BENEFITRA is the first brokerage to simulate all seven funding strategies over five years, best case and worst case, using sophisticated underwriting and financial algorithms so you see the odds your savings survive renewal before you sign.
*70% of companies say yes once quoted. We show all the options. The right one becomes obvious.
See how much you may be overpaying →
Use your own data and projections. Every tool is free, no sign-up required.
See exactly how different funding strategies handle your specific claims scenario and how much you could save over 2 to 6 years. Model renewals across fully insured, self-funded, captive, and more.
Best for: Employers, Brokers, Risk Managers
Stress Test Your Renewal →Translate your benefits spend into measurable returns. See how your investment in employee health impacts retention, productivity, and your bottom line.
Best for: HR Leaders, Employers, CFOs
Calculate Your ROI →Project your health plan costs across funding strategies. Compare self-funded, level-funded, strategic captive, Taft-Hartley, PEO fully insured, and fully insured approaches to find the right fit for your organization.
Best for: Employers, Brokers, Benefits Consultants
Project Health Insurance Costs →Planning an exit in the next few years? See how simple improvements to HR, benefits offerings, and compliance processes can impact your expected sales value based on business industry sales databases.
Best for: Employers, Brokers, CFOs
Value Your Business →Answer a few questions about your company and get a personalized savings roadmap with verified estimates and employee impact ratings. Explore 25+ strategies tailored to your situation.
Best for: Employers, Brokers, Benefits Consultants
Build Your Strategy →Compare any two of six funding arrangements side by side. Model working capital, float interest, contract protections, and the break even crossover a CFO actually underwrites.
Best for: CFOs, Employers, Brokers
Run the Cash Flow Model →Get a free, no-obligation benefits analysis comparing all seven strategies for your business.
Book Your Free Consultation →Anonymized client outcomes from the past 24 months. Source documents available under NDA on request.
We came from ADP and would've been happy just saving the 28% on workers' comp. What we didn't expect was real employee benefits, faster support, and a simpler experience across the board. Easier to hire, easier to retain good people, and morale is stronger. We came for the savings and ended up with a partner that helps our business win.
Alumaline, NYC high-rise window installation. Came for the workers’ comp savings, stayed for real benefits, faster support, and a partner that helps the business win.
FOUR PAWS USA moved benefits off the JustWorks PEO into a Taft-Hartley plan, kept JustWorks for payroll, and turned a health-only budget into full coverage. The multiemployer pool priced a small nonprofit the way a much larger employer gets priced.
Cambridge Biotherapies, BCBS → MGB at ~half the cost, then a Taft-Hartley plan for more. MGB is a provider-sponsored carrier, so the switch kept the same hospitals and physicians while premium fell by roughly half.
A last-mile delivery contractor joined a pooled Taft-Hartley plan, the structure that prices and underwrites a small group like a large one.
A self-funded medical plan, an hourly health-and-welfare allowance, and a dental/vision suite bid across five carriers. Self-funding kept the unused claims dollars with the employer, not a carrier.
A 7-person multi-state brokerage moved to a choice of UnitedHealthcare plans on a nationwide network through PrestigePEO, at competitive cost. The PEO pool gave a tiny group a plan menu and national network large employers get.
Each case shows the carrier and funding mechanism the client moved from, the trigger that brought them in, the headline outcome, and what changed under the hood. Some clients are named here with their permission; where a client preferred to stay private, we’ve kept the situation and the numbers and omitted the name, so you can map yourself onto the cases by situation, not by size.
Source documents: quote comparisons, premium tables, renewal letters, available under NDA on request.
Seven funding strategies modeled on your actual census, your actual carriers, your actual renewal pressure. No obligation, no pitch, just the comparison.
Get my comparisonTwelve short questions. We grade your business across the six funding arrangements we model, no pitch, just an honest read on what fits before you spend an hour on a sales call.
We compare every option so the right one becomes obvious. Most buyers do not know all seven exist.
Our independent, multi-employer Taft-Hartley plan. Built for groups that want big-pool stability without surrendering control of their HR.
Learn more →Predictable monthly payment with a year-end refund when claims run low. A common first step away from fully insured.
Learn more →You pay actual claims plus stop-loss protection. Maximum transparency, maximum upside when your population stays healthy.
Learn more →Pool your stop-loss risk with other employers. Lower volatility than going alone, more leverage than fully insured.
Learn more →The traditional model. Carrier takes the risk, you pay the renewal. Simple, but you lose the savings when claims are low.
Learn more →Fully insured coverage delivered through a Professional Employer Organization. Bundled HR, payroll, and benefits administration.
Learn more →Reimburse employees for individual marketplace plans. Ditches the group-health renewal cycle entirely, fixed-cost, employee-choice.
Learn more →Expert analysis on premium trends, legislative changes, and benefits strategy.
Trusted by businesses and individuals across the country.
Employee benefits are not one decision but several, and the funding arrangement underneath the plan often matters more than the plan design on top. Fully insured, PEO master plans, level funded, self funded, self funded captive, and multi-employer trust arrangements each carry different cost, risk, and flexibility, and the right choice depends on your size, your group's age and health, your state, and how much year-to-year swing you can absorb.
The catch most groups miss is that cheaper is not universal. Small-group rules cap the oldest employee's rate at three times the youngest, so a young, healthy group is quietly overpaying to subsidize the pool, and its exit is a plan that underwrites on its own health. But an older or higher-claims small group can find that self funding and captives cost more than community-rated fully insured, because the community pool is subsidizing them. State rules matter too: most states set a minimum stop-loss deductible and require small groups to fund well above expected claims before coverage responds, which is why a self-funded quote for a small group often comes back high, and a few states restrict or prohibit self funding and level funding for groups under 100 lives. Matching the arrangement to your specific group, not to a rule of thumb, is where the largest and most durable savings come from.
Key points:
For broader context, see KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey.
See all of these run against your own group, five years out and best case to worst case, in the Health Plan Funding Simulator. Compare the entry costs in the Health Plan Cost Projector, then test the return in the Benefits ROI Calculator.
Six main arrangements: fully insured, PEO master plans, level funded, self funded with stop loss, self funded captive, and multi-employer trust (Taft-Hartley), plus ICHRA as a flat-allowance option. Each fits a different group by size, age, health, and state.
No. For a young, healthy small group it usually is, because you stop subsidizing the community pool. But for an older or higher-claims small group, self funding and captives can cost more than community-rated fully insured, since the community pool is subsidizing you. It depends on your group, which is why modeling it beats a rule of thumb.
Level funded is a fixed monthly premium that bundles claims, admin, and stop-loss, with a share of a good year's surplus refunded. Traditional self funding pays your actual claims up to a specific deductible, so you keep the full upside of a good year and carry more of a bad one. Level funded is the common on-ramp for smaller groups, and traditional self funding suits groups that can absorb more swing.
Not everywhere. Most states set a minimum stop-loss deductible and require small groups to fund above expected claims before coverage responds, and a few states restrict or prohibit self funding and level funding for groups under 100 lives. Where it is allowed, the state's rules shape how the quote comes back.
It depends on your size, your group's age and health, your state, and how much year-to-year swing you can absorb. Modeling the options on your own numbers, across a full five-year renewal cycle and not just year one, is the only reliable way to choose.
Usually from matching the funding arrangement to your group rather than defaulting to the plan you inherited, and from planning around the worst case as much as the best case. The durable savings come from the right structure, not a single good renewal.
Reviewed by Sam Newland, CFP, Founder of Benefitra. Last updated July 2026.
