HR and Employee Benefits Consulting Selling — 60-Min Training

Direct Answer

The Fiduciary Close for HR and Benefits Consultants is a 60-minute training for benefits consultants, brokers, and HR advisory firms selling $20,000-$200,000 annual retainers to CFOs and CHROs of mid-market employers (50-2,000 employees). It reframes the pitch from "we shop your renewal" to "we're your ERISA fiduciary, we hold your data, and we save you our fee in year one or we work for free." Built on the 2025 Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans (which projects a 6.7% cost increase in 2026 — the highest in 15 years — pushing per-employee cost past $18,500), the Kaiser Family Foundation 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey, and the Schlichter Bogard fiduciary fee lawsuits (Lockheed Martin $62M, General Dynamics $15.1M), this training arms consultants with a current-spend-and-claims-data discovery, an RFP-to-finalist discipline, commission-vs-fee transparency, and the Broker-of-Record (BOR) close that wins the account.

Section 1 — Why CFOs Are Finally Listening in 2027 (5 min)

Open with the cost reality. Per Mercer's 2025 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, the average per-employee cost hit $17,496 in 2025, with 2026 projected at $18,500+ on a 6.7% increase — the largest jump in 15 years. The KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey confirms family premiums rose 6% ($1,408) year-over-year, and 49% of large employers now cover GLP-1 weight-loss medications, up from 44% in 2024.

For a 500-employee company, that is roughly $9.25 million in annual health-plan spend — usually the second- or third-largest line item behind payroll. CFOs who tolerated 3-4% increases now have a board-level cost problem.

Set the frame on the whiteboard:

• The old broker pitch: "We'll shop your renewal and find a cheaper carrier."
• The new consultant pitch: "We're your named ERISA 3(21) or 3(38) fiduciary, we own your claims data, and we'll save you our fee in year one or we work for free."
• The 2027 catalyst: The post-Lewandowski v. Johnson & Johnson wave of health-plan fiduciary lawsuits has put CFOs and CHROs on personal-liability notice. They need a documented, defensible, fee-transparent advisor — and most of them know their current broker isn't it.

Read aloud from DOL ERISA Section 404(a): plan fiduciaries owe a duty of *prudence and exclusive benefit* to participants. The lawsuit risk is no longer theoretical — the J&J case (filed 2024) and the JPMorgan health-plan case (filed 2024) put every CFO on notice that what worked for 401(k) plaintiffs is now being aimed at health plans.

Section 2 — The Spend-and-Claims-Data Discovery (15 min)

This is the verbatim discovery template every consultant sends 48 hours before the CFO/CHRO meeting. No data, no proposal. It separates a serious buyer from a curious one and starts the fiduciary clock with documentation.

Verbatim Pre-Discovery Data Request (consultant sends to prospective CFO/CHRO):

1. Employer profile: [Eligible employee count] — [Industry / SIC] — [Funding: fully insured / level-funded / self-funded with stop-loss]
2. Last 24 months of medical-and-Rx claims data (de-identified, monthly paid-claims PEPM) — if self-funded, request the TPA Schedule A and the most recent stop-loss policy
3. Current broker/consultant compensation: named commission rates, override agreements, bonus tiers, any Schedule C disclosures from Form 5500
4. Plan documents: Summary Plan Description, Summary of Benefits and Coverage, current carrier contracts, most recent Form 5500 with Schedules A and C
5. The ONE business outcome that would make this engagement worth $X in 12 months: [e.g., "Hold trend to 3.5% on a 6.7% market" or "Pass an ERISA audit clean"]
6. Active or expected M&A, workforce reductions, or unionization activity in the next 18 months

Coach the team on the "one outcome" rule: a CFO who can name the single board-level number (trend %, total spend, employee contribution %, audit posture) is a buyer who will renew. A CFO who says "we just want to reduce costs" without a number is a buyer who will haggle the fee in month nine.

