Just set a huge meeting

[sbg_ben]

Hello everyone thanks for all the advice. I wasn't getting. Email alerts on this thread so I didn't realize everyone was replying to me.

So it turned out they were only looking for the administrators so more like a 65 employee group. After our meeting I feel like we have a really good chance at getting it.

The teachers themselves are on Messa which I think is just a Michigan thing but they are super aggressive about keeping their schools. I'm sure if we do get it we will slowly float the idea of taking over that part over the years if there is any real opportunity for disruption.

I'm really interested to learn more about all the self funded stuff you guys are taking about. I've done research on it but unfortunately it hasn't been a great fit for any of the groups I've sold so far. Hard to learn without being able to apply it in my opinion. What's the best resource for becoming more competent on the self funded plans? I've met with a lot of different carriers and done a lot of reading but that's it.

What are captives??

 

[EugeneM]

Captive Insurance History | Captive.com

historical perspective on captives

 

[David Block]

To learn more about self-funding and become knowledgeable, I would urge you to join NAHU (www.nahu.org) and find a local chapter. They offer two certifications courses on self-funding; a beginners course and advanced. These courses are extremely informative and well worth the price. If you do not choose to join NAHU, your non-member price would be $279 for the first course versus $179 as a member. Not only that, the experts that teach these courses are just that; extremely well versed in all facets of self-funding. If you are getting into these larger cases, you will want to learn a lot more about self-funding, level funding, captives, etc. If you are interested in joining, you can go to NAHU and apply online.

Best of luck!

 

[leevena]

In addition to Dave's comments, I would suggest learning more on your own. Google is a great place to start, but reading is only an introduction. Talk to your local carrier reps or tpa to learn about their products. Even on group quotes that are fully insured, get self funded quotes, you can learn from this process.

Captives are another whole animal. You can do anything from creating your own, renting a cell in one, or using an established one as an alternative quote. As with self funded comment, you need to start reading/learning.

Self-funding is a safe and a viable option for almost any size group, even down to 5 lives.

 

[sbg_ben]

To learn more about self-funding and become knowledgeable, I would urge you to join NAHU (www.nahu.org) and find a local chapter. They offer two certifications courses on self-funding; a beginners course and advanced. These courses are extremely informative and well worth the price. If you do not choose to join NAHU, your non-member price would be $279 for the first course versus $179 as a member. Not only that, the experts that teach these courses are just that; extremely well versed in all facets of self-funding. If you are getting into these larger cases, you will want to learn a lot more about self-funding, level funding, captives, etc. If you are interested in joining, you can go to NAHU and apply online.

Best of luck!

Thank you, I have actually looked into that before i'm not sure why I didn't end up doing it. I will see about signing up for those classes.

I guess I have been going back and forth on whether or not I want to put more energy into individual or group insurance. Hard decision for me, I am just going to do both until one makes me too busy to do the other .

 

[sbg_ben]

Captive Insurance History | Captive.com

historical perspective on captives

thanks, reading it now

 

[sbg_ben]

In addition to Dave's comments, I would suggest learning more on your own. Google is a great place to start, but reading is only an introduction. Talk to your local carrier reps or tpa to learn about their products. Even on group quotes that are fully insured, get self funded quotes, you can learn from this process.

Captives are another whole animal. You can do anything from creating your own, renting a cell in one, or using an established one as an alternative quote. As with self funded comment, you need to start reading/learning.

Self-funding is a safe and a viable option for almost any size group, even down to 5 lives.

For a 5 man group do you usually use partial self funding? I'm starting to come into more groups in the 50-200 range. Can you do self funding in schools and municipalities or is it just not going to happen? I would imagine it would be hard for them to budget for it.

 

[leevena]

Yes, 5 man is partial.

Self funding is very popular in munis and other govt entities. Very easy to budget.

 

[EugeneM]

thanks, reading it now

It's interesting to see the trend on paper. A market hardens and loss sensitive programs pop up. Cough Obama care (ACA) Cough.

 

[David Block]

sbg_ben, the more you learn about the self-funding model, the more you will understand about the budgeting, how to recommend the group fund their plan, what to expect, what not to expect, and finally, that it is not a short-term strategy. All self-funding and level-funding models are 3-5 year strategies. Unless the plan blows up over multiple years and causes rates to go beyond fully insured, the group will come out ahead.

No one can say that self-funding is 100% effective unless they can pre-determine who will be sick and terminate them before that occurs; and we all know that is not going to happen. Oracles are hard to find and seers are inconsistent . Thus the reason to learn as much as possible, understand any group could benefit from it (remember, underwriting may eliminate this option), and grab your successes as they come. The size cases you are looking at at ideal for the self-funding/level-funding approach. I would suggest either partnering with someone or getting the representative from either the TPA or carrier go with you to present your first few times.

Best of luck and please let me/us know how things progress. One final note, if you do a truly self-funded approach, make certain the TPA is using a fully transparent PBM (pharmacy benefit manager).