Your employees won’t notice. You will.
Unhappy with your benefits broker? Changing brokers doesn’t mean changing your plan. One signed letter moves the relationship to us, and your carrier, coverage, ID cards and payroll deductions stay exactly as they are. The only thing that changes is who picks up the phone.
What stays the same, and what changes.
A broker change moves the service relationship, not the insurance. That is why your employees won’t see a difference and you will.
What Stays the Same
Your carrier and your plan. Same policy, same plan design, same deductibles and copays.
Your rates and renewal date. Switching brokers does not reopen pricing or move your plan year.
Your employees’ experience. Same ID cards, same network, same doctors, same pharmacy benefit.
Your payroll. Same deductions and employer contributions, with nothing to re-enroll.
What Changes
Who answers. A team that picks up the phone, calls you back and handles it, so you don’t have to.
How your renewal is handled. A written read on every renewal, with the options and the dollars behind each one, well before the deadline.
How problems get solved. Claims issues, billing errors and eligibility mistakes are chased by us, not left with your HR team.
Compliance. We help keep you ERISA compliant all year, not just at open enrollment.
One conversation. One letter. We handle the rest.
Most of the work in a broker change is ours, not yours.
1. A 30-Minute Conversation
Tell us what isn’t working and what you have in place: carriers, renewal dates, and any open claims or billing problems. If a switch isn’t the right answer, we will say so.
2. You Sign the Letter
We draft a broker of record letter for each carrier, medical, dental, vision, life, disability and voluntary, on your letterhead. An officer of the company signs, and we send them.
3. We Take It From There
We confirm each carrier’s effective date, collect your plan documents, invoices and renewal history, introduce your team and pick up any open issues. Your employees keep using their coverage the whole time.
It is rarely the price. It is usually the service.
Nobody Calls Back
An employee’s claim is denied, a bill is wrong, a new hire isn’t on the plan, and the broker you pay through your premium takes days to respond, or HR ends up calling the carrier directly.
The Renewal Just Arrives
The increase lands a few weeks before the deadline with a recommendation to accept it, no explanation of what drove it and no real alternatives on the table.
Compliance Falls Through the Cracks
Nobody has mentioned your summary plan description, your required notices or your Form 5500 in years, and you are not sure whose job it is.
A team, not one person who might be on vacation.
For proper coverage of an account we work in teams of 5, so there is always someone who knows your plan and can act on it.
Account Executive
Owns your strategy and your renewal, and is the person across the table from the carrier. The role →
Account Manager
Runs the day-to-day: enrollment, eligibility, billing and the calendar of what is due. The role →
Plan Analyst
Reads the numbers: renewals, claims experience and the market, so decisions are made on data. The role →
Customer Service
Helps your employees with claims, cards and coverage questions, so they stop landing on HR’s desk. The role →
IT
Keeps eligibility files, enrollment systems and payroll connections working, which is where most benefits errors actually start.
Beyond the Team
Access to CPAs and ERISA attorneys through the firm when a question needs one, and a chat assistant available around the clock.
Everything employers ask before they switch brokers
Sixteen questions we hear from employers who are unhappy with their current broker, answered plainly.
Will our employees notice anything when we switch brokers?
No. Changing brokers does not change your insurance. The carrier, the plan design, the network, the ID cards, the deductibles and the payroll deductions all stay exactly as they are. The one thing that changes is who your employees and your HR team call when something goes wrong, and we can introduce ourselves to your staff or stay behind the scenes, whichever you prefer.
What is a broker of record letter?
It is a short letter on your company letterhead, signed by an officer of the company, telling a carrier to recognize a new broker on your account. It does not change your policy, your rates or your coverage. It only changes which firm the carrier works with on your behalf. We draft it for you, so all you do is review it and sign. More on broker of record letters →
Can we switch in the middle of the plan year?
Yes. You do not have to wait for your renewal. Carriers accept a broker change at any point in the year, and mid-year is often the better time because it gives your new team months to prepare before the next renewal arrives instead of weeks.