Push back: *"What number would you have to put in front of your board on January 15 for this engagement to be a win?"*

Section 3 — The Six Things a Sophisticated CFO Hears From Bad Brokers (10 min)

Drill the room on the lines that get a benefits firm disqualified by an experienced CFO or General Counsel.

What to NEVER say in a CFO/CHRO meeting:

• "We get paid by the carrier, so there's no cost to you." Every CFO over $50M in revenue knows commissions are baked into the premium — they ARE the cost. This signals you don't understand the fiduciary-fee transparency expectation post-CAA 2021 Section 202 (the broker-compensation disclosure rule for group health plans of any size).
• "Trust us, we negotiate hard with the carriers." "Trust us" is the opposite of fiduciary language. The correct framing is "here's our documented vendor-RFP process, here are the three finalists, here are their disclosed fees."
• "You don't need to see the claims data — we have a relationship with the underwriter." Per SHRM and IFEBP best practice, claims data is the employer's data, and refusing to surface it is a red flag that triggers BOR changes. NABIP's 2025 best-practice guide flags this exact phrase.
• "AVE for our marketing… Err, our trend guarantee is industry-leading." Carriers no longer issue meaningful trend guarantees; quoting one signals you're a 2015 broker.
• "We can start at renewal — six months away." A serious consultant starts with a 30-day diagnostic regardless of renewal date. Waiting for renewal is broker behavior, not consultant behavior.
• "Our fee is non-negotiable and not disclosed." Post-Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, all broker and consultant compensation for group health plans must be disclosed in writing under ERISA Section 408(b)(2). Saying "non-disclosed" is a near-instant disqualification — and a regulatory red flag.

Read aloud from the Schlichter Bogard & Denton filings in the Lockheed Martin $62M settlement and the General Dynamics $15.1M settlement: both turned on failure to monitor fees and failure to document a prudent process. Per DOL guidance, the *exact same* legal theories now applied to health plans (J&J 2024, JPMorgan 2024) are why mid-market CFOs are in the market for a new consultant.

Section 4 — The Fiduciary Pitch Script (10 min)

Run the pitch within 5 business days of receiving the claims data and Form 5500. Use the verbatim script — it lands the retainer at the median $50,000-$120,000/year range that IFEBP identifies as the mid-market consulting sweet spot.

Verbatim Pitch Script (consultant opens the second meeting with these exact words):

Consultant: "Before I walk you through what we found in your data, I want to be direct: we are a fee-only, named-fiduciary consulting firm. We will be your ERISA 3(21) co-fiduciary, in writing. We accept no carrier commissions, overrides, or contingent comp on your plan.

Every dollar of our compensation is disclosed in this engagement letter."

[Pause. Hand over the one-page comp disclosure. Count to five before continuing.]

Consultant: "From your last 24 months of claims, 3.1% of your members drove 47% of your spend — and two of your top-five high-cost claimants are on therapies your current PBM is not rebating optimally. We benchmarked your per-employee cost of $16,840 against the Mercer national average of $17,496 — you are 4% favorable, but your trajectory is +8.4% versus the national 6.7%.

Without intervention you cross $19,400 PEPC by 2027."

[Walk through one-page findings. Stop. Wait for question.]

Consultant: "We're proposing an $85,000 annual retainer, 24-month term, with three workstreams: plan-design optimization, a full vendor RFP for PBM and stop-loss, and consultant-of-record fiduciary services with quarterly Investment Committee-style meetings. Our guarantee is the headline: we save you our fee in year one or we work for free in year two. That's in writing."

[Negotiate scope and the Broker-of-Record letter. Most CFOs sign the BOR by week three.]

Consultant: "Cadence: monthly claims-and-cost report to you and the CHRO, quarterly fiduciary committee meeting with documented minutes, annual stewardship report with documented prudent-process evidence for your audit file. Lock the start date — the Broker-of-Record letter goes to your incumbent today; we want the data feed live within 14 days."

