Insurance Brokers and PEOs: A Worthwhile Partnership

One of the biggest challenges insurance brokers face today is protecting their book of business- that is, retaining clients and keeping them happy. While brokers are always looking to add new clients, protecting the book of business is the number one priority for many brokers, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for a number of reasons.

For starters, the need to differentiate in a crowded market is at an all-time high for insurance brokers. Business owners are beginning to expect more and more value from their service providers, and in a highly competitive market, client retention is becoming increasingly challenging. To make matters worse, new vendors are entering the insurance market and soliciting clients, including payroll companies like ADP and Paychex, and Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) like Insperity and Trinet.

Historically, PEOs and insurance brokers have been competitors, as PEOs have offered insurance options to their clients that threatened to displace the offerings of traditional insurance brokers. While some PEOs still compete directly with insurance brokers, the landscape has greatly changed in recent years, and more and more PEOs are working side by side with insurance brokers to offer solutions that benefit all parties involved. Insurance brokers that work with PEOs will find that they are able to offer better solutions to their clients, build their book of business, and increase retention.

How PEOs Help Insurance Brokers

Business owners today are facing a myriad of challenges, including fierce talent competition and the struggle to find and retain quality talent, pressure to reduce costs, improve cash flow, uncertainty related to healthcare, escalating compliance burdens, and an overall lack of time to handle all these concerns.

PEOs offer small and medium-sized businesses solutions in HR, payroll, benefits administration, and compliance. Working with a PEO gives these smaller employers the opportunity to offer services and benefits to employees that they typically could not offer on their own. Businesses that partner with PEOs have been shown to enjoy increased employee satisfaction, retention, and business growth.

When insurance brokers choose to work with a PEO, they are able to go above and beyond to offer their clients a variety of HR solutions that help smaller clients enjoy the same benefits as much larger employers. This is becoming increasingly important as small business owners are facing increasing challenges themselves, and are looking for increased value from service providers. Insurance brokers that choose to work with PEOs will differentiate themselves. In a highly competitive market, offering the additional benefits of a PEO to potential clients can be the factor that drives prospects to choose one insurance broker over another.

How Navigate Can Help

Navigate is a PEO comprised of seasoned professionals in the areas of HR, benefits, payroll, and risk management. Our specialists invest the time to understand each client’s business and its challenges, then craft a custom services package tailored to its specific needs.

Here at Navigate, we have a trusted advisor program for insurance agencies and producers. We have successfully built partnerships that help insurance brokers solve business problems, retain current insurance clients, enjoy a high return on minimal time and effort, and receive a new stream of residual income.