michigan41000 Woodward Avenue, Suite 350 East
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
248.370.8853

Colorado13540 Northgate Estates, Suite 100
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
719.425.2649

Texas16365 Park Ten Place, Suite 182
Houston, TX 77084
281.404.5670

Employee Benefits for Southfield Office and Professional Employers