Your In-House Expert. On Demand.
Integrate 30 years of top-tier EB compliance and self-funding authority directly into your agency—without adding a six-figure executive salary.
I sit on your side of the table. You take all the credit.
Most agencies lose mid-market deals or run into compliance traps for one simple reason: they lack dedicated technical depth. Hiring a full-time compliance officer or self-funding actuary costs $150k–$250k+ a year. Passing on those cases costs you millions in lost revenue.
My Embedded Specialist model bridges that gap. I plug directly into your agency as your fractional technical partner:
White-Label Integration: I use your agency’s email address, appear on your team page as your internal specialist, and represent your brand in front of clients.
Front-Line Execution: I join your high-stakes prospect meetings, C-suite presentations, and complex renewal negotiations.
Risk Shield: Your client guidance is backed by fractional compliance coverage and ERISA oversight—including my contractual indemnification guarantee.
The Embedded Model: How It Works
Stop Walking Away from Self-Funded Opportunities
Your largest, most profitable clients are the ones most likely to outgrow fully-insured plans. When that happens, most independent agencies either walk away, lose to a larger competitor, or make a costly mistake.
There’s a better option.
The Embedded Specialist gives you the self-funded expertise you need to pursue and manage those opportunities without having to build that capability in-house.
Here’s an Uncomfortable Truth:
Having self-funded clients you don’t fully understand isn’t just a growth problem. It’s a liability.
The data, the stop-loss structure, the TPA relationship, the renewal strategy, the fiduciary exposure. If any piece of that is wrong, you don’t just risk losing the client. You create legal exposure for your agency.
I’ve been selling, structuring, and retaining self-funded business for over 20 years. I’m the person you call before something goes wrong, and the person you want on the phone when it does.
I sit with you for clients and prospects. Sales coaches will tell you to do more self-funded business. I help you actually do it.
Self-Funded Fluency, Start to Finish.
Going to Market:
I work with your team to run the self-funded RFP end-to-end: vendor selection, stop-loss marketing, spreading the numbers, and a finalist-ready recommendation your client trusts and your competitor can’t match.
Plan Design:
I model plan options, network and PBM strategy, and cost-containment programs that hold up under scrutiny and under a tough renewal. No guesswork. No generic spreadsheets.
Stop-Loss Strategy:
I structure specific and aggregate stop-loss, manage lasers, and own the renewal narrative so your client understands their risk without ever feeling exposed to unexpected costs.
Data Analytics + Reporting:
Looking at each client’s data is critical, both for the group’s decision-makers and for your team’s approach to managing performance and vendors. I translate the numbers into a story your client can act on.
Pharmacy + PBM:
I match best-fit pharmacy benefit administration, review contracts and reporting, and make sure there’s full transparency on revenue and cost trends for fiduciary compliance.
Fiduciary Support:
Benefits committee management and fiduciary coverage placement that protects the plan sponsor and keeps your agency out of the crosshairs.
Two Specialized Capabilities
1. Fractional Employee Benefits Compliance
Plan Document + ERISA Support: Audit, draft, and review SPDs, Wrap documents, Form 5500s, and POPs.
Regulatory Navigation: Practical guidance on ACA, HIPAA, CAA/Transparency requirements, ESRP audits, and other complex compliance issues.
Client + Team Support: Give your account management team access to deeper compliance expertise when questions arise.
What I Bring to the Table
2. Self-Funded & Alternative Risk Support
Feasibility + Pricing Review: Analyze stop-loss quotes, claims data, and TPA proposals to identify risk and evaluate the opportunity.
Captive + Level-Funded Strategy: Help your team evaluate and position alternative funding models for prospects and clients moving beyond fully insured plans.
Renewal Defense: Help your team analyze renewals, understand what's driving increases, and build a stronger data-backed strategy.
The Embedded Difference
I’m Not a Referral. I’m on Your Team.
Most agencies handle complex cases by referring clients elsewhere or bringing in outside experts when they get stuck. The problem is, every handoff creates distance between you and the client.
That’s not how the Embedded Specialist works.
I integrate directly into your agency. I use your agency email, can be listed on your website as your specialist, and sit on your side of the table during prospect meetings, client conversations, and complex renewals.
Your clients get the technical depth they expect from a national firm, without giving up the relationship you worked to build.
You stay the trusted advisor. I give you more firepower behind the scenes.
1. Discovery + Alignment: We map out your agency’s target group sizes, current client vulnerabilities, immediate sales pipeline, and where additional technical depth can make the biggest impact.
2. Define My Role: We identify where I’ll plug into your agency, from compliance and self-funded strategy to prospect meetings, renewals, and complex client situations.
3. Agency Integration: We set up your agency email, communication protocols, team introductions, and the process for bringing me into cases when you need me.
4. Deploy on Active Cases: Start bringing me into live prospect meetings, renewal strategy, self-funded opportunities, and complex compliance issues.
5. Win + Protect: Use that added technical depth to pursue more complex business, strengthen existing client relationships, and protect the accounts you’ve worked hard to build.
How We Onboard: The 5-Step Process
Working with David has been instrumental in growing both my business and my confidence in the self-funding market.
Recently, I had a discussion with a client’s CFO and confidently explained the plan’s funding, our employee contribution strategy, and projected costs for the coming year. It was a moment that showed me just how much my knowledge base has grown.
David helps me give my clients a better understanding of their financing options, the ability to quote stop-loss the best way, and the tools to educate and inform each one on how their plan is doing.
And best of all — he does it in a way that makes me look good. It’s not about him; he reassures the client and empowers me to learn more every time. This makes me confident to go out and get more clients than I felt I could before.
— Client testimonial
The Expertise Behind Your Agency
You aren't outsourcing to a call center. You are embedding 30 years of national-level authority.
When you add an Embedded Specialist to your agency, your clients and prospects get direct access to one of the most respected technical minds in the employee benefits industry.
The Legislative Architect: Served as policy and research advisor drafting North Carolina's Small Group Health Insurance Reform laws. I don't just interpret health care law—I helped write it.
The Industry’s Educator: Authored 5 of NABIP’s top-ranked national certification courses on ERISA, HIPAA, and ACA compliance. When other brokers have questions, they take my courses.
National Recognition That Closes Deals: Recipient of the Harold R. Gordon Memorial Award (Health Insurance Person of the Year). Bringing the industry's highest honor onto your pitch deck instantly signals to 500-life prospects that your agency has elite, unmatched expertise on its side.
Practitioner, Not Preacher: Over 20 years of active field experience writing, structuring, and retaining complex 100–1,000+ life self-funded cases.
The Industry’s Only Contractual Indemnification Guarantee
Your Agency’s E&O Risk Ends Here.
Most compliance consultants give non-binding advice and walk away when real legal liability hits. Every Embedded Specialist package includes contractual indemnification. If a compliance error occurs on a case I back, my guarantee protects your agency and provides a level of security national firms simply cannot match.
Stop turning away complex accounts or risking E&O exposure. Let's put 30 years of proven benefits authority into your corner today.
Ready to Supercharge Your Agency’s Technical Depth?
Looking for project-based agency scaling, operational overhauls, or M&A prep instead?
Explore Strategic Agency Consulting
Not Sure Where to Start?
That is exactly what the strategy session is for. We will identify your biggest gaps and opportunities in 30 minutes, and you will walk away with a clear picture of where I can have the most impact for your agency.