Phillips & Cohen saved $516K annually thanks to ERA Group

Phillips & Cohen Associates LTD (PCA), based in Delaware, saved $516K on employee benefits, payroll processing, and workers compensation after partnering with ERA Group.

PCA provides highly effective financial recovery services, including compassionate deceased care and probate, pre- and post-charge-off credit cards, business cards, consumer retail, debt management, and cease and desist solutions.

As a result of substantial growth over the years, PCA had outgrown its Professional Employers Organization (PEO) Arrangement, making it an expensive proposition. Additionally, the limited transparency provided by the PEO made it difficult to truly understand the cost structure.

ERA evaluated the PEO and leveraged a comprehensive competitive process to generate a full range of options. The company opted for unbundling the PEO into separate arrangements for health & benefits, payroll processing/HR administration and workers' compensation, offering cost transparency that allowed PCA to understand its cost structure better and enhance its control over its health & benefit plan.

Unbundling a PEO can be tricky, but by leveraging expertise in each category, ERA specialists were able to find practical and well suited solutions for payroll & HR administration, health benefits and workers compensation, as well as manage the implementation risks. ERA identified new broker and payroll partners with specific expertise in PEO unbundling, while improving transparency through negotiated client service agreements.

With ERA's assistance, the CFO and CHRO regained control of their benefit plan, allowing PCA to tailor the plan's offerings to meet their talent attraction and retention goals. ERA also helped them navigate the timeline and risk of unbundling a PEO, and simplified plan renewals and management by consolidating various benefit renewal dates into a single renewal date.

"ERA helped us navigate unbundling health & benefits, payroll processing and workers’ compensation by meeting contract deadlines to withdraw from the PEO while managing our incumbent PEO’s renewal terms and other insurance brokers and payroll processing companies. Their expertise brought options and services that exceeded expectations. We are better positioned to attract and retain team members and grow our business domestically and internationally." [Curtis Vincent, Chief Human Resources Officer Phillips & Cohen Associates]

Our case study examines how a financial recovery services company partnered with ERA Group to reduce expenses.