Account executive: owns the strategy and the carrier relationship.
For proper coverage of an account we work in service teams of five. The account executive is the seat that owns the direction of the program — what the plan is for, what it should cost, what changes over the next three years — and the relationship with the carriers who have to be persuaded of it.
The work that decides the renewal happens long before it.
A renewal negotiated in month eleven is a reaction. The account executive’s year is built so that by the time the letter arrives, the position is already prepared.
Sets the Strategy
What the plan is trying to achieve for this workforce, what the funding model should be, and which changes are staged over two or three years rather than taken in one painful step. That plan is written down and revisited each year, so a change taken at this renewal is the second step of something already agreed rather than a surprise. It also sets the questions the plan analyst answers before the next renewal arrives.
Carries the Carrier Relationship
Market checks run early enough that carriers compete for the business. Late submissions get lazy quotes, and lazy quotes make the incumbent look reasonable. In practice that means a clean census and claims data in carriers’ hands well before the incumbent’s renewal is due, with a clear statement of what the client will and will not consider. Carriers quote more sharply when they believe the business can actually move.
Argues the Renewal
Trend, credibility weighting and the specific claims being priced, challenged item by item. The initial ask and the implemented rate are two different numbers, and closing that gap is this seat’s job. That means asking the carrier to show its work: which large claims drove the number, what trend it assumed, how much of your own experience it credited. A renewal that cannot be explained line by line is a renewal with room in it.
Strategy and administration compete for the same hours, and administration always wins.
Where one broker carries both, the urgent work crowds out the work that compounds. Separating the seats is what keeps the strategic year from being eaten by the service year.
Nobody Is on Hold
The person negotiating your renewal is not the person waiting on a claims department. Both jobs get done properly because neither is a side duty. Day-to-day claims and eligibility issues go to customer service and the account manager, so a stuck ID card never competes with renewal preparation for the same person’s afternoon.
We Are Run from the Bottom Up
The people on your account decide what it takes to run it — the technology, the data access, the research, more people if the account needs them. The service team drives the resourcing decision rather than asking permission for it.
Continuity
A team means an account does not stop when one person is away. Five seats, each with a defined job, and a record the others can pick up. Notes, carrier correspondence and open items sit in a shared record, so whoever picks up the phone sees the same history. A holiday or a sick day changes who answers, not what they know.
Anything that changes the shape of the program.
A Number You Cannot Explain
A renewal that does not make sense, a funding proposal you want tested, a carrier position you want challenged. Bring it before you reply to the carrier. Send us the renewal and we read it against your claims and the carrier’s stated trend, then tell you which parts are arithmetic and which are a negotiating position.
A Change in the Business
An acquisition, a new state, a headcount swing, crossing fifty employees. These change what the plan should be, not just how it is administered. Crossing fifty employees brings the ACA employer mandate and FMLA into play, and each counts differently: the ACA adds part-time hours as full-time equivalents, while FMLA counts every employee on the payroll. A new state can bring its own leave and continuation rules. Tell us before the change closes, not after the first payroll.
A Board or CFO Conversation
When somebody upstairs wants the benefits spend defended, this is the seat that builds the case and, if it helps, sits in the room. The case is built from the material a finance audience expects: cost per employee over time, what the carrier asked for against what was implemented, and where the plan sits against comparable employers.
We are hiring account executives.
If you read this page and recognized the job rather than the service, that is worth a conversation. See what working at CFH is like. Remote and work-from-home are an option, and pay is based on experience.
There’s no ladder, just work that gets harder.
Growth on a service team follows what you’re good at and what the account in front of you needs — not a fixed track with named stops.
No Formal Mentor
Nobody is assigned to you. You’re seated near people who’ve carried accounts like these for years, and asking them things is normal, not a program.
No Fixed Track
What you take on next isn’t a checklist of titles to clear — it moves with what you’re already good at and where the team actually needs you.
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.
Switch to CFH. Unhappy with your broker? Your employees won’t notice. You will. →