Like any other professionals you work with, who you work with matters. It’s not necessarily the firm, organization, or company, it’s who you work with within the company and their experience and expertise that they provide.
This is especially true in my profession – employee benefits. Many agents, brokers or consultants try to be experts in everything, can actually be generalists at best. For example, attorneys generally have areas of law that they specialize in – trial lawyers, estate planning, litigation, or real estate.
I learned a long time ago that the insurance world can be very complex, not only to the product lines and nuances that insurance companies have, but also the myriad of laws that require compliance. There is no way that I could be an expert in retirement plans, estate planning, group insurance, health insurance, etc., all the same time. If there was a specific area that my clients need, I refer them to an expert.
When it comes to health plans, many brokers or consultants actually rely on the insurance company representatives to provider the expertise. While this sounds good, it’s the misaligned incentives that come along with it that seem to put their interests ahead of their clients. Or, the broker or consultant has relationships that get in the way of objective thinking or recommendations for their clients.
Health plans aren’t necessarily complex – we think they are, but there not. It’s the understanding of those plans or lack thereof, that create issues or problems along the way for employers and employees. Over the years, I’ve come across many plans that weren’t implemented correctly, or communicated correctly, or simply the broker didn’t do their homework on the insurance company’s background prior to recommending it to their client.
When it comes to partial self funding it’s definitely more complex and time consuming for the broker, hence not many brokers are experts in it. Most often they rely on the insurance company or Third Party Administrator to do all the ‘heavy lifting’ rather than providing their own expertise or recommendations.
Think of it this way: it’s not the hospital that’s doing the surgery – it’s the surgeon. You always want the best surgeon to take care of you. So it’s not how big the insurance agency is, it’s who you know and trust that is actually going to do the work for you as an expert – much like the surgeon.
Think about it. Just like other professionals, all brokers are not the same. Is the value of a Broker/Consultant in the advice they give or the products they sell?
Do your due diligence and know what you’re getting, because who you work with matters.
