Independent benefits broker · Nashville & Middle Tennessee
A benefits broker who reads the underwriting before he sells you anything.
I place group health and benefits coverage for employers, small businesses, and the self-employed. Every recommendation comes with the analysis behind it: the rate development, the trend, the fee stack, and how the alternatives compare.
I'm independent, so I can quote any carrier I'm appointed with. I'm paid by commission, and I tell you exactly what that commission is on every option before you choose.
Path A
I run benefits for an employer
You have a renewal coming, a plan you've outgrown, or a broker relationship that has gone quiet. I shop the market, negotiate the renewal, and stay with you through enrollment and the year after.
For employers
Path B
I own a small business or work for myself
You need coverage for yourself, or you want to offer something to a small team without taking on a plan you can't afford. Small group, ICHRA, QSEHRA, or an individual plan: I'll lay out what fits.
For small business
Most brokers sell the renewal. I start by reading it.
Renewals arrive pre-interpreted: a rate, an assumption about how fast costs will grow, a reason the increase is reasonable, and a recommended response. The person approving it usually owns the plan but has no underwriting background, and no realistic way to test whether the number is defensible.
I spent years on the analytical side of employee benefits, doing underwriting review, cost projections, and RFP work for hospital systems, manufacturers, and universities. That work is now built into how I broker. Before I recommend a carrier, a plan design, or a funding arrangement, I've tested the math behind it.
You get one person who can explain the number and then act on it: negotiate it, take it to market, or place something better.
How I'm paid, plainly
Like most benefits brokers, I'm paid a commission by the insurance carrier you choose. It is built into the premium. On most fully insured plans, the premium is the same whether you buy through a broker or not.
Commission is still an incentive, so I don't ask you to take it on faith. On every option I present, I show what I would be paid, including any carrier bonus or override. If the best answer pays me less, it's still the answer I'll recommend.
Independent means I'm not tied to one carrier. I can quote the market I'm appointed with, compare options side by side, and move you if a carrier stops earning the business.
What comes with the brokerage
This is the work behind every placement. It's included in the brokerage, not billed separately.
- Market search
- Quotes across the carriers I'm appointed with, laid out side by side on the same basis.
- Renewal negotiation
- How the carrier built your increase, checked line by line, then taken back with specific asks.
- Funding strategy
- Fully insured vs. level-funded: whether your group's claims make level funding a good bet, and what happens if a bad year hits.
- Plan design modeling
- Deductible, copay, and contribution changes priced against your own employees' use of the plan, not industry averages.
- Enrollment and implementation
- Carrier paperwork, employee materials, and open enrollment support.
- Year-round service
- Claim escalations, billing problems, and mid-year changes go to me, not a call center.
- Large-claim protection
- Stop-loss insurance that caps your exposure to large claims, shopped properly and read for exclusions.
- Pharmacy and fees
- Prescription drug contract terms and every monthly admin fee, including the ones bundled into other lines.
When people call
Double-digit renewal
The increase arrived with an explanation attached. You want someone to test it and then go get a better number.
First plan
You're offering benefits for the first time and want to know what's realistic for your budget and headcount.
Quiet broker
Your current broker shows up at renewal and disappears. A broker of record change takes one signed letter.
Level-funded refund, or surprise
Level-funded plans promise a surplus refund. Whether you'll actually see one depends on your claims and the carrier's terms, and I'll show you both. How level funding works. How level funding works. How level funding works.
Self-employed coverage
You left a group plan and need coverage for yourself or your family without overpaying for it.
Growth or acquisition
Headcount has changed or two plans have to become one. The decisions you make now carry for years.
See how I read a renewal
There are no client case studies here, because prior work belongs to a former employer. Instead, here is the method, start to finish, on a realistic fictional renewal, plus the questions I would ask about yours.
What you can hold me to
- Every recommendation comes with the analysis behind it, in writing.
- My compensation on each option is shown before you decide.
- If your current plan is the right one, I'll tell you to keep it.
- You deal with me directly, at renewal and every month in between.
Being paid by commission doesn't have to mean being paid to agree. Show the numbers, show the compensation, and let the client decide.
Next
Bring me the renewal
Twenty minutes is enough to tell whether there is a better answer worth going after.