Centralization to Reclaim Time and Money

Growth for small-to-midsize benefit insurance brokerages is often held back by back-office demands such as paperwork and admin. Acme Benefits, a hypothetical four-person firm, achieved significant financial and strategic gains through a shared-services model, allowing professionals to refocus on client service and sales.

Acme Benefits is a typical small group insurance brokerage. It has four people: two owners who sell and service clients, one full-time service person, and one part-time bookkeeper/administrator who splits time between finance and everything else. They look after 100 employer groups and manage about $5 million in health, dental, and life premiums each year.

Similar to most small firms, a significant portion of each week was dedicated to administrative tasks that failed to contribute to client acquisition or retention. Time and money were consumed by managing paperwork, tracking down commission statements, settling invoices, and maintaining organized files.

Where the Time and Money Went Before the Change

Task	Hours per Year	Cost per Year
Renewal Management	700
Plan Administration & Data Gathering	500
Claims and Problem Resolution	360
Compliance Tracking	150
Bookkeeping, paying bills, preparing payroll information	300
Software licenses and tools (multiple systems)		$30,000
Salaries and benefits for administrative and finance help		$150,000
Fixing mistakes and paying late fees		$30,000
Total	~2000 hours	$210,000

That is roughly 20% of every employee’s year and almost one-third of the firm’s total operating cost.

What Changed After Joining Greater Sum Insurance Collective

The producers and service person kept their clients and their office. Everything that happened behind the scenes moved to a central shared-services team or a software platform.

• All client files, renewal dates, and documents now live in one place.

• Commission statements are automatically reconciled by the central team every month.

• The central finance group does all accounting, bill payments, and financial reports.

• Licensing, carrier appointments, and continuing education tracking are handled centrally.

The Numbers After the Change

Category	Before	After	Savings
Total back-office hours	2,000	1000	1,000 hours
Percentage of staff time spent on paperwork	30%	15%	15% difference
Administrative and finance salaries & benefits	$150,000	$75,000	$75,000
Software and tools	$30,000	$15,000	$15,000
Cost of mistakes and rework	$30,000	$15,000	$15,000
Total yearly overhead cost	$210,000	$105,000	$105,000

What 1,000 Saved Hours Really Means

• It is the same as adding one full-time producer (and a little extra) without adding any payroll.

• The two owners now spend 80–90% of their time on sales and client meetings instead of 50%.

• The service person can focus on helping employees at open-enrollment meetings instead of filing papers.

Additional Benefits the Owners Notice Every Day

• No more worry about what happens if the bookkeeper is sick or quits.

• Financial reports are accurate and on time, so the owners always know where they stand.

• Compliance and licensing are handled centrally through technology, lowering the chance of costly errors.

• The brokerage is worth more to a future buyer because profits are higher and the business is less dependent on any one person.

Bottom Line

For a four-person brokerage like Acme Benefits, moving routine back-office, finance, and administrative work to a central platform cut operating costs by $105,000 a year and returned the equivalent of one full-time producer to client-facing work.

Every office is different, but the pattern is consistent: centralizing the work that happens away from clients creates large, repeatable savings and lets owners and producers do what they do best, grow the business, and take care of their groups.

The goal of GSIC is to allow group benefit-focused brokerages to dedicate more attention to their clients by consolidating their operational tasks within the collective. Not only does this lower costs and bring a larger payout to firm owners, but clients also benefit from more attention.