Employee Benefits Broker

Vyral is an independent employee benefits broker for companies with 20 to 500 employees. We take one census and shop your benefits across the open insurance market and more than 40 professional employer organizations, then put every option on one page so you can actually compare them. No fee to your business.

Get my renewal benchmarked See how it works

For 1/1/2027 renewals, the shopping window is open now.

Most brokers only shop half the market

A traditional benefits broker takes your group to insurance carriers. A PEO broker takes your group to professional employer organizations. Each one shops the half of the market it gets paid to shop, and each one tells you its half is the answer.

Vyral runs both searches on the same census, at the same time, and shows you the results next to each other:

Fully insured group plans from the carriers in your state
Level funded plans, where your company can get surplus money back in a good claims year instead of the carrier keeping all of it
Self funded structures where your size and claims history support them
More than 40 PEOs, priced on the same model so the comparison is real

Then we tell you which one fits, including when the answer is to stay exactly where you are.

How it works

1. Send one census

One employee census and your current plan summary. That is the entire ask. You do not fill out a separate request for every carrier and every PEO, and you do not sit through five discovery calls that are really sales calls.

2. We run both markets

We take your group to the carriers that write business in your states and to the PEOs that fit your headcount and industry class. We handle underwriting back and forth.

3. You get one normalized comparison

Carrier quotes and PEO proposals are built on completely different models, which is why they are almost impossible to compare in their native form. We restate all of them on one model: administration, medical, workers compensation and unemployment, against what you pay today.

4. You decide, and we stay on

Stay, renegotiate, change funding, or move to a PEO. If you move, we run the implementation, and we are still here at your next renewal doing the same analysis again.

What employers are actually facing in 2027

Every major benefits survey published in the last two months lands in the same place, and it is the steepest run in over twenty years.

Source	2027 projected cost increase
Mercer, August 2026	8.2% per employee after planned cost reduction measures, about 11% with no action, the highest since 2003
Aon, August 2026	9.5% before employer mitigation efforts, pushing cost past $19,000 per employee
Business Group on Health, August 2026	9.2% median before plan design changes
WTW, August 2026 (survey preview, as reported by CFO Dive)	11.1% before plan changes
IFEBP, August 2026	10% median

Five independent surveys, one answer. If your renewal came back in that range, it is not a mistake and it is not personal. It is the market. What is negotiable is what you do about it.

The real penalty for being a smaller employer

This is the part most brokers do not put in writing. Per the Kaiser Family Foundation 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey, premiums at smaller firms are not meaningfully higher than at large ones. Single coverage runs $9,211 at firms with 10 to 199 employees against $9,361 at firms with 200 or more.

The gap is not the premium. It is what lands on your employees:

	Firms with 10 to 199 employees	Firms with 200 or more
Employee share of family premium	$8,889 per year	$6,227 per year
Average single deductible	$2,631	$1,670

So the honest framing is not that you are overpaying. It is that the same money buys your people a worse plan. Closing that gap is the job.

What an independent broker changes

	Typical broker relationship	Working with Vyral
Market shopped	The carriers that broker works with	Open market and 40+ PEOs on one census
Funding options	Usually fully insured only	Fully insured, level funded, self funded where it fits, or PEO
What arrives at renewal	A number	Options, benchmarked, with a recommendation
Claims data	Often not provided	We tell you what you are entitled to and how to get it
Ownership	Some brokerages own a PEO or a carrier relationship they need to feed	No ownership stake in any provider

Who we work with

20 to 500 employees. Below 20 the options narrow. Above 500 you are usually already self funded and running a consultant.
A renewal in the next six months. Carriers typically release renewals 90 to 120 days out. The time to shop is before the letter, not after.
Multi state teams, where compliance and unemployment insurance get complicated fast.
Companies already on a PEO who want the renewal benchmarked against the open market.
Companies whose broker did not market the renewal and produced one number from one carrier.

Frequently asked questions

What does an employee benefits broker do?

An employee benefits broker represents the employer, not the insurance carrier. The broker gathers your census and claims experience, takes your group to the market, negotiates renewal offers, presents the options, and handles enrollment, compliance and service through the plan year.

What does it cost to work with Vyral?

There is no fee to your business.

How is Vyral different from my current broker?

Two things. We shop both the open insurance market and more than 40 PEOs on the same census, where most brokers shop one or the other. And we normalize everything onto a single pricing model, so a PEO proposal and a carrier renewal can actually be compared line by line.

Do I have to change anything?

No. A real share of this work ends with a company staying where it is on better terms, because that was the right answer once everything was on the table.

When should I start?

Three to six months before your renewal date. Carriers typically release renewals 90 to 120 days out and letters reach employers 60 to 90 days out. Once you are inside 30 days your options narrow to whatever can be implemented quickly.

Can you get my claims data?

Often yes, depending on your size, your state and your carrier. It matters more than anything else in this process. Without claims experience you cannot price a level funded or self funded alternative, which means you cannot tell whether your renewal is fair. We tell you exactly what to request and from whom.

Is a PEO the same as group health insurance?

No. A PEO is a co employment arrangement that bundles payroll, benefits, workers compensation and HR compliance, and your employees join the PEO's health plan. Buying group health insurance means your company sponsors its own plan. Both can make sense. Which one wins depends on your claims history, your states and your industry class, which is exactly what the comparison is for.

Get your renewal benchmarked before you sign it

Send one census. Get your current plan, the open market and the PEO market priced on the same page, with a recommendation.

Book a 30 minute call