The Problem

A competitive employee benefits package is a necessity in today’s environment to attract and maintain quality employees. 

Employee benefits consist of much more than just group health insurance today.  Also included are sick pay, pension and retirement savings plans, vision and dental care, cancer coverage, pretax funding of  many routine expenses, wellness programs, legal guidance and more.  The average annual cost for employee benefits is typically between 35% and 40% of total payroll costs. 

In the ever changing health insurance industry, with trends toward “managed care” it’s more difficult than ever to recognize and select quality, affordable coverage.  Constantly changing tax and other legislation relating to employee benefits is difficult to stay on top of  for those who do not specialize in this field.  Many insurance agents are not specialists in the area of group benefits. These agents often make recommendations based on lowest price as the main criteria, without regard to details of coverage ( the fine print ), cost containment ability (for future premium stability), quality of service or claims paying ability.  Because of the magnitude of benefit costs on the bottom line the full time salaried position of benefits or risk manager is often created by employers to deal directly with insurance carriers.  However, because many employees cannot afford the cost of a dedicated benefits or risk manager they often assign the function to someone in HR, Payroll, or Finance, who typically do not have the current expertise or time to manage the employer’s return on their benefit dollars.

The Solution

W.E. Shaw & Associates, LLC was organized to address the employer’s need for affordable, objective, unbiased and expert guidance in the complicated arena of employee benefits. We offer fee or commission based planning and solutions to our clients. We have no ties whatsoever with any insurance companies or third party administrators that would in any way detract from our independence and objectivity. We are in a position to provide partial or complete outsourcing of a client’s benefit or risk management needs.

W.E. Shaw & Associates utilizes a team approach to the services we provide. Our staff offers more than seventy years of experience in the field of employee benefits and provides expertise and many services comparable to those provided by the largest of national consulting firms. However, our fees are considerably lower than the national consulting firms and lower than commissions paid by many insurance carriers to agents providing significantly less expertise and service.