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.

What employee benefits solutions does CFH provide for Birmingham executive employers?

CFH provides independent employee benefits consulting, level-funded health plans with 100% claims surplus refunds, Section 105 Executive MERPs, and ACA compliance defense for Oakland County private wealth management and legal firms.

How do Section 105 Executive MERPs benefit Birmingham law firms and wealth managers?

Section 105 MERPs provide 100% tax-free reimbursement for out-of-pocket medical, dental, vision, and Rx copays for managing partners and directors.

Birmingham Benefits for Law, Wealth and Accounting Firms

Name: Employee Benefits Broker & Group Health Insurance in Birmingham, MI | CFH Insurance Consultants
Brand: CFH Insurance Consultants

By Company Size What We Do Who We Serve Resources About

Client Login Send Us Your Renewal

Birmingham, Michigan, the walkable downtown of southern Oakland County

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS CONSULTING · BIRMINGHAM, MI

Birmingham Benefits Consulting for Law, Wealth and Accounting Firms

Birmingham is affluent Oakland County’s professional services and high-end retail center, and one of metro Detroit’s few genuinely walkable downtowns. Around two million square feet of office space draws wealth management, private banking, law and a substantial software presence, while roughly three hundred retailers and fifty restaurants make it a regional destination.

Call 248.370.8853

Photo: Notorious4life (talk) (Uploads), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

A Daytime City of Fourteen Thousand

Birmingham has 21,813 residents and a daytime population around fourteen thousand. That ratio is the single most useful fact about this market: a large share of the people working here commute in, from across Oakland County and beyond, and they use providers where they live rather than where they work.

For network design that argues against tiering toward one hospital system. Your staff’s home ZIP codes, not your office address, determine whether a narrow network works — and in a commuter market they are usually spread widely enough that breadth is the safer choice.

Partners and Staff on One Plan

Law firms, wealth managers and accounting practices concentrated downtown carry a compensation structure where partners and staff sit in very different places. Benefits get designed around the partner group and then applied to everyone, which is both expensive and, above fifty employees, sometimes non-compliant.

If rising premiums are the concern, our health and cost strategy shows where cost can move between renewals.

Defining benefit classes properly — by role, by hours — lets you fund a partner tier differently from a staff tier inside a single plan. It is a plan-document exercise rather than a carrier negotiation, and most firms have never had it done.

Structures for a Birmingham Professional Firm

An HSA Plan for Professional Staff

A lower premium with an employer HSA deposit employees can see and carry with them. It fits a Birmingham office staff that uses little routine care and values the account.

Level-Funding for a Healthy Firm

A firm with favorable claims can leave the pooled rate, pay a fixed amount each month and possibly get a surplus back, after underwriting.

Separate Partner and Staff Classes

Fund partners, professionals and support staff at different rates inside one plan, documented properly, rather than overfunding everyone.

Self-Funding for Larger Firms

Realistic from roughly a hundred lives with stable claims. For a firm with several offices it also removes multi-site rating complications.

Rules Birmingham Firms Should Get Right

Affiliated Entities Counted Together

Firms with affiliated entities, management companies or separate professional corporations are frequently a single employer for benefits purposes.

Affordability for Support Staff

The test applies to the lowest-paid full-time employee. In a firm with a wide pay band, reception fails it long before anyone else does.

The Premium-Only Plan Document

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

Multi-Site Staff

Where a firm consolidates offices, employees’ home locations change the network calculus even though the employer address changed only once.

What Birmingham Firms Ask Us

We just consolidated two offices here. What changes?

Your census geography, mostly. People who used to work in Troy or Farmington Hills now commute to Birmingham but still live where they lived. Re-check network adequacy against home ZIP codes rather than the new office address.

Can partners get a richer contribution than staff?

Yes, within limits, and it usually saves money. Benefit classes defined by role or hours let you set different employer contributions inside one plan. It has to be written into the plan document and tested.

Who Employs Birmingham

Office Towers, Private Banking and Three Hundred Shops

Birmingham had 21,813 residents at the 2020 census, against a daytime population of roughly fourteen thousand. Birmingham Public Schools is the largest employer headquartered in the city, running thirteen schools with more than twelve hundred full-time-equivalent staff. OneStream Software has its global headquarters on North Chester Street, with more than twelve hundred employees worldwide at the time of its 2022 opening. The city counts around three hundred retailers across 1.5 million square feet of retail space, roughly two million square feet of office space and nearly fifty dining establishments. Financial services have been consolidating into downtown: UBS opened a renovated office on North Old Woodward in September 2026 for more than a hundred and fifty colleagues, bringing together its Troy and Farmington Hills offices, and JPMorgan Chase Private Banking anchors the new 370 Brown development with roughly 235 employees in 42,000 square feet. There is no hospital in the city; Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak has around eleven hundred beds and Corewell Health Beaumont Troy has 520.

Jobs Are Moving In, Not Out

Two financial firms consolidated suburban offices into downtown Birmingham in 2026. That is net in-migration of employment from elsewhere in Oakland County.

A Commuter Market

Daytime population is close to two-thirds of the resident count. Network decisions should follow where staff live, not where the office is.

Birmingham Has No Hospital of Its Own

Royal Oak and Troy carry the inpatient load, both Corewell Health. Access is easy; the question is which tier they sit in.

Neighboring Communities Around Birmingham

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

Common Questions From Birmingham Firms

Does CFH advise firms located in downtown Birmingham?

Yes. Birmingham law firms, wealth managers, accounting practices and retailers 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. We usually start by reviewing the firm’s current plan and renewal.

Is it allowed to set different employer contributions for partners and associates?

Yes, within limits, and it often saves money. Classes based on role or hours let a firm set different contributions inside one plan, but the classes must be written into the plan document and pass affordability and nondiscrimination testing, the step firms most often skip.

Our firm has a broker already. Would CFH still review the renewal?

Yes. We do it at no charge and nothing changes unless you choose. We will show a Birmingham firm what drove its increase and whether a class-based design would price better. If the current plan is priced right, we will say so.

Is your plan designed around the partners and billed to everyone? Look into switching to CFH.

Documents for a Birmingham Firm’s Review

For a Birmingham firm, send the carrier’s renewal letter, the plan summary, what the firm pays per tier and enrollment by tier, plus two more documents at fifty or above. If partners and staff are funded differently today, include that too. 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 Birmingham Professional Firms and Retailers