Fee Policy
Dominion Benefits makes fully independent recommendations to clients without regard to carrier commission or other compensation programs. We advise clients to act in their best interest. Premium quotes include standard commissions paid by carriers when applicable or Dominion Benefits’ best estimate of a market rate for a carrier with a variable commission schedule. Some carriers also provide bonus or other compensation to qualifying firms based upon retention or growth of a block of accounts with that carrier. This compensation is not a factor in our recommendation and does not affect client premiums. Dominion Benefits discloses client and carrier-specific compensation upon request.
Dominion Benefits also advocates that all broker compensation programs be tied to a specific employer and be reportable via the 5500 form. Dominion Benefits has requested carriers to report all compensation, including bonuses, on the 5500 form.
We believe it is important for employers to know the amount of compensation paid to their broker or consultant and to make a determination as to the value provided for that level of compensation. You should see a real return on the broker expense, primarily from plan design and cost management strategies, maximizing plan results through effective analysis and overall account servicing that enables you to achieve your budget, recruitment and retention objectives. We will provide all of our clients with an annual statement of fees received on their account.
A quick summary of our business practices includes:
- Our decision-support tools, such as VALUE SELECTSM eliminate bias – carrier products are portrayed using a value scoring methodology.
- Our analysts and consultants do not factor Dominion Benefits’ commission revenue into our value analysis or recommendations.
- Dominion Benefits seeks a long-term relationship with our clients and we evaluate the profitability of our firm on a global, not an account-specific basis.
- Benefit consultants are typically engaged by their clients and compensated by carriers to perform more than product pricing and placement. Additional services often include employee enrollment and education, plan design, plan related policy development (e.g. eligibility criteria and employee premium contribution), claims and billing inquiry resolution and compliance support.
Our fee structure is intended to be simple and fair. We are typically compensated either through standard commissions paid by the carriers or a retainer fee for the various benefits we support All of the strategic planning tools and models, reports, communications, and service support outlined in this proposal will be available through our work compensated for in the commission or fee.
Dominion Benefits is open to discuss any compensation arrangement preferred by our clients. Once we have more specific details regarding your current benefit offerings and service expectations, we will analyze the options available and recommend the approach that best meets your business objectives. We suggest, however, that as an option to the standard commission-based structure, you may want to consider a fee-based arrangement as a cost containment strategy. While commission-based fees increase as premiums increase, the non inflationary nature of a fixed retainer fee has proven very successful with many of our clients.
As a rule, our fees are lower than many because of our commitment to efficiency, technology, analytics and modest overhead. In any event, we guarantee you will see value in our work. In summary, we feel that a capable benefits broker/consultant creates value for the client through myriad support services. Please do not hesitate to contact your Dominion Benefits consultant with any questions or concerns you may have about commissions specifically or compensation in general.
