A Texas building-trades contractor, about 150 employees

The medical premium rose 24% in one year on the same number of covered lives, in the same year the plan changed carriers. Only two plan years are on file, and both sit above the peer median on cost per employee, broker pay as a share of premium and broker pay per employee.

Year by year, from the filings

A new ancillary package (dental, vision, life, disability) was added in 2024, with about $30,000 in commission and bonus on it. Dollar figures are rounded, and headcounts are rounded to the nearest 10. Peer group: 52 Texas electrical, plumbing/HVAC and building-systems contractors with 75 to 300 employees on a fully insured medical plan, from the same DOL files. Medians: $6,094 premium per employee, broker pay 5.3% of medical premium, $29 per employee per month.

Three facts from the public record

1. 24.5% more per covered person in one year. About $4,000 to about $5,000, on about 240 lives both years. A carrier change is normally made to hold a rate down; here it arrived with the increase, and the filing cannot say whether the outgoing carrier’s offer was worse.
2. Above the peer median on all three measures. About $7,600 per employee against $6,094; 6.1% of premium against 5.3%; about $40 per employee per month against $29.
3. Advisor pay nearly doubled across all lines. About $55,000 in 2023 to about $105,000 in 2024, as the premium rose and new lines were added with a bonus on top of commission.

What the public record cannot show

• 24 months of claims across both carriers, and whether one or two large claims are behind the 2024 move.
• The outgoing carrier’s renewal offer, against which the move should be judged.
• How the new carrier explains its first renewal.

Three questions a CFO can ask the broker today

1. What did the outgoing carrier offer for 2024, and what did the other carriers quote, before the move?
2. May we have the written compensation disclosure, every payee and every bonus, in dollars, for both the medical and the ancillary package?
3. May we see 24 months of claims against premium, from both carriers?

None of these questions costs anything or changes anything. They put what the plan’s fiduciary is supposed to know on paper.

From the company’s Form 5500 and Schedule A filings with the U.S. Department of Labor, as published in the DOL’s public datasets. Real companies from the public filings. Figures rounded and details removed so they can’t be traced. Exact rows on request. Advisory analysis, not legal or tax advice.

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