More Sponsors Bundling Plan, HR Services

Small plan sponsors are following the lead of their larger brethren and beginning to consider the purchase of all of their employee benefit services from a single provider as a way to reduce costs.

The largest plans have purchased so-called bundled services for years, but only recently have midsize and small plans begun thinking about consolidating purchases of the services they provide to their employees.

Currently, only 4% of plans with $5 million to $50 million in assets and 3% of plans with less than $5 million in assets buy bundled benefit services.

However, those percentages could double within 18 months, according to research by Spectrem Group. The trend could accelerate if more providers find ways to make bundled benefit services a profitable offering to smaller plans.

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