That seems like a basic question, but it’s deeper than it sounds. Most companies decide who their insurance broker is either by word of mouth or by choosing the first person who sounds like he knows what he is doing. Everyone is guilty of this at some point and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t - I’ve relied heavily on others’ recommendations and I’ve blindly followed the guy who sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

When I first started working with companies on their insurance, it was astounding how many brokers and agencies had no clue what they were really doing. We would meet brokers who had been in the business for 20, 30 years and while they had a tremendous business - that business was not being educated by their broker on what was currently available. Understand: their lack of knowledge was not because the broker was hiding it, but because the broker had no idea.

When I first started working in PEO I was chatting with a CFO one day and he asked me how come he had never heard of a Professional Employer Organization and I replied that his broker should have educated him on it. A couple of weeks later, his broker called me and was upset his group had left and told me how he had the account for 10+ years. While I empathized with him on the loss of the group, it would’ve never happened if he had been current on what’s going on now.

A broker by their very nature is someone who represents multiple providers and uses those relationships to source their prospects and clients the best solution for their needs. The sad truth is that rarely does that happen in today’s world - I’ve always viewed the job of a broker to be twofold. One is to help their clients and the second is to educate themselves and their clients on the latest and best options.

More times than I care to count I’ve had a broker call us frantic that his/her client is leaving them for another solution - oftentimes this is a broker bear in mind that has blown off our request to discuss PEO with them. In business, relationships do matter, but at the forefront of all business is profit and efficiency, and when those two meet it’s easy to wonder what value your broker relationship has.

If your broker hasn’t shown you anything in the last few years other than yet another renewal, it’s definitely time to ask yourself who’s your broker and why is he still your broker?  With all of the changes in insurance and the emergence of Obamacare, doing things the same way you always have will result in fines and penalties.

I’ll leave you with this if you’re wondering what exactly it is your broker does and if you have the right one, let’s talk.