Where It Began

This being my first blog post, I thought that I would start by telling you how we began doing benefits administration.  In 1986 I attended a conference in San Antonio, Texas where a speaker said the future of employee benefits was being transformed by changes to the tax code such as Section 125 and COBRA.  We were already heavily involved in employee benefits as group insurance brokers for small and mid-sized companies in western New York.  Flex spending administration was a natural addition to our brokerage services.  This was followed by various enrollment and billing services, retirement plan administration and finally COBRA.

We found that our retention rate was better among our administrative services than it was on our insurance brokerage book of business.  Selling benefits administration nationally proved to be much easier than selling insurance nationally.  Over the years we shifted our focus from group insurance to benefits administration.  Our roots as an insurance broker have given us the ability to work with other brokers; utilizing our administrative services, they have been able to enhance the service they provide their customers.

Today we have customers across the country.  Even though we get over 90% of our new business from outside western New York, we remain proud to be called a Buffalo company that is participating in the renaissance of our downtown core.