Do NOT:

• Lead with carrier logos or "we represent every carrier." Lead with the named fiduciary status and the comp disclosure.
• Quote vague "savings of 10-30%" without showing the math from the prospect's own claims data. Per IFEBP and NABIP guidance, generic savings claims are the #1 reason finalists lose to a more disciplined competitor.
• Skip the BOR letter conversation. The BOR is the close — without it, you have an opinion, not an engagement.
• Discount on the first ask. Trade scope (drop the RFP workstream before you drop the fiduciary workstream).

Section 5 — Pricing, Cadence, and the Comeback Library (15 min)

Build the unit economics on the whiteboard. This is the part most brokers transitioning to consulting skip — and why they leave $200K-$400K per client on the table over a 5-year relationship.

The math (for an 800-employee employer at $85,000/year):

• 800 employees × $17,496 = $14.0M in annual health-plan spend at the Mercer 2025 average.
• A documented 2.5% trend hold versus the Mercer-projected 6.7% market trend = $588,000 in year-one savings = 6.9x the $85,000 fee.
• Add a PBM RFP typically yielding 8-15% Rx savings on a Rx-line that is now 22-26% of total spend per KFF 2025 = another $240,000-$450,000.
• Total year-one ROI = 10-12x the consulting fee — which is exactly why the "we work for free in year two" guarantee is mathematically safe.

Common objections from the CFO (rehearse the comebacks aloud):

• *"Our current broker has been with us for 12 years and we like them."* — Comeback: "I'm not asking you to dislike them. I'm asking you to compare their documented prudent process and disclosed compensation to ours, side by side. Per CAA 2021, you already have the right to see both in writing — if the incumbent can't produce it, you have your answer."
• *"$85K is more than we've ever paid in fees."* — Comeback: "You've never paid broker fees — you've paid them in your premium. Per Form 5500 Schedule C, your incumbent's compensation last year was [X]. Our fee is transparent, fixed, and disclosed. The math is what changed, not the dollars."
• *"Can you do it for $50K?"* — Comeback: "Yes — and here is what comes out: the PBM RFP and the stop-loss RFP. You'll keep plan-design and fiduciary services. You'll be giving up the workstream most likely to fund my fee 5x over. I'll do it at $50K if you tell me to; I'm telling you the trade."
• *"What about the fiduciary risk to us if we change?"* — Comeback: "The fiduciary risk increases with status quo, not change. Per DOL guidance and the J&J case (Lewandowski 2024), the breach is *failure to monitor and document.* A documented vendor change with a prudent process reduces your personal liability as a CHRO and your company's plan-fiduciary exposure."
• *"What if you can't save us money in year one?"* — Comeback: "Then we work for free in year two until we do. That guarantee is in the engagement letter. In 60+ engagements per IFEBP industry benchmarks, fewer than 4% of disciplined consulting engagements fail to clear fee in year one — and we underwrite our own risk."

Section 6 — Commitments and Close (5 min)

Every consultant in the room leaves with three written commitments, taped to their monitor:

• The data-request template goes out to all three of my live CFO opportunities by EOD tomorrow.
• My next pitch deck opens with the named fiduciary status and the comp disclosure — not the firm-overview slide. (Move the firm-overview to slide 14 or burn it.)
• I will ask for the Broker-of-Record letter on the second meeting — and if I leave a finalist meeting without a BOR ask, I owe the team breakfast.

Close by reading the Schlichter Bogard statement aloud from the Lockheed Martin $62M settlement order: *"The duty of prudence is a process duty — fiduciaries are judged not on outcomes but on whether they followed a documented, defensible process."* Then send the room out with the one-line close pinned in the team Slack: **"We're your fiduciary, we hold your data, and we save you our fee in year one or we work for free.

Let's sign the BOR."**

FAQ

Q1: What's the right floor for a real benefits-consulting retainer in 2027? A: $20,000-$35,000/year for sub-200-employee, fully insured employers with plan-design and basic compliance; $50,000-$120,000 for mid-market 200-1,000 employee self-funded or level-funded plans with PBM RFP; $120,000-$200,000+ for 1,000-2,000 employee self-funded plans with full consultant-of-record fiduciary services, multi-vendor RFPs, and a documented Investment Committee.

