What companies ask us before they switch.

Nothing, and about ninety minutes of your time.

We are paid a commission by the carrier if you appoint us, disclosed in writing before you do. No broker-of-record letter until you have seen the numbers.

Not to have the review. Only if you decide to appoint us, which is what a broker-of-record letter does.

Plenty of reviews end with us telling a company their current arrangement is fine.

Two employees is a group.

Companies under about ten sometimes assume nobody will take them seriously; the commission is smaller but the work is the same and the value is often higher, because nobody at that size has time to do it themselves.

Probably not well. Above fifty the compliance obligations and the funding options change enough that you want a firm that does that work daily.

We will say so and, where we can, point you somewhere better.

With headcount, budget and what you are trying to achieve — retention, recruiting, or something you promised someone.

A first plan is a different conversation from a renewal, and usually a shorter one.

Carriers set a minimum employer contribution toward employee-only coverage, and it varies by carrier.

Above that minimum it is your decision, and it is the single biggest lever you have over both cost and participation.

You can define eligibility classes, but the definitions have to be legitimate and consistently applied, and there are rules about favouring higher-paid employees.

That is a question for your employment counsel, and we will say so rather than guess.

Yes, but network breadth becomes the deciding factor rather than price.

A carrier strong in Seattle may be thin in eastern Oregon or most of Idaho, and an employee outside the network is effectively uninsured for routine care.

You can, but you may not want to. If the saving is marginal and someone is in active treatment, our advice is usually to stay put this year.

Continuity-of-care provisions exist but they are time-limited and not a substitute.

Valid waivers usually solve it. An employee covered under a spouse's plan or another qualifying source generally comes out of the denominator.

But the waiver has to be documented at enrollment, not reconstructed later.

Usually, from about fifteen employees up.

It prices on your group rather than the community, which cuts both ways — a healthy group can do considerably better, and it requires medical underwriting to enter.

How funding works

No. They are offered because they are inexpensive relative to medical and employees weigh them more heavily than the cost suggests.

Dental in particular is noticed because it gets used.

Sometimes the discount is real money. Sometimes it locks you to a weak dental network to save a little on life cover.

Worth pricing both ways rather than assuming.

Partly, and only in Washington and Oregon. Idaho has no state programme.

Buying short-term disability without accounting for that is the most common avoidable overspend we find.

The Northwest complication

The amount of life cover available without anyone answering medical questions.

Above it, an employee has to be underwritten individually — which many never get round to, leaving them covered for less than they think.

No. We are not a law firm, not an accountancy practice and not a third-party administrator.

We track dates, prepare notices and tell you what is coming. Anything turning on how a law applies to your facts needs your employment counsel.

Where the line is

Your obligations change materially. The threshold is measured on a lookback rather than today's headcount, so it is possible to cross it without noticing until the obligations have already attached.

We watch it; the detail needs counsel.

You do. We prepare them and keep the record of what was prepared and when.

Distribution is the employer’s obligation and it is cleaner that the employer performs it.

Not immediately, but say so early.

Several questions eventually need one, and finding a lawyer in the week a deadline lands is not the moment to start looking.

Ninety days. Sixty still works. Thirty is tight but not hopeless.

Under thirty you are usually renewing as-is and starting properly on next year, which is the outcome the whole firm exists to prevent.

Underwriters price uncertainty. A bare census gets priced to the class average.

Context — low turnover, where headcount was added, a one-off large claim that has resolved — is legitimate information that moves a quote.

Yes, and we do regularly.

A marginal saving is not worth disrupting a plan people understand, and it is certainly not worth it if someone is mid-treatment.

For this year, mostly.

Call anyway — we will put your dates in the calendar and start at ninety days out next time, which is the only way this stops being a scramble.

We do — meetings, materials, questions and follow-up.

That is one of the three things we commit to, and it is the part that most reliably comes back to the office manager otherwise.

Us, for anything about the plan — a card that has not arrived, a claim that was denied, a question about what is covered.

That is the point of having a broker and it costs you nothing extra.

Through a secure upload link, never ordinary email, and never through a website form.

Employee dates of birth and zip codes are sensitive and are treated that way.

How we handle it

You sign a broker-of-record letter appointing someone else and we hand over cleanly.

There is no contract, no notice period and no exit fee. We would rather you left well than stayed reluctantly.