How many different insurance companies does your typical client use for their voluntary benefit offerings? Have you brought in one carrier to provide all voluntary products? Have you brought in several companies? And what does the number of carriers say about you?

There are many reasons an employer-client might have multiple voluntary carriers. If the broker has changed over the years, each new broker might have had different relationships and preferred partners. In other cases, employers may have their own reasons for wanting certain coverages from certain carriers. But the most likely reason is that the current broker recommended different carriers for different products.

Based on repeated surveys over the last decade, brokers who bring all voluntary products from a single company are doing so to avoid administrative complexity or to maximize commission potential. But given the administrative solutions available today, these are not necessarily client-centric motivations. And unless the broker really believes that one company can be the best-of-breed in every voluntary product category and every service offered, that may result in a suboptimal benefit strategy for the client.