More and more busi­ness­es are turn­ing to ben­e­fit bro­kers in Napa Coun­ty to pro­vide their employ­ee ben­e­fits pro­grams and some­times man­age them as well.  For com­pa­nies, par­tic­u­lar­ly small­er busi­ness­es, this makes a lot of finan­cial sense — the bro­kers have the con­tacts nec­es­sary to wran­gle bet­ter deals on ben­e­fits, as well as the exper­tise to han­dle the increas­ing bureau­crat­ic bur­dens.  In most cas­es, com­pa­nies can afford to offer bet­ter ben­e­fits pro­grams than they could by han­dling every­thing on their own, and that’s crit­i­cal for attract­ing the best employees.

How­ev­er, there are plen­ty of ben­e­fits bro­kers in Napa Coun­ty, and a lot of dif­fer­ent ser­vices on offer.  Com­pa­nies look­ing for the right ben­e­fit bro­kers will need to think about their needs and find a bro­ker who can meet them.

Four Crucial Aspects of Selecting the Right Benefit Brokers

1 — Admin­is­tra­tion, or just the benefits?

Some ben­e­fit bro­kers are basi­cal­ly just insur­ance sales­men, offer­ing poli­cies which are left to busi­ness­es to admin­is­trate.  Oth­ers offer more full-fea­tured ser­vices, includ­ing tak­ing over most or all the admin­is­tra­tive bur­dens.  In many cas­es, this is the more cost-effec­tive option, but not always.  Weigh the ROI of both approach­es before deciding.

2 — Are they will­ing to edu­cate on regulations?

The reg­u­la­to­ry struc­ture sur­round­ing health insur­ance and employ­ee ben­e­fits is increas­ing­ly com­pli­cat­ed, to the point many busi­ness­es have a hard time keep­ing up.  Is your ben­e­fits bro­ker going to be will­ing to sit down and talk about the legal sit­u­a­tion?  You will prob­a­bly be more suc­cess­ful if your bro­ker is will­ing to spend time doing education.

3 — What long-term sup­port do they offer?

At a min­i­mum, you should be re-eval­u­at­ing your ben­e­fits pro­gram once a year.  You will be able incor­po­rate data from the past year to fine-tune your offer­ings, as well as ‑poten­tial­ly- need­ing to respond to reg­u­la­to­ry shifts.  You def­i­nite­ly want a bro­ker who will work with you to refine your ben­e­fits package.

4 – Keep up with what oth­er bro­kers are up to

Like all ven­dors, your busi­ness is best served by sur­vey­ing the mar­ket from time to time.  How have tools and ser­vices changed?  Has your cur­rent bro­ker kept up with the indus­try?  We con­sid­er it a best prac­tice to occa­sion­al­ly sur­vey the mar­ket, or have a chat with oth­er bro­kers, to make sure you are being ser­viced with the agency that is best aligned with your firm.

Meet Your Single-Source Benefit Brokers in Napa County

Arrow Ben­e­fits has exten­sive expe­ri­ence and a cus­tomer-focused atti­tude that empha­sizes smart deci­sion-mak­ing.  Con­tact us today for a con­sul­ta­tion.