Client Services Advocate

Description

Who Is Christensen Group? 

Founded in 1952 and 100% employee-owned, Christensen Group is the largest locally owned, independent insurance and employee benefits agency in Minnesota. At Christensen Group, we treat our employees like people. We care about our clients; we care about the carrier partners and we care about one another; professionally and personally. We’re committed to understanding the businesses we serve and finding solutions that enable those businesses to grow. As an employee you are constantly learning and developing through on-the-job experiences to best serve your clients. 

What Does a Client Services Advocate Do?

As a Client Services Advocate you are responsible for managing the coordination of services to employee benefit clients. This role will require a positive team attitude and support for employee benefit consultants in all service areas. The focus for this role is to market new and renewal business and contribute to agency revenue goals. 

Flexible Work Environment

At Christensen Group, employees are given the opportunity to work a hybrid schedule after they have completed their training. We allow a work from home option that would enable you to work in the office 50% of the week, and work from home the remainder of the time. We do this to ensure that we keep our culture at the center of everything that we do, and that we are continuously learning from our peers.

Training

We believe in creating a safe and open learning environment for all employees. This means employees are encouraged to be curious, seek insurance designations to deepen insurance knowledge and be challenged with new growth opportunities. 

A role at Christensen Group Employee Benefits team gives you the chance to be a part of client’s key strategies to engage their team. Employee benefit plans are an important part of our client’s recruiting and retention of employees. Building benefit plans to stay competitive attractive will continue to evolve with the labor market, and this role will be dynamics to match our clients’ needs.

Our Employee Benefits team handles clients from a group size of 2 up to 2000 members. Being a strategic partner to our clients’ leadership team on their benefit plan requires knowledge of fully insured and self-insured medical plans, understanding of ACA compliance, dental, vision and other ancillary benefits to build an attractive benefit offering to employees. 

Individuals who are new to insurance start in our Small Group Client Services Advocate role by learning what types of benefit offerings and strategies for employers with large group and ancillary benefits. Individuals within the Small Group Client Services Advocate role can grow into a Large Group role focused on more complex benefit packages or can find way to expand their expertise through being a best practice expert within the Benefits team. 

Why Work for Christensen Group?

We are employee owned. A large part of our compensation package is the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) which means we all have skin in the game. An ESOP is a retirement asset, like a 401(k) Plan but the difference is a 401k grows based on the stock market and our ESOP grows based on the work we contribute as a team. 

All ESOP eligible employees participate in an allocation of ESOP shares that are targeted at 15% of W-2 pay. In simple terms, Christensen Group adds shares equal to a dollar value into your ESOP retirement account every year. What we contribute is 5x more than the typical 3% employer 401(k) match.

At Christensen Group we offer a comprehensive employee benefits package including medical, dental, vision, HSA, FSA, short-term/long-term disability, Life/AD&D insurance, Voluntary Life/AD&D insurance, 401(k), identity shield, and pet insurance. 

Most people spend most of their adult lives at their workplace — and we know that burning some energy is important during the day. So, when we built out our new office, we made sure to include some space for people to stay fit, blow off some steam and get their sweat on. This can be done in our Golf Simulator, the onsite gym, on the racquetball court, or on our walking treadmill desks. 

Core Duties and Responsibilities

· Demonstrate general knowledge of agency carriers, carrier/brokerage marketing and underwriting to coordinate with insurance companies to address client issues and solve client problems

· Demonstrate professionalism daily – appearance, approach, leadership

· Support agency directives in effectively managing  agency/carrier relationships

· Attend or conduct renewal and open enrollment meetings (will vary depending on team)

· Manage customer needs through servicing daily needs and actively participation in monthly client calls

· Assist clients with their compliance schedule

· Assist with billing, claim and eligibility issues 

· Support clients to implement changes in their benefit plans and onboard of new members

· Be a member of service team, along with the Producer and Benefit Consultant, to meet client needs 

Requirements

· 4-year degree preferred or equivalent experience

· Knowledge of group medical, dental, disability, life, voluntary products, COBRA, ERISA, FSA, HSA, and HRA plans

· Understand fully insured and self-insured products

· Proficiency in Microsoft Office (strong math and Excel background)

· Possess thorough, organized, and detailed oriented approach to work, including effective problem-solving skills with minimal supervision

· Ability to apply effective time management and self-management skills

· Excellent communication skills – verbal and written

· Willingness to work effectively in a team environment

· Willingness and initiative to seek out and meet department needs

· Ability to maintain confidential information

· Ability to learn and understand a variety of issues, including client and staff needs related to human resources and benefits business

· Resident Life and Health license