Name: HFI Benefits Inc.
Address: 6904 Roper Rd NW #200, Edmonton, AB, T6B 3H9
Telephone: 780-705-7800

We are an established employee benefits advisory with more than 70 years of combined industry experience. We have experience on both the broker and group benefit insurer sides of the industry. Over many years, we've refined and evolved our approach to employee benefit plan design and claims funding whereby we specialize in using, insurer-backed, partial self-insurance, ASO (Admin Services Only), for the EHC & Dental benefits with a combined HSA (Health Spending Account)/WSA (Wellness Spending Account) that has both web based and mobile-application (iOS and Android) interfaces. We believe this is the most cost effective & flexible modern era employee benefit plan design that has evolved to the point where partial self-insurance combined with Flex HSA with Wellness spending accounts are no longer just for larger company's. By utilizing modern technology, good-quality, low-cost benefit plans are now easy to implement and cost effectively maintain with the help & support of an experienced and technical based employee benefits advisory.

We Provide Expertise, Recommendations, and Ongoing Service & Support
Benefit Plan Reviews - Edmonton & area
780-705-7800
Employee Benefits Advisory
Edmonton Office
#200 - 6904 Roper Rd NW
Are we the best employee benefit consultants in Edmonton & area?
Our clients think so, and we think you will too.
Please contact us to arrange a no-charge, no obligation
employee benefit plan review.

Employee Benefit Specialists

Like most industries, the employee benefits insurance industry has become more specialized over the years. One major reason for this is that group benefit insurance companies, though similar in their fundamental approaches, use different metrics and formulas to determine their own cost structures by line of benefit. Add to this: benefit taxation changes, changing technology, the increasing need for benefit plan related company liability protection, changing legislation around benefits and employee benefits can become complex very quickly. This is why you need the help of an employee benefit specialist advisory brokerage.

When it comes to high-quality employee benefit plan advice & support, really the days of the generalist broker are gone. Life insurance, financial planner or general insurance (home & auto) based generalists that also 'do employee benefit plans' can no longer properly present & maintain sustainable high-quality cost effective benefit plans because they simply don't have the ongoing focused expertise to do so. They may be great at selling life insurance or mutual funds, but it's easy for us to see the 'holes' in the plan design & funding approach of a generalist advisors' plan design & claim funding setup. Also, employee benefit insurance tends to be much more varied & complex than life insurance and general insurance offerings. Partly because of this, the pricing of it can significantly be impacted by a skilled specialist Advisory that is assigned & enlisted to work on behalf of your company in this regard. You can choose to be really good at one thing, or be mediocre at many...we choose the first approach.

Financial Analyses and Benefit Plan Reviews

Experience has taught us, that many companies simply don't know if they have a good benefit plan or are paying too much for theirs, so the easiest way to ensure that you have the most progressive and comprehensive benefit plan for the money, while also insulation the plan from large rate increases, is to allow us to complete a 2-3 year financial analysis in conjunction with a complete benefit plan design review. By completing a full review of your plan, we're able to assess where your plan currently stands and then where savings and improvements can or should be made.

Although there’s an investment of our time to complete a no obligation no charge benefit plan review, we've learned over our 70 years of combined industry experience that a long-term win-win working relationship is much more rewarding and profitable for us than getting 'low-ball' first year rates just to get a quick sale. We want our skills and expertise to be maximized to help our clients grow and prosper their businesses. The other key to our success is building on top of a strong foundation which is why we also foster and maintain the same win-win relationships with every supplier we deal with as we benefit when you benefit.

Insurance companies are businesses and as such need to make a profit just like us. In this light, for efficiency sake, they apply standardized metrics across the nation for many pricing impact variables. This standardized approach tends to negatively impact the pricing of many benefit lines particularly for Alberta based companies. As specialists, we're aware of these variables and negotiate against these national based approaches for the benefit of our clients.

Our reviews provide comparisons of your current plan to what your plan could or should be with the help of skilled negotiation and/ or a more beneficial & current era plan design. We also think partial self-insurance ASO (Admin Services Only) for Extended Health Care and Dental claims funding, together with our combined or standalone HSA (Health Spending Account) and WSA (Wellness Spending Account), QubeFlex 2.0, is the best way to provide you with more control over how much your company spends on your benefit plan year over year. As part of our win-win philosophy we work towards a best value for the money approach. Insurance companies tend to charge as much as they can get away with and we've found ways to leverage our knowledge and modern technology to negotiate a fair and reasonable level of pricing that is beneficial to both parties of the policy contract.

A 'lay-of-the-land', second opinion, review of your current benefit plan financials and offerings provides you with the insight you need to decide if what you're getting is worth what it's costing you: in our experience, most of the time, it isn't. This review step does not require the signing of an Agent of Record (AOR) letter nor is any contact made to your current advisor or benefit insurance provider. We simply provide you with a no charge, no obligation, second opinion review, from a specialist Advisory with over 70 years of combined industry experience perspective.

The following are some of the steps taken as part of our review process:

A financial fairness analysis of rates charged vs premiums paid: claims + expenses + reserves (for Insured plans) + trend.
For insured plans with over 20 employees, a 2 to 3 year comparison if the plan would have been partial self-insurance/ASO is completed.
If year over year age demographic change tables are provided, a comparable rate assessment to what is being charged by the Insurer is completed.
Suggested alternate plan design considerations and applicable pricing are provided, many times through the effective utilization of our add-on QubeFlex 2.0 combined HSA/ WSA spending account set-up.
Potential liability issues around benefit plans are identified with internal HR policy solutions recommended.
A summary recap with next-step plan evolving recommendations is provided which may include the recommendation to market the plan to the full group insurer marketplace.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does a current status ‘lay of the land’ benefit plan review make sense as a first step towards getting the most out of your company’s benefit plan?

A company can't know where their benefit plan should be if they do not have a complete financial and design review with current era options to consider as a starting point.

Why don’t you just market the plan to the group insurer marketplace right away to get cheaper rates like many other Brokers do?

The short-term pricing of a group benefits plan, though important, should only be one aspect of a company’s goal to achieve the most progressive and comprehensive benefit plan for the money for them and their employees year after year.