Per NABIP and IFEBP 2025 benchmarks, anything under $20K/year is a transactional broker engagement, not a fiduciary consulting relationship.

Q2: Commission-vs-fee — how do I handle a CFO who insists they want commission so it stays in the premium? A: Offer both side-by-side in the engagement letter: (a) the fee-only option with the Broker-of-Record letter and the carrier-side commissions zeroed out of the premium ("net of commission" pricing — most carriers will do it); (b) the commission option with the full Schedule C-style disclosure of every dollar. Per the CAA 2021 Section 202 broker-comp disclosure rule, both must be in writing anyway.

Sophisticated CFOs pick fee-only 80% of the time once they see the math.

Q3: How do we win against a national consulting firm (Mercer, Aon, WTW, Gallagher) in a finalist? A: Three plays. One: Show a named principal who will be in every meeting — national firms staff with junior analysts. Two: Show claims-level findings from THEIR data, not generic case studies.

Three: Match or beat the 24/7 ERISA audit-support SLA. Per NABIP middle-market data, named-principal continuity is the #1 finalist tiebreaker against the Big Four consulting firms in the 200-2,000 employee band.

Q4: When does the Broker-of-Record letter get signed — and what's in it? A: Typically week three of the engagement after the CFO has seen the diagnostic findings. The BOR is a one-page letter to the incumbent and to each carrier naming your firm as the exclusive broker/consultant of record effective [date], revoking the incumbent's authority on the plan.

Per NABIP standard practice, the carriers process it within 5-15 business days. Without the BOR, you cannot receive claims data feeds, negotiate renewals, or earn fees — it is the close.

Q5: How do we handle the ERISA fiduciary lawsuits — should we offer 3(38) discretionary services? A: Increasingly yes for clients over 500 employees. The 3(21) co-fiduciary role is the standard (you advise, the employer decides); the 3(38) discretionary fiduciary role transfers investment-vendor selection authority to you (you decide, the employer is indemnified).

Per DOL guidance post-Lewandowski v. J&J and the JPMorgan health-plan case (filed 2024), 3(38) is becoming the request-for-proposal default at the upper end of mid-market. Price 3(38) at a 25-40% premium to 3(21) — you are taking on quantifiable risk.

Q6: What's the right cadence for fiduciary documentation to defend an audit or lawsuit? A: Quarterly fiduciary committee meeting with minutes, annual stewardship report, documented vendor-RFP process every 3-5 years for each major vendor (medical, Rx, stop-loss, dental, life/disability), annual Form 5500 review with the CFO.

Per the Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics settlement orders, the defense hinges on showing the paper trail of a prudent process. The cadence above is the SHRM and IFEBP recommended minimum for an employer with $5M+ in annual plan spend.

Sources

1. Mercer, *2025 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans* (and 2026 projection release), mercer.com/en-us/solutions/health-and-benefits/research/national-survey-of-employer-sponsored-health-plans.
2. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), *2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey*, kff.org/health-costs/2025-employer-health-benefits-survey.
3. SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), *Employee Benefits Survey and Mid-Market HR Advisory Best Practices*, shrm.org.
4. IFEBP (International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans), *Employee Benefits Survey and Consulting Engagement Benchmarks*, ifebp.org.
5. NABIP (National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals), *Producer Standards and Mid-Market Consulting Best Practice Guide 2025*, nabip.org.
6. U.S. Department of Labor / EBSA, *ERISA Section 404(a) Fiduciary Duties* and *Section 408(b)(2) Broker Compensation Disclosure Guidance*, dol.gov/agencies/ebsa.
7. *Abbott v. Lockheed Martin Corp.* (S.D. Ill.) $62M settlement — Schlichter Bogard & Denton; *General Dynamics Corp. 401(k) Excessive Fee Litigation* $15.1M settlement; *Lewandowski v. Johnson & Johnson* health-plan fiduciary case (D.N.J. 2024).
8. Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 (CAA), Section 202 — *Broker and Consultant Compensation Disclosure for Group Health Plans*, congress.gov.