“We are solving a unique problem for our clients. We are not selling product.”
This is one of my all-time favorite quotes I’ve heard about what we’re all about here at Lockton. This particular bit of wisdom came from Lockton Benefits Consultant Lissa Thompson in our Pacific office talking about Lockton’s service in securing a Private Exchange called EP Cares for their client Entertainment Partners (EP). Entertainment Partners is an industry-leading payroll, residuals and production service provider for employees of film studios and major independent companies based in Southern California. 
They provide payroll and other services to the non-union employees who work behind the scenes on Hollywood’s TV shows, movies and more. I also heard they were the 2nd largest payroll in California with 800,000+ W2s, but my data could be off. (They have roughly a quarter of a million folks who may work in small increments on 4-7 productions during a year.)
They had a unique problem – how to bring organized, group purchasing and underwriting of insurance to small pockets of employments spread across multiple technical employers/projects. (Don’t worry all you CEBS-nerds; Entertainment Partners is a statutory employer of record and efforts are pooled so this isn’t a MEWA or something else sketchy!) A private exchange could offer that unified user experience plus a configurable choice of benefits that fit the employer’s various needs.
I have been a part of Lockton’s private exchange workgroup, where our goal is to figure out how to help employers (like EP) solve their problems without pushing a specific product or a particular solution. We want to be able to recommend the best private exchange platform to our clients who have chosen to go that route. Not all clients want and need the same things and not all vendors are created equal.
With all of the options at Lockton’s disposal, EP was able to make a choice on the Private Exchange technology that would be the best fit for them, not what was available to them. PlanSource, a cloud-based, on-demand benefits administration software provider, was chosen as that best fit based on their flexibility, ability to implement quickly, ability to take care of EP’s large, diverse client base and their healthcare reform compliance. Working with vendors like PlanSource on 
other employer client engagements has helped us create partnerships. One in which we felt comfortable to recommend PlanSource as a perfect fit for EP. Now all parties involved are satisfied about this new union: EP has a way to serve their clients, PlanSource has a new customer and Lockton made our client happy!
I think Lissa’s statement at the start of this article about her project team’s efforts on EP Cares, could also be used to describe what our HR Tech team does at Lockton. Because we don’t offer a technology solution of our own like so many other brokers, we are uncompromised and able to find the best solution for our clients. Most of our broker competitors have a “system” that they have either bought or built. And we all know if you spend millions to build, buy or borrow a system, you are going to have to “feed that system” whether or not that is in the best interest of the client. I always love that Lockton allows us to be truly independent, with over 30 private exchange options to consider for each employer problem we encounter.
Click here to read more about the EP and PlanSource union.