# Group Health Decision-Makers: Who Signs the Renewal, and How to Reach Them

*Benefit Signals — updated 2026-10-20. Canonical: https://benefit-signals.com/resources/group-health-decision-makers*

The group health decision at most employers belongs to the owner or president under about 50 employees, to the CFO or controller with HR running the process in the 50-to-500 range, and to a benefits committee led by HR and finance above that. The Form 5500 and its Schedule A name the employer, the carrier, the brokers paid and the policy year, but not the person who decides. Benefit Signals attaches that person: 113,000 named decision-makers at employer groups with filed benefits, with 110,000 emails, 35,000 cell phones and 80,000 LinkedIn profiles, matched to the group's EIN (counted 2026-10-20).

A benefits broker working from filed records knows more about an employer group than the employer's own CFO usually does: the carrier, the contract number, the commissions paid, the policy year end. What the record never says is who at the company will take the meeting. This page is about that person -- who they are at each company size, how to find them, and what Benefit Signals adds so you are not guessing.

## Who decides, by company size

| Employer size | Who decides | Who runs it | What they care about |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 50 employees | Owner or president | Office manager or controller | The premium increase, their own family's coverage, the hassle |
| 50 to 200 | CFO or controller, with the owner | HR manager | The renewal number, employee complaints, the time it takes |
| 200 to 500 | CFO and head of HR together | Benefits manager | Cost trend, plan design, funding options, the broker's service |
| 500 and up | Benefits committee: CFO, CHRO, sometimes legal | Benefits director | Self-funding, stop loss, compliance, a formal RFP |

The pattern is the same one every producing broker has felt. Small groups are an owner's decision, made in one conversation, usually in the two months before renewal. Mid-size groups split the decision between finance and HR, and a broker who reaches only one of them stalls. Large groups decide by committee and by RFP, which means the real work happens before the RFP is written.

## What the filed record gives you, and where it stops

A welfare plan with 100 or more participants generally files a Form 5500, and its insurance contracts are generally reported on Schedule A: the carrier on line 1(a), the contract number on 1(d), the policy year on 1(f) and 1(g), and the agents and brokers paid commissions on line 3. The filing also carries the plan administrator's name and usually a phone number. Source: [Schedule A (Form 5500), U.S. Department of Labor](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/employers-and-advisers/plan-administration-and-compliance/reporting-and-filing/form-5500) (as published for plan year 2024).

The administrator phone is usually an office line, and on many filings it belongs to the TPA that prepared the return. The administrator name is a real person at the sponsor more often than not, but it carries no email, no cell number and no profile. That is the gap: the record stops at the building.

## What Benefit Signals attaches to each employer group

| Measure | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Named decision-makers | 113,000 | Named contacts, each tied to an employer group EIN (a person at several groups counts once per group) |
| Email addresses | 110,000 | Unconfirmed ones carry a verify-before-send mark; the CSV marks each direct or pattern |
| Cell phone numbers | 35,000 | Numbers typed as mobile; 45,000 phone numbers of any type |
| LinkedIn profiles | 80,000 | Profile URL on the record |

Counts are the high-confidence contacts the app shows for employer groups in the filed-benefits universe, counted 2026-10-20, rounded down.

The titles in the set are the ones in the table above: owners, presidents, CEOs, CFOs, controllers, COOs, HR and benefits managers, partners and principals, office managers. A contact is published only after it passes a high-confidence match to the employer on the filing, and it is keyed to the EIN rather than to a name string. Weaker matches are held back. The published contacts are the ones counted here; CSV exports carry at most one of them per group.

## Reaching the decision-maker in the right window

- **Sort by renewal, then call the person.** Renewal Radar orders a territory by filed policy year end; the contact layer adds the owner's or CFO's cell phone where we have it. The 90-to-180-day band before renewal is where the decision is actually open.
- **Lead with their own filing.** The carrier, the policy year, what the brokers on the filing were paid. The contact layer gets you the person; the Schedule A gives you the reason to be calling.
- **One person per group, chosen by size.** The owner under 50 lives; the CFO and HR lead together from 50 to 500; the benefits director above that. Three executives at one company getting the same message is how you get blocked.
- **Use the email status in the CSV.** Direct addresses first; pattern addresses in small batches with bounces pruned.
- **Hand-dial cell phones.** Business-to-business calls are generally exempt from Do Not Call rules, but autodialed or prerecorded calls to mobile numbers are restricted under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Scrub, document, and take legal advice for your own agency.

Once the free trial ends, every search exports to CSV (up to 5,000 rows) with the carrier and, where we have it, the renewal date on each row. Where we have a decision-maker for the group, the row also carries their contact details as far as we have them, and the phone column falls back to the filing's office line.

## Honest limits

The contacts are a business contact file built from public and commercial records, not an opt-in list, and no address or number is promised to be current. Cell numbers are typed as mobile in the source contact record, not confirmed by dialing. Groups below the welfare-plan filing threshold are largely absent from the filed universe, so the small-group market is thinner here than the mid-market. Pricing is $60 a month or $600 a year. The monthly plan includes a seven-day free trial -- card at checkout, first charge on day 8, cancel before then and pay nothing. The annual plan has no trial. Both renew automatically until cancelled.

## Frequently asked questions

### Who is the decision-maker for a small company's group health plan?

The owner or president, nearly always, with an office manager or controller handling the paperwork. Under about 50 employees there is no committee and the decision is made in one conversation, usually in the two months before renewal.

### Who decides on group health at a mid-size company?

The CFO or controller on the number and the HR manager on the plan, together. From roughly 200 employees a benefits manager runs the process and both finance and HR have to agree before a broker changes.

### Does the Form 5500 name the group health decision-maker?

It names the plan administrator and usually gives an office phone number, and Schedule A names the carrier and the broker paid. It does not carry an email, a cell number or a profile for anyone, and the administrator phone is often the TPA's.

### How many benefits decision-makers does Benefit Signals have?

113,000 named decision-makers at employer groups with filed benefits, with 110,000 email addresses, 35,000 cell phone numbers and 80,000 LinkedIn profiles, counted 2026-10-20 and included in the subscription.

### How are contacts matched to the employer group?

A contact is published only after a high-confidence match to the employer on the filing, keyed to the group's EIN. Weaker matches are held back and never shown or exported.

### Is the contact data included in the price?

Yes. The $60 a month or $600 a year subscription includes Renewal Radar, the small-business pool and the contact layer. There is no per-record or per-export charge.

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## Related reading

- [Who Makes Company Benefits Decisions? Titles, Timing, and How to Reach Them](https://benefit-signals.com/resources/company-benefits-decision-makers)
- [Employee Benefits Decision-Maker Data: What Is in It and How It Is Matched](https://benefit-signals.com/resources/employee-benefits-decision-maker-data)
- [Group Health Insurance Leads: A Sourcing Guide for Benefits Brokers](https://benefit-signals.com/resources/group-health-insurance-leads)