Employee Benefits Broker for Mid-Sized Employers based in Dallas-Fort Worth
Smarter Benefits.
Stronger Long-Term Strategy.
Proper Benefits Brokerage helps mid-sized employers across Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas manage employee benefits as a long-term financial and workforce strategy.
We help companies control healthcare costs, improve plan design, evaluate fully insured, level-funded, self-funded and captive arrangements, and provide hands-on support for HR teams and employees throughout the year.
What Should a Mid-Sized Employer Expect From an Employee Benefits Broker?
A benefits broker serving mid-sized employers should provide more than annual carrier quotes. Employers should expect analysis of healthcare spending, funding strategy, pharmacy costs, stop-loss protection, plan design, employee affordability, benefits technology, compliance, enrollment and year-round service.
The objective should be to understand what is driving healthcare cost and build a multi-year strategy rather than reacting to one renewal at a time.
Self-Funded and Captive Health Plan Strategy
Proper helps employers compare fully insured, level-funded, traditional self-funded and captive health plan structures. No single funding model is appropriate for every company. We evaluate workforce characteristics, claims experience, cash flow, risk tolerance, stop-loss considerations and long-term objectives before recommending a strategy.
Is a Proper Right for Your Company?
Frequently Asked Questions About Health Insurance Captives
-
A health insurance captive is a type of self-funded arrangement where multiple employers participate in a shared risk structure. Each employer maintains its own health plan while gaining access to broader purchasing power, shared risk, and potentially greater renewal stability.
Most self-funded employers purchase stop-loss insurance to protect the company against unusually large individual claims or unexpectedly high overall claims. Self-funding can give employers greater visibility, flexibility, and control over how their healthcare dollars are spent.
-
Normally companies with 50 - 1,000 employees. Captives are typically considered by mid-sized employers that want more control over healthcare costs and are comfortable taking on more responsibility than a traditional fully insured plan requires. Claims history, workforce stability, cash flow, and risk tolerance all matter.
-
In a traditional self-funded plan, the employer assumes more of the financial risk on its own. In a captive, employers still self-fund their plans but share certain layers of risk with other participating companies, which can create greater diversification and potentially improve stop-loss purchasing and renewal stability.
-
Potentially, yes. Because some risk is shared across a broader pool of employers, captive arrangements can reduce some of the volatility that may occur in traditional insurance markets. Results still depend on claims, stop-loss terms, and the structure of the captive.
-
Captives are not risk-free. Employers may face claims volatility, additional administrative responsibility, stop-loss exposure, and the possibility of unfavorable underwriting results. A captive should be evaluated alongside fully insured, level-funded, and traditional self-funded alternatives.
-
In many cases, yes. Captive arrangements can often use familiar carrier or provider networks. The available network options depend on the specific captive and plan structure.
-
It can create more flexibility to address pharmacy spending. Employers may have access to alternative PBM arrangements, specialty-drug strategies, rebate structures, and other pharmacy cost-management solutions that may be harder to implement in a traditional fully insured plan.
-
A preliminary evaluation can often begin well before renewal, and any time throughout the year. We typically review current plan information, claims experience, funding structure, stop-loss considerations, workforce characteristics, and renewal timing before comparing captive options with other funding strategies.
-
No. We compare captives with fully insured, level-funded, and traditional self-funded options. The goal is to identify the structure that best fits the employer’s financial goals, risk tolerance, workforce, and long-term benefits strategy.
Savings are not guaranteed, and results vary by employer. The objective should be to determine whether better healthcare economics can be achieved while maintaining or improving the value of the employee benefits program.
Get in touch.
Please provide your information and preferred contact method to get in touch with one of our benefits experts