Most employers run a benefits broker RFP once every five to seven years. That is long enough for the people who ran the last one to have moved on, and for the template in the shared drive to be out of date. So the process gets rebuilt from memory: a questionnaire goes out, firms write back, three are invited to present, and a decision is made.
That process is orderly and defensible on paper. It rarely shows how a firm will actually work once the contract is signed. The steps below are how to run a search for a benefits broker or health and welfare consultant that does.
1. Decide whether you need an RFP at all
Before anything goes out, be clear on why you are going to market. The common reasons:
The relationship has drifted, and service no longer matches what was promised.
The business has changed through growth, acquisition, or new geographies, and the advisor has not kept up.
Procurement or governance policy requires a periodic market check.
Leadership wants confidence that fees and compensation are competitive.
Some of these call for a search. Others are better solved by resetting the current relationship: clarifying scope, expectations, and how the team is staffed. An RFP launched to fix a problem a direct conversation could have solved costs everyone time, including the incumbent. If you are unsure which side of that line you are on, a short, honest review of the current relationship is the right first step.
2. Define fit before anyone writes a word
The most consequential step happens before the RFP document exists. Your internal team (HR, Total Rewards, Finance, Procurement, and often Legal) needs to agree on what "the right firm" means for your organization:
What will this advisor be relied on for strategically over the next three to five years?
Which day-to-day work must be handled well without anyone escalating it?
How does your team like to make decisions, and how should an advisor fit into that?
How will you know, a year from now, whether you chose well?
When this is not settled up front, the most polished proposal quietly becomes the standard every other firm is measured against. Defining fit first means the process tests firms against your definition instead.
3. Keep the written questionnaire short
A 150-question RFP produces 150 pages of boilerplate per firm. Most of it describes capabilities every credible firm has. Ask in writing only for what writing is good at:
Who specifically would do the work, and how much of their time you would get
How the firm would approach your situation, strategically and day to day
Scope, fees, and every form of compensation the firm and its affiliates would receive
References from clients similar to you in size, industry, and complexity
Everything else is better learned in conversation.
4. Watch the actual team work, not present
The finalist presentation is the weakest part of a typical RFP. It is rehearsed, it is often delivered by people who will not be on your account after the win, and it rewards presentation skill over advisory skill.
Replace it with working sessions on your real situation: a renewal decision you are facing, a population you are struggling to serve, a vendor problem that will not go away. Insist that the people who will actually serve you are in the room. You will learn more in an hour of unscripted conversation about how a firm thinks, what it asks, and how it handles disagreement than from any written response.
5. Put compensation on the table from the start
Brokers and consultants can be paid through fees, commissions, overrides, bonuses, and other indirect compensation, and under ERISA employers sponsoring group health plans are entitled to disclosure of it. Ask for all of it in a consistent format at the start of the process, not at contract stage. Comparing firms on fee alone, without the full compensation picture, is how employers end up surprised later.
6. Decide whether, and how, to include the incumbent
Inviting the incumbent is not a courtesy. It is a decision. If the relationship can be fixed, the incumbent deserves a real chance to show how. If it cannot, inviting them anyway wastes their time and signals an outcome that is not open. Either answer is fine; being clear about which one you have chosen is what matters to every firm in the process.
7. Buy the process in steps
A search does not have to be one large commitment. Structure it in stages, each separately authorized: an initial conversation round, a written proposal from the firms that continue, and live evaluation of the finalists. Any stage can be the last. If the first round shows the incumbent is the right answer after all, you stop there, having spent a fraction of the cost.
8. Document how the decision was made
Capture observations on every firm the same way, side by side, at every stage. When a committee, CFO, or board asks how the choice was made, the answer should be a clear record, not a recollection of who presented best.
What a well-run search gives you
A benefits broker RFP is not ultimately a document. It is a decision about who you will rely on for years. The firms worth hiring want a process that is real: clear criteria, a fair hearing, and an outcome that is not decided in advance. Employers who run it that way end up with an advisor chosen for how they will work together, and a decision they can stand behind.
Docent runs independent searches for benefits brokers and health and welfare consultants, with no commissions and no stake in who wins. See how an advisor search works →
Not sure whether to go to market? Daylight is a free, anonymous eight-minute diagnostic of your current broker or consultant relationship.