At 100 employees, the broker you hired at 30 is probably not the one you need.
A Michigan employer with about 100 people is past the point where one renewal meeting a year is enough. The federal employer mandate applies, claims start to count in your pricing, funding options open up, and the compliance calendar gets longer. CFH is an independent, middle-market benefits firm in Bloomfield Hills, and a 100-person company is the kind of employer we work with every day.
This page explains what changes at that size, what a good broker does about it, and the questions to ask every firm you interview, including us. Send us your renewal and we will give you a second opinion in writing at no cost.
Four things are different for a company of 100 than for a company of 30.
The ACA employer mandate applies
Employers with 50 or more full-time employees, counting full-time equivalents, are applicable large employers. That means offering affordable coverage and filing Forms 1094-C and 1095-C every year. Our compliance calendar lists the dates.
Your own claims begin to matter
Below 50 employees the carrier prices from community rates. At 100 lives the renewal starts to reflect how your people actually use care. That is the point where plan design and funding choices can move cost, and where one large claim can move a renewal.
Funding options become real
Level-funded and self-funded arrangements, with stop-loss protection, are realistic alternatives to a fully insured plan. They shift risk and cash flow, so they need a broker who will model the downside as well as the savings.
The filings get heavier
A plan with 100 or more participants at the start of the plan year generally has to file Form 5500, even when it is fully insured. A summary plan description, notices and nondiscrimination testing need an owner, and that owner is usually one or two HR people.
The renewal is one meeting. The work is the other eleven months.
For a company this size, the question is how much of the work lands on your HR team and how much lands on the broker.
A 100-person employer usually has an HR generalist, or a small team, covering benefits alongside everything else. A broker who sends a renewal packet in the fall and calls again next year leaves the filings, the notices, the enrollment problems and the carrier escalations with you.
For proper coverage of an account, we work in teams of five: an account executive, an account manager, a plan analyst, customer service and IT. Between renewals the team handles carrier issues, eligibility files, compliance deadlines and employee questions. Our bottom-up model lets that team decide what technology, services or added help the account needs.
Five questions to put to every broker you interview.
Who actually works on our account?
Ask for names and roles, not a brand. You want the people who will answer the phone in March, not only the ones presenting in October.
Can you show results for comparable employers?
Ask for actual outcomes on renewals for Michigan companies of about your size, in writing, and not projected savings.
How are you paid?
Commission, fee or both. Federal law requires brokers and consultants to a group health plan to give the plan sponsor a written compensation disclosure before the contract is signed, so a clear answer should be easy to give.
Will you model funding options honestly?
Ask what you would show us for fully insured, level-funded and self-funded plans, and how you present the downside.
Will you put the comparison in writing?
Give two firms the same renewal and ask for a written analysis. The differences in the answers are the differences in the firms.
Ten questions a 100-person employer asks before choosing a broker.
Short answers, each one built to stand on its own.
Is 100 employees big enough to need a dedicated benefits consultant?
Yes. At about 100 people you have the employer mandate, a full compliance calendar, funding options worth modeling and enough claims that your renewal starts to reflect your own experience. That is more than one HR generalist should carry alone, and it is the point where a consultant earns the fee.
What changes at renewal once we are above 50 employees?
You are no longer priced purely on community rates. Above 50, a carrier looks at your own claims experience, so plan design, funding choice and how your people use care begin to affect the number. That makes a renewal harder to read and a second opinion more useful.
Does the ACA employer mandate apply to us?
If you have 50 or more full-time employees, counting full-time equivalents, you are an applicable large employer. You need to offer affordable coverage that meets the minimum standard and file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C each year. Our compliance calendar lists the dates and thresholds.
Do we have to file Form 5500?
Generally yes at this size. A plan with 100 or more participants at the start of the plan year has to file Form 5500, even when it is fully insured. Welfare plans with fewer than 100 participants that are fully insured or unfunded are generally exempt, so the line matters when your headcount moves.
Should a company our size look at level-funded or self-funded plans?
It is worth modeling, and it is not automatically the right answer. These plans can lower cost for a group with favorable claims, but they shift risk to you and rely on stop-loss coverage. A good broker shows the downside case, the cash-flow effect and the stop-loss terms side by side with the insured renewal.
How is a benefits broker paid, and should we worry?
Brokers are paid by commission, by fee, or both. Federal law requires brokers and consultants to a group health plan to give the plan sponsor a written compensation disclosure before the contract is signed. We are an independent firm of licensed insurance brokers, and no carrier owns us. Ask every firm you interview the same question.
Can we keep our current broker and still get a second opinion?
Yes. We review renewals at no cost and put what we find in writing, and you do not have to move your coverage to receive the review. Many employers use it to confirm their broker did the work, and some use it to decide whether to make a change.
How far ahead of renewal should we start?
About four months ahead is a good target, because that leaves time to gather data, market the plan and make decisions before deadlines. A later start still works, with fewer options. If your renewal is a few weeks out, send it anyway and we will tell you what can still be done.
Who would we actually talk to if we hired CFH?
A team assigned to your account: an account executive, an account manager, a plan analyst, customer service and IT. For proper coverage of an account we work in teams of five, so you are never relying on one person being available. There is also a chat assistant available around the clock for quick questions.
What does the first 90 days with a new broker look like?
Usually no change to your coverage. The first stretch is about collecting your plan documents, census and claims data, checking your compliance position, and building a renewal plan with a calendar. You should know by the end who owns each filing and which decisions are coming.
Ready? Upload your renewal, or talk it through with someone first. No cost, no obligation.
General information about employee benefits, not legal advice. Plan-specific questions belong with ERISA counsel, and we will bring them in.
The laws and rules referenced on this page.
26 U.S.C. 4980H
Shared responsibility for employers regarding health coverage, which defines applicable large employers and the offer-of-coverage requirement.
29 CFR 2520.104-20
Limited exemption for certain small welfare plans, the 100-participant line for fully insured and unfunded plans.
29 U.S.C. 1108(b)(2)
ERISA section 408(b)(2), as amended by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, requiring written compensation disclosure to group health plan sponsors.
Compliance calendar
See the full compliance calendar for dated deadlines, and the page for groups above 50 for how renewals are priced.
General information current as of October 29, 2026. Plan-specific questions belong with ERISA counsel.
Send us your renewal.
Four documents — the renewal letter, the plan summary, the contribution split by tier and enrolled counts by tier. We’ll come back with a competitive read, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
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