What brokers should look for in changing benefits technology

For benefits brokers, technology has become an increasingly important part of the client conversation. Not long ago, the primary question was relatively simple: Can a carrier connect to an employer’s benefits administration platform?

Today, that’s just the starting point.

Employers and employees expect benefits technology to work much like the other digital experiences they encounter every day. Enrollment should be intuitive, information should move reliably between systems, changes should happen quickly, and adding a new benefit shouldn’t create another administrative burden for an already stretched human resources team.

That means brokers must look beyond whether a carrier offers a connection and start asking a different question: How well does that connection actually work?

Look beyond the enrollment experience

Enrollment gets so much of the attention when it comes to benefits, but the technology experience doesn’t end once an employee selects coverage. Think about everything that happens throughout a benefit's life: New hires enroll, employees make qualifying life-event changes, payroll deductions change, billing information must stay accurate, and employees may need to complete evidence of insurability.

Each of those moments creates another opportunity for friction. And when something goes wrong, employers often feel the impact first. A single inaccurate enrollment can lead to time spent reconciling billing, adjusting payroll and responding to a frustrated employee.

For brokers, that makes the operational experience an important part of evaluating a benefits partner. A strong product matters. But so does what happens after the employer says “yes.”

Ask how much work the technology creates

Not all technology connections are created equal. A connection that requires significant customization, manual intervention or troubleshooting may technically work, but it can still create headaches for employers.

Brokers should ask carriers how they connect with the benefits administration platforms their clients already use. Are those connections repeatable? How much custom work is required? How long does implementation typically take? How are changes handled throughout the year?

More standardized, native connections can reduce custom work and create more predictable implementations. Native connections allow carriers to build on the employer’s platform itself, rather than connecting through some other means. At Trustmark, for example, we’ve seen growing employer demand for native connectivity with the platforms they already use. In 2026 alone, more than 100 cases have been built on platforms via a native connection.

That demand reflects a larger shift: Employers increasingly expect their benefits partners to fit within their existing technology ecosystem rather than requiring them to work around it.

Don’t let technology limit the benefit

Brokers should ask another question: What are we giving up to make the technology work? Historically, sophisticated benefits with high-value features sometimes needed to be simplified to fit within enrollment systems. But a streamlined digital experience shouldn’t come at the expense of valuable product features or protection.

The better approach is for technology to accommodate the product. That requires stronger connectivity and better data synchronization between carriers and benefits administration platforms. It also means making processes such as evidence of insurability more seamless, with more decisions and updates happening in real time instead of through additional paperwork and waiting.

The goal should be to make the complexity invisible to the employee without stripping away the features that make the benefit valuable.

Make technology part of carrier evaluation

Brokers have always evaluated carriers based on factors such as products, service, pricing and relationships. Increasingly, technology belongs on that list, too. That doesn’t mean brokers need to become benefits technology experts, but they should understand enough to identify where friction could emerge for their clients.

Can the carrier integrate effectively with the employer’s existing platform? What will implementation look like? How much ongoing administrative work will the connection create? How quickly can changes move between systems? And most importantly, what will the experience feel like for employees and the HR team?

The best technology is often the technology employees barely notice. They understand their options, make their decisions and enroll without having to think about what is happening behind the scenes.

For brokers, helping make that possible is becoming another important part of delivering value to clients. The technology question is no longer simply, “Can you connect?” Increasingly, it’s, “How well can you make the connection work?”

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Keith Feist is the executive director of sales technology and partner relations at Trustmark. Contact him at keith.feist@innfeedback.com.