Boca Benefits Consulting Group Inc.

The American College, Bryn Mawr, PA, the recognized leading institution for insurance, benefits and other financial services professional designations, has awarded to Robert W. Murphy its Emeritus Status. In its award letter, The American College congratulated Mr. Murphy by stating, “This distinguishes you as a person who has clearly demonstrated the commitment to continuing education that has become the standard for American College designation holders.” 

Mr. Murphy received his first designation, Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), in 1984. Since then he has earned three additional designations, Registered Employee Benefits Consultant (REBC), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) and Registered Health Underwriter (RHU).

The Emeritus Status conveys with it a lifetime satisfaction of all designation related continuing education requirements otherwise applicable to The American College designation holders.

[Note: to share only this single post, click title of this post above prior to clicking on Share icon.]

Clearly, it has been exceptionally difficult to keep up and make the proper choices relative to the requirements of PPACA 2010.  The steady stream of clarifying  IFR’s (i.e., Interim Final Regulations) has almost become a torrent.

Is you broker keeping you up to date? If not as much as you might like, please click here to contact BBCG for assistance.

LinkedIn page with info:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/rwmurph

Resume from BBCG site: http://bocabenefits.com/resume.htm

“Core Competency” post: http://bocabenefits.com/blog/?p=992

Let BBCG help your organization this fall! 

President/CEO

BBCG Inc.

[Note: to share only this single post, click title of this post above prior to clicking on Share icon.]

Email Contact

With the summer ending and fall approaching many employers start to think about their January 1st group insurance renewals and what strategy they will ask their brokers to employ. Never in the last 30 years has the broker selection issue been so important. PPACA 2010 (i.e., healthcare reform) has defined brokers in two main categories: (1) those that have kept up and can properly advise; and (2) those that will continue business as usual. BBCG puts itself squarely in the former, not the latter, category.

As you may have noticed from our various types of posts, BBCG is involved in many different types of employee benefits and individual insurance concepts. However, our core competency is group insurance.

I have 30 years of experience in the group insurance business, first starting as a home office underwriter for the largest group insurer in the U.S. at the time (i.e., Prudential prior to selling off its health book of business). That start has given me a technical foundation across all group insurance products that most brokers do not possess. It also gave me an in-depth knowledge of healthcare plan alternative funding and self-insurance concepts (e.g., both ASO approaches with carriers and TPA approaches when using a non-carrier administrator and stand-alone network). Statistics show that the highest rate of broker-related Errors & Omissions events is related to self-funded plan stop-loss insurance due to its complexity and the lack of in-depth understanding by many brokers.

Since my initial career start with Prudential, I have held positions in sales management, product development and brokerage/consulting for three other national companies. Boca Benefits Consulting Group, Inc. was first located in Boca Raton, Florida  where its initial assignment was product development on behalf of an investor group in that area. It was incorporated in the state of Florida in 1996. It was relocated to Clearwater, Florida late in 1999.

BBCG agents are not appointed by every carrier in the market. However, we have access to virtually every one of them (i.e., the de facto standard in the industry is “quote/sell first and appoint after the fact”). For larger companies we will draw up specifications and go to market directly. For smaller/medium sized companies we have access to two general agencies as needed to go to market on our behalf. There is virtually no quality market not available to our clients.

If the economics of a relationship make sense for prospective clients outside Florida or Washington D.C., we will secure the appropriate non-resident licensing in your state. Note: that process has become relatively easy with the centralized on-line based licensing procedures adopted by most states.

Let us help you this fall! You can contact us by clicking here. We prefer not to get into bidding wars with other brokers in order for an orderly approach to the markets on behalf of our clients. However, we will show an alternative quote to those a current broker is showing if we do not feel the market has been fully tested. 

— Bob Murphy, REBC, ChFC, CLU, RHU, MBA

   President/CEO

   BBCG Inc.

[Note: to share only this single post, click title of this post above prior to clicking on Share icon.]

IMG Global has provided BBCG with a Portuguese language translation of its Patriot Travel Medical brochure.  We can now provide native language product information to Portuguese language speakers. We can also provide a live Portuguese speaker to discuss larger group purchases, etcetera. Click here to access Portuguese language brochure.

Rio de Janeiro will host the summer Olympics in 2016, the first time for any South American country. Although six years may seem like a long time to that date, the physical build-out to get Brazil ready will start much sooner. It is highly likely that there will be extensive Brazilian travel where the IMG Global Portuguese support can be key. Please refer any Brazilian related business to BBCG. The travel medical policy linked here is only one of the many offering we can show businesses headed that way or which might be using the U.S. as a staging area prior to the Olympics.

Any questions? Click here to send BBCG an email inquiry.

Access other IMG international product information which can be browsed, priced and for which applications can be made online by clicking the below icon. 

[Note: to share only this single post, click title of this post above prior to clicking on Share icon.]

