Paid family and medical leave is expanding fast, and the hardest part for employers isn't learning one state's rule. It's realizing how quickly the planning window closes once a workforce crosses state lines.

Kaleb Bledsoe, CRC Benefits' National Ancillary Practice Leader, joins us to unpack where PFML stands today and why it now belongs at the center of benefits planning, not the edges.

We cover how to map exposure by where employees live and work, not where a company is headquartered, why remote teams raise the stakes, and what Maryland's early Declaration of Intent window means for prefunding decisions well before 2028.

We also break down the benefits stack brokers get wrong most often: PFML pays first, not instead of short-term disability, and state caps can leave real income gaps for higher earners.

Check out more info from CRC Benefits Tools + Intel here!

A client brings up a PEO before you do and suddenly you are playing defense, walking into a story someone else already wrote. We dig into why that’s happening more often right now and how benefits brokers can keep their place as the trusted advisor when a professional employer organization enters the chat early. The big shift we’re seeing is not hype, it’s pressure: HR complexity, multi-state compliance, remote employees, and the constant strain of rising medical costs.

If you want to protect client relationships, expand your toolkit beyond the open market, and lead smarter HR and benefits conversations, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a broker who keeps getting surprised by PEOs, and leave a review with your biggest question about when PEOs truly make sense.

Check out more info from CRC Benefits Tools + Intel here!

The fastest way to get burned in benefits compliance is believing a notice “counts” just because it was sent. We sit down with Misty Baker, our Director of Compliance and Government Affairs, to talk about why required notices break down in the real world and what brokers and employers can do to make the message actually stick.

We get practical about the pressure points: COBRA timing (including the day-one initial notice), the decision to administer COBRA in-house versus using a third-party vendor, and the messy moments that happen when an employee hits a deadline they never realized applied to them. We also dig into digital delivery fatigue, why employees tune out even important emails, and how that creates extra work, late surprises, and avoidable liability.

Then we zoom out to the filings and deadlines that often get missed because “someone else” is assumed to own them. PCORI is the perfect example: what it is, who needs to file IRS Form 720 in self-funded and level-funded plans, and why July 31 should already be on your compliance calendar. Misty also explains a blunt reality of employee benefits compliance: employers are typically on the hook even when a broker or vendor is the one who dropped the ball.

If you want a clearer way to run client conversations, reduce penalties, and tighten your group health plan compliance process, this one will give you a framework. Subscribe to the CRC Benefits Podcast, share this with a colleague who owns compliance tasks, and leave a review with the notice or filing that causes the most confusion on your accounts.

Read Misty's article here: https://www.crcbenefits.com/tools-intel/why-required-notices-break-down/
Download the compliance doc and more here: https://www.crcbenefits.com/compliance/compliance-resources/

Check out more info from CRC Benefits Tools + Intel here!