Will our premium change if we switch?
No. Switching brokers does not reopen your rates. Your premium is set by the carrier at renewal, and broker compensation is already built into it, so changing which firm is paid does not change what you pay. Your next renewal is still priced on your group, your plan and the market, the same as it would have been.
Does it cost anything to switch?
There is no fee to switch. Like most benefits brokers, we are typically paid by the carrier rather than billed to you. Federal law requires brokers to disclose their compensation to group health plans, and we put ours in writing so you can see exactly how we are paid.
Do we have to tell our current broker?
You do not have to. The carrier notifies your current broker when it receives the letter, and the broker usually has a short window, set by each carrier, to respond. Many employers send a brief courtesy note anyway, and we are happy to give you wording that keeps it simple and professional.
What if we signed an agreement with our current broker?
Some brokers use a written service agreement with a notice period or termination terms. Before you sign anything with us, send it over and we will read it with you so the timing of your broker of record letter respects whatever you agreed to.
We are in the middle of a claims or billing problem. Should we wait until it is resolved?
No. An unresolved problem is one of the most common reasons employers switch. Once the carrier recognizes us, we can speak to it on your behalf. Send us the history, including emails, claim numbers and invoices, and we will pick it up from where it stands.
Our renewal is only a few weeks away. Is it too late to switch?
Not necessarily. Switching does not delay your renewal. If the timeline is too short to take your plan to market properly, we will still read the renewal, question the carrier on it and tell you plainly what we would do, then plan a full market review for the following year. Send us your renewal →
What happens to our dental, vision, life and disability coverage?
Each carrier needs its own broker of record letter, so we prepare one for every line at the same time, including medical, dental, vision, life, disability and any voluntary benefits. Nothing is left behind with your previous broker, and you get one list showing where each line stands.
We are level-funded or self-funded. Does the switch work the same way?
Yes, with more parties involved. The carrier or administrator that pays claims and the stop-loss carrier each need to recognize the change, and we coordinate both. We also review your stop-loss terms early, because that is where contract dates and renewal deadlines matter most. Stop-loss, captives and level funding →
Our current broker runs our enrollment platform. What happens to it?
Ask your current broker how long your access continues after the change, and export your employee and enrollment data before anything moves. If a new platform makes sense, we plan the move around open enrollment so your employees are not asked to learn a new system in the middle of the year.
We are in a PEO. Can we switch the same way?
Not with a broker of record letter. In a PEO the benefit plan usually belongs to the PEO, so leaving it is a bigger decision that affects payroll, HR and benefits together. We advise on PEOs, help coordinate a move out of one, and place the replacement group coverage. Should you use a PEO? →
What do you do first after we switch?
We introduce your team, collect your current documents and set your renewal timeline. We also check the compliance basics that most often fall through the cracks, such as your plan documents and summary plan description, required employee notices and any Form 5500 filings, because we help keep you ERISA compliant from the start, not just at renewal.
How long does the switch take?
It varies by carrier. Each carrier has its own processing time and its own window for the previous broker to respond, so lines do not always change on the same day. We confirm the effective date with each carrier and keep you updated until each one shows us as your broker.
What if we switch and it does not work out?
The same process works in any direction. A broker of record letter is not a long-term contract with the carrier, and you can appoint a different broker later in exactly the same way. We would rather keep you by doing the work than by making it hard to leave.
Ready? Book a 30-minute call, or send us your renewal first and see what we would do with it. No cost, no obligation.
General information about changing benefits brokers, not legal advice. Contract questions belong with your attorney, and we can bring one in.
Switch to CFH. Your employees won’t notice. You will.
Start with a 30-minute conversation, or call 248.370.8853 and your team will take it from there.
Not Ready to Switch Yet?
Send us your current renewal and get a written second opinion first. It costs nothing, commits you to nothing, and you will see exactly how we work before you decide.
More on how we work and what changes when you move your benefits to us.
What is a broker of record letter? →
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.