Insights
Written for whoever actually holds the renewal.
Operational rather than inspirational. No rates, no contribution percentages and no thresholds, because those are quote-specific or change annually — just how the thing works and when to start.
Renewal
The ninety-day renewal, week by week
What should be happening when, and what it costs you to start at sixty days instead.
Renewal
What a submission should actually say
Why a bare census gets priced to the class average, and what context legitimately moves a quote.
Renewal
Reading a renewal letter
Where the increase actually comes from, and which parts of it are negotiable.
Plan design
The contribution split is your biggest lever
It moves cost and participation at the same time, in opposite directions. How to think about it.
Plan design
Two plans instead of one
When offering a choice is worth the administrative overhead, and when it just confuses everyone.
Plan design
Level-funded, explained without the jargon
Surplus share, stop-loss and underwriting — what you are actually agreeing to.
Compliance
The deadlines that catch small companies
Not the complicated ones. The ordinary ones nobody was tracking.
Compliance
Crossing fifty employees
The threshold is a lookback, not a headcount. Why companies cross it without noticing.
Compliance
Waivers, and why they matter more than you think
The document that proves you met participation — if it was collected at the right moment.
Three states
Paid leave in Washington and Oregon, and not in Idaho
What that means for disability cover when you employ people in all three.
Three states
Network breadth across the Northwest
A carrier strong in Seattle can be thin in eastern Oregon. How to test it before you buy.
Hiring
Your first plan, at eight employees
What to offer, what to skip, and what it realistically costs to start.
Nothing in that subject yet.
Reading about it is not the same as starting.
A renewal review costs nothing and about ninety minutes. No broker-of-record letter until you have seen the numbers.