————— AN INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE —————-

The

Trust Issue

This isn’t a new problem. It’s an old one that keeps getting rediscovered — and costing employers and their people every time it does.

“For years, employers picked their benefit broker the same way they picked their bank. They went with the biggest name they could find and assumed that size meant accountability.”

It has never been that simple.

A pattern twenty years in the making

Two landmark moments. The same firms. The same problem.

2004
The Spitzer Investigation
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued Marsh & McLennan — then the world's largest insurance brokerage — for bid rigging and hidden broker override commissions. Internal emails revealed executives steering clients to carriers that paid the most, not the ones best for the client. One executive put it in writing: place business with those who "pay us the most." Marsh collected approximately $800 million in contingent commissions in 2003 alone.
Bid Rigging & Hidden Override Commissions
2005
The Settlements
Marsh settled for $850 million. Aon settled for $190 million. Willis North America settled for $50 million. Over $1 billion combined. The industry pledged reform. Contingent commissions — the hidden override payments incentivizing brokers to steer business to the most profitable carriers — were supposed to end. The industry said it had learned its lesson.
$1.09 Billion in Combined Settlements
2021
Congress Tries Again
The Consolidated Appropriations Act made broker fee disclosure a federal legal requirement for group health plans. Brokers were required to disclose compensation before clients signed anything. The law was clear. Compliance proved flexible. In too many cases disclosure became a technical formality — not a genuine conversation about whose interests were actually being served.
Federal Disclosure Mandate
December 2025
History Repeats
Schlichter Bogard — the firm with three unanimous Supreme Court victories that reshaped the entire 401(k) industry — filed four coordinated federal class action lawsuits naming Mercer, Gallagher, Lockton, and Willis Towers Watson as defendants. The allegations: commissions of 22% to nearly 40% of premiums, often undisclosed, while employees were steered toward plans paying out as little as 25 cents on the dollar in actual claims.
Federal Class Action — ERISA Fiduciary Breach
The 2025 allegations in numbers
22–40% of premiums collected
as broker commissions
$23M+ collected from one employer's
workforce over six years
25¢ on the dollar paid out
in actual claims

When only 25 cents of every premium dollar goes toward actual claims — with the rest consumed by commissions and fees — it becomes impossible for anyone to call those arrangements reasonable.

Named in the December 2025 litigation

These weren't obscure regional shops. These were the most trusted names in the industry.

Mercer
Gallagher
Lockton
Willis Towers Watson

The same firms that were at the center of the 2004 Spitzer investigation. The names on the building.

The employees paying
those premiums
never knew.

And for a long time, this industry counted on that.

What every employer should ask right now

Every employer has a fiduciary duty to their employees. So does their broker. These lawsuits are a reminder that assuming someone is fulfilling that duty — without ever verifying it — is no longer good enough.

The question is simple: do you know exactly how your broker is compensated, by whom, and whether that compensation influenced the plan your employees are enrolled in today?

If you don't know the answer — it's worth finding out.

Employers deserve better. Their employees deserve better. And the advisors in this industry who have always operated with transparency deserve to work in a marketplace where that integrity is the standard — not the exception.

WardBridge Advisors

Ready to have a different kind of conversation?

We disclose everything. Before you sign anything.

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Coverage made human.