- Key Insight: Discover advisers shifting from price fights to addressing root causes of medical cost risk.
- Expert Quote: Brokers must adopt transparent, consultative processes, warns Perry Braun.
- Forward Look: Prepare for more off-cycle renewals and deeper C-suite involvement.
- Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review
This is the third part in a series about how advisers navigated the complexities of Open Enrollment for 2026. Read
Perry Braun, president and CEO of Benefits Advisors Network, says that with health insurance marketplaces hardening, benefit advisers should expect to have some difficult conversations and level with their clients that current conditions are likely to spill into next year and possibly even the year after that.
He suggests a more strategic approach beyond simply negotiating better prices should be built around how industry leaders can address the root causes of what is driving risk and affecting premiums.
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In responding to the impact of a higher medical spend on their bottom line, Lockton VP and Market Leader Nick Bellanca says a number of employer clients are now being much more thoughtful at open enrollment by involving the C-suite and even board members.
On a few opportunities Lockton was working on, he says as many as 12 to 15 individuals were
"Now we're starting to see that with corporations in the private sector where they are involving their much broader executive team," he says, noting that it's being done in response to the cost implications related to benefits.
Off-cycle considerations
In pursuing a more measured approach to open enrollment, advisers may want to adopt an alternate timetable or carve out part of the benefits package for more thoughtful consideration and promotion.
Robby White, U.S. benefits business line leader with Gallagher, says that with 80% of his customers renewing on January 1, it places a tremendous strain on resources across the board. Those that
Chelsea Gates, regional employee benefits practice leader for USI's mid-Atlantic region, has seen many clients actually shorten their enrollment period because they're doing a better job of communicating with employees ahead of time and giving them the opportunity to explain what's coming.
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Another factor is that high renewals squeezed time frames in the fully insured market where there was more back-and-forth negotiation on price. However, she also continues to serve other employer groups that prefer to be gentle and give their people as much time as possible to decide.
"No matter how long we make the process," Gates observes, "we always have 25% of the population who renews the first day, 25% who do it for however long we give them and the other 50% that does it on the last day."
Fiduciary conversations
Whatever is decided, one thing is clear: There's a growing need for C-suite buy-in at open enrollment so that leaders were comfortable with whatever changes will be delivered, whether it's a new insurance carrier, transition from fully insured to self-funded model or the introduction of new benefits.
"It's critically important that we are aligned because otherwise we could be making a recommendation that isn't in keeping with what the CEO's vision is," Gates explains.
A related topic for discussion involves fiduciary conversations. Braun suggests a growing need for brokers to be consultants who are far more transparent, thoughtful and dutiful about what they're recommending and how they went through the process of determining their recommendation and how they're representing data.
"This is creating a different set of work processes and inspection – quality assurance approaches that the industry is having to thoughtfully put into place where other industries in the risk-management conversation, wealth management, retirement investment advising and property-casualty, have already done it," he says.
