Was Your Broker Acquired? Here Is What to Check.
Insurance brokerages are bought and merged often. When it happens, your plan, carrier and ID cards do not change. What can change is who services your account, how quickly they respond and how your renewal is prepared. This page explains what to look at, what stays the same and what your options are.
What Usually Stays the Same, and What Can Change
What Stays the Same
Your carrier, plan design, network, deductibles, ID cards and payroll deductions do not change because your broker changed owners. Your renewal date does not move either.
What Can Change
Your account team, your main contacts, the enrollment or HR platform you use, how the renewal is prepared and who handles compliance. These are service choices the new owner makes, and they are worth asking about early.
Signs That Your Service May Have Changed
New Faces, Slower Answers
The people you knew have moved on, or calls and emails take longer to be answered than they used to.
A Renewal That Just Arrives
The renewal shows up late or with no analysis, no alternatives and no explanation of the increase.
Systems Changed Without Notice
Your enrollment platform, portal or carrier connections changed and nobody walked you through it.
Compliance Goes Quiet
Nobody has mentioned this year’s ACA reporting, Form 5500 or notice deadlines, which used to be raised for you.
Unclear Ownership of Your Account
You are no longer sure who is responsible for what, or who to call when an employee has a problem.
Questions Without Answers
You asked what changed and received a general reply about “better resources” and nothing specific.
Questions to Ask Your Broker Now
A good broker can answer all of these in one conversation. If the answers are vague, that is information too.
1. Who Is My Account Team Today?
Ask for names and roles, and whether anyone on the team has changed since the acquisition.
2. Who Owns My Compliance Calendar?
Ask what is due this year, including ACA reporting, Form 5500 and required notices, and who is responsible for each item.
3. Will My Platforms Change?
Ask whether your enrollment system, carrier connections or payroll feeds will move, and when.
4. How Will My Renewal Be Prepared?
Ask when you will see it, what analysis comes with it and whether other carriers and funding options will be priced.
5. How Are You Paid on My Account?
Federal rules require brokers and consultants to group health plans to disclose their compensation to the plan sponsor above certain thresholds. Ask to see it in writing.
Your Options
Stay and Ask for Answers
Use the questions above. If your broker answers them well, you may have nothing to change.
Get a Second Opinion
Send us your renewal. We review it at no cost and with no obligation, and tell you what we would change and what we would keep. See how a renewal second opinion works.
Move Your Account
One signed broker of record letter moves the relationship. Your carrier, plan and ID cards stay as they are. See what switching to CFH involves.
How CFH Works
We are an independent employee benefits firm. We work your account all year, as an extension of your HR team. 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.
We compare fully insured, level-funded and self-funded options on your own numbers, and handle ACA, ERISA, COBRA and Form 5500 through the year. See level-funded health plans and Michigan benefits compliance.
Questions Employers Ask
Does my plan change if my broker is acquired?
No. Your carrier, plan design, network, ID cards and deductibles stay as they are. What can change is who services your account and how.
Do I have to stay with the new owner?
Not necessarily. Which broker represents your plan is your decision as the employer. A broker of record letter moves the relationship, and carriers process the change on their own timelines.
What do you need to review my renewal?
Four documents: the renewal letter, the plan summary, the contribution split and the enrolled counts. Groups of 50 or more need two more.
Will you tell me what you would keep, not only what you would change?
Yes. The review says what we would change and what we would keep, and you are not obligated to move.
A Free Look at Your Renewal
Send us the renewal and we will say what we would change and what we would keep. It is free and you are not obligated to move.
More on how switching works and what to check.
Second opinion on your renewal →
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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