Four people in a Pensacola office running employee benefits for small Florida businesses since 2012. The book is small on purpose — so the work is, too.
A benefits brokerage is, in the end, two things at once. An advisory practice that finds the right plan year over year. And the person who picks up the phone when an employee's claim doesn't process. We try to be excellent at both, for a small group of Florida employers we know by name.
That rule has not moved. Butcher & Associates runs a deliberately small portfolio of Florida employers — a few dozen groups at a time, mostly between five and fifty lives, mostly within a couple hours of Pensacola.
Wil handles strategy and renewals himself. There is no third tier above him. When you call, the founder answers.
Enrollment windows, mid-year additions, a forgotten dependent, a billing reconciliation that doesn't add up — the calls that actually decide whether benefits feel like a benefit or a chore. Viviana takes them.
She has been with the firm long enough to know the carrier reps at Florida Blue, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Aetna, and Angle on a first-name basis.
Onboarding a new group, walking a new client through their first year with us, the unglamorous follow-through between meetings — Holly handles the part of the work that keeps a practice human.
She knows the team, the families, the renewal calendar, and the dog at the front office of more than one of our clients.
Role copy is placeholder — Wil to refine.
Compliance windows, ACA filings, the COBRA paperwork that arrives in a manila envelope and absolutely has to be answered inside ten business days — handled here, quietly, before any of it becomes a problem for the client.
Name & role placeholder — Wil to provide.
Fully insured small-group plans across the Florida market — Florida Blue, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Aetna, and Angle Health. Level-funded considered case by case, never as a default.
Designed alongside medical, not bolted on. Where bundling makes the numbers better, we say so. Where it doesn't, we don't.
Voluntary and employer-paid life. Short-term and long-term disability. Built to fit the budget that remains after the medical decision — not the other way around.
A benefits package only works if the team knows how to use it. We write enrollment materials people will actually read and run open enrollment meetings that don't feel like a lecture.
ACA filings, Section 125, 5500s where required, mid-year changes — the quiet administrative parts that, done correctly, never become a problem.
The work doesn't end at renewal. Most of what we do happens between renewals — a new hire's coverage questions, a denied claim, a network change. That's most of what being a broker actually is.
There is no portal to log into. No automated email sequence. The year follows a rhythm — and we keep it.
120 days before renewal — We start the conversation. Census refresh, claims review where the carrier provides one, a check on what changed in your business that might change your plan. No surprises in month eleven.
90 days out — Carrier quotes go out for the market. We don't default to your incumbent. Every group sees a real comparison every year.
60 days out — Side-by-side comparison delivered. Plans ranked, with the reasoning. The conversation about what changes and what stays the same happens in person or on a call, not in a deck you skim.
30 days out — Plan locked. Enrollment materials drafted in plain English. Open enrollment meeting scheduled at your office or remotely — your call.
Effective date — ID cards confirmed. New hires processed. Carrier portals tested. Viviana walks anyone who needs it through their card and their first claim.
The rest of the year — The part most agencies treat as overhead. A new dependent, a billing discrepancy, a network question, a denied claim, a mid-year change. We pick up.
I have used three brokers in fifteen years. The other two sent paperwork and a portal login. Butcher sent Wil.
The enrollment meeting Viviana ran was the first one our staff did not complain about. I know that sounds small. It is not.
Real client quotes shown anonymously by request. Named references available on conversation.
A small library of pieces we wrote for our own clients and made public because, frankly, the rest of the internet does this badly.
What every section of the renewal packet from Florida Blue, UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Aetna, and Angle actually means — translated for the small-business owner who has fifteen minutes before the kids get home.
Read the guideNo discovery questionnaire, no qualifying call before the qualifying call. Thirty minutes, on the calendar, on your schedule.