Group benefits carriers could be leaving money on the table or eroding persistency by relying on whole-case rate actions at renewal, according to pricing and decisioning specialist Earnix.

In a recent analysis, Earnix argues that insurers should instead assess each benefit within a case based on its individual economics, rather than applying a single blended increase across the relationship. The company said this can help carriers balance profitability, persistency, competitiveness and broker relationships when setting renewal rates.

For example, dental may be running well above its target loss ratio while life on the same case remains profitable. Pricing teams must then determine how much of an increase to apply to each benefit, while considering how the overall decision will affect the broker relationship.

That challenge becomes more complex as client relationships span life, dental, vision, disability and supplemental health, with each benefit carrying different economics, competitive pressures and retention dynamics.

Actuaries, underwriters, pricing teams and sales staff each bring expertise to the process, but these functions can operate across separate systems, spreadsheets and manual workflows. This can lead to broad rate actions and whole-case recommendations that overlook opportunities at individual benefit level.

Earnix said renewals are typically built by combining manual rating with experience rating, with credibility weighted according to block size. Claims trends and the resulting blend can vary significantly between benefits within the same case, meaning a single blended figure can mask meaningful differences in risk.

Another challenge is determining how much rate a carrier can take before additional pricing begins to outweigh the economic benefit through increased lapses.

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