McNeil Benefits, through its collaboration with the Jordan Shields Insurance Agency, under the corporate name of SSM Insurance Services, is pleased to be a member of United Benefit Advisors (UBA), the premier alliance of employee benefits consultants in the country, with over 140 member firms in the United States and Canada. (See their separate website at www.ubabenefits.com.)

Does size matter?
It can. UBA collectively is the third largest benefits brokerage/consulting firm in the United States, but that does not tell the real story. While size can provide the clout with insurance carriers to help create unique products or preferential underwriting—and UBA does that—employers with multiple sites around the country need to know how professed nationwide reach really works. For many “national” firms, the willingness of the branch offices to assist is sadly lacking. The UBA difference comes from the fact that each office is entrepreneurial. UBA guidelines provide that each office is to provide local service to branch offices of clients of other UBA firms as if they were their own clients, knowing that the favor will be returned by other UBA firms. This is a different way of thinking, and it can really benefit multi-site employers.

Knowledge Base
No consultant or broker can know it all. UBA provides the synergy of the collective wisdom that comes from hundreds of broker consultants communicating to each other daily on a proprietary blog where literally hundreds of answers to questions, comments, etc., are provided each day. This can range from questions on federal benefits laws, local issues, insurance carrier questions, evaluation of vendors, etc.

Preferred Relationship
The clout of UBA is seen in the preferred relationship it has with best-of-breed insurance plans, including the creation of a unique stop loss contract without the many loop holes that are found in many contracts. The preferred relationship can yield preferred underwriting or enhanced clout with problem resolution.