Whether your company is a small firm or a very large one, there is probably at least one similarity. Workman’s compensation insurance has historically been purchased based on estimates of payroll size and risk categories that are trued-up at year-end via some form of insurance carrier audit. During the course of the year some carriers require that the estimating employer provide a deposit which functions as a reserve against loss of cashflow and ultimate payment if the estimated premium payment is determined to be short. Neither employers nor carriers have been happy with this arrangement.  As a small employer, these year-end true-ups can be very traumatic if additional funds are due over and above the deposit. From the carriers perspective, in addition to cashflow and bad debt implications, they just never like chasing funds after the risk event has occured.

The concept of “pay-as-you-go” has emerged which means that the workman’s compensation liability is tracked per employee per pay period and premium is paid on the actual as opposed to an estimated liability. It eliminates the need for up-front deposits for smaller employers and year-end audits. For carriers, it improves cash flow and more accurately matches the premium flow with the underlying risk. In a shrinking economy this is somewhat less important than in an expanding economy where estimated payrolls may be based on dampened historical data that does not currently reflect renewed economic vitality.

Smaller employers have had “pay-as-you-go” offered to them by big name payroll companies which have forged deals with insurance companies to provide the required reporting. Many of those smaller employers feel that they are locked-in and have no other alternative due to the potential financial implications. They feel that moving to another payroll solution means a return to the deposit and audit methodology. They might be unhappy but they bite their tounge and endure the present relationship. However, that is not the required reality.

For the smaller employer, BBCG can work with virtually any property and casuality licensed agent who handles your workman’s compensation insurance. If there is no agent an employer wants to protect, BBCG will facilitate a new relationship. The one absolute: it is necessary to utilize a payroll service company which utilizes one of the major payroll software systems. This does not mean one of the “big name” payroll companies. A small CPA with whom you have developed a comfort level as your payroll service company over time can provide the required reporting if he/she uses one of the major software vendors. The requirement lies in the software vendor and the insurance carrier interface company having established the appropriate data sharing protocol. Most of the major payroll systems are represented but there are in fact a few for which this solution is not viable. We would encourage you to call us at 727-510-7138 to discuss how you are presently structured.

Larger employers may not be using a payroll company at all. If payroll is an in-house function, the software and data reporting issues might become more problematic. However, that does not preclude larger employers from having similar access to “pay-as-you-go”. If the degree of sophistication is present, we can likely structure a data reporting protocol directly between the employer and the carrier interface company. The key is structuring a data reporting methodology which regularly transmits all the data elements required by the insurance carriers. These specfications are in place for each of the major payroll software systems. A major large employer could be treated as a new software system if it is using a proprietary in-house system. If using one of the major commercially available systems, the interface may already be there.

A question often arises as to which workman’s compensation insurance carriers the “pay-as-you-go” concept might apply. Due to the way the carrier interface company has been built, virtually all the major carriers subscribe. If your company presently uses a “captive” agent who can only show you his/her company’s product there might be a disconnect. However, if your company uses an independent agent or broker it is more than likely that he/she can be protected either by using one of the carriers with which an agent appointment already exists or by newly appointing the agent/broker with a carrier that has the best terms for the employer. Again, if no agent protection is required, BBCG will assist the employer with having an agent/broker from the company with the best terms named as a new “broker of record.”

Please call BBCG at 727-510-7138 if you have any questions.


[Note: to share only this single post, click title of this post above prior to clicking on Share icon.]

BBCG is now listed on the Globaltrade.net “The marketplace for International Trade Services” web site: http://www.globaltrade.net/user/profile.html?user.id=223 . This site is similar to other business oriented social web sites. Please see our posts there.


[Note: to share only this single post, click title of this post above prior to clicking on Share icon.]

As our prior post indicated, BBCG is particpating in the AccessAmerica initiative in China sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The white paper “Accessing International Healthcare Insurance in the Global Economy” is now posted with a Chinese language synopsis at: http://www.buyusa.gov/china/zh/aa_resources.html .


[Note: to share only this single post, click title of this post above prior to clicking on Share icon.]

Following a sale of group healthcare to a group of diplomats in Beijing, China, BBCG has been posted as an insurance resource in a U.S. Department of Commerce sponsored program called AccessAmerica.  That program provides Chinese language translation of our services and provides a link on the embassy web site in Beijing. As part of that service BBCG was also asked to write a related white paper which is now posted there as well.

This is the direct link to the BBCG piece: http://www.buyusa.gov/china/zh/aa_listing.html?bsp_cat=84130000&bsp_id=32 . [Note: Chinese language browser module may be required for full functionality.]

This is the link to the directory in which it is posted (Insurance Services): http://www.buyusa.gov/china/zh/aa_directory.html

This is a link to a copy of the white paper (best viewed by downloading first via right mouse click and “Save Target As” function): http://bocabenefits.com/papers/intl_health_insurance.pdf .


[Note: to share only this single post, click title of this post above prior to clicking on Share icon.]

First Murchadhian Strategic Consultancy supplements the
employee benefits work of BBCG with financial planning and strategic consulting
services.

Link to page

A table of services which can be provided to clients directly by BBCG or via trusted select strategic partnerships.

Link to page


[Note: to share only this single post, click title of this post above prior to clicking on Share icon.]