How AWM saved $156,914 in 30 minutes with Ignition.

For a firm built on trust and precision, employee benefits were one of the few things AWM didn't scrutinize. With 44 employees, the firm ran payroll, HRIS, and 401(k) through Gusto and bought its health insurance through the brokerage bundled into the same platform. It was simple, and it was one less thing to manage.

Then the 2026 renewal arrived: $718,457, up $133,457 from the prior year — a 22.8% increase on a single line item, with only weeks to act. Nothing about the business had changed to justify it, and AWM had no way to prove that. Fully insured plans sold through a bundled provider don't come with claims data, so there was no loss ratio to cite, nothing to shop, and no real leverage to push back. The number was simply the number.

It's a familiar trap for healthy mid-market companies. Fully insured is the default setting, not the right answer — and without visibility into its own medical spend, AWM couldn't tell whether $718,457 was a fair price or just a convenient one for the carrier.

AWM brought in Ignition to pressure-test the renewal. The entire engagement took two 15-minute calls.

On the first call, Ignition walked AWM through its process and requested the data needed to model the firm's true risk profile — the picture the bundled plan had never surfaced. That same week, Ignition ran the analysis: proprietary benchmarking, re-underwriting, and alternative plan design. On the second call, Ignition presented the results, and Robby signed off. Total time from AWM: 30 minutes.

The redesign moved AWM from a fully insured plan to a level-funded structure with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona — the model that lets a healthy group keep the surplus on unused claims instead of handing it to the carrier. Coverage didn't shrink to get there; it improved. Ignition added the Mayo Clinic Care Network while keeping AWM's existing providers in place. And the admin stack stayed exactly where it was: Gusto kept running payroll, HRIS, and 401(k), untouched.

Annual medical spend dropped from $718,457 (renewal quote) to $561,543 with Ignition.

The negotiated plan came in $156,914 below the renewal quote — a 21.8% reduction off the proposed increase. It also landed $23,457 under what AWM paid the prior year, reversing the hike entirely rather than just softening it. The savings came from structure, not from cutting benefits: a level-funded model priced to AWM's actual risk, on a stronger network than the firm started with.

Zero disruption to benefits for employees.

Employees kept their doctors and gained access to the Mayo Clinic Care Network — better coverage, not a downgrade traded for a lower price. There was no platform migration and no new administrative burden; Gusto stayed in place for payroll, HRIS, and 401(k). For a firm whose entire value proposition is managing complexity on behalf of its clients, the benefits fix added none of its own.

AWM is now in control for future renewals.

The fix wasn't just a one-year discount — it changed AWM's position for every renewal that follows. On a level-funded plan, the firm now sees its own claims data and loss ratio, the visibility a bundled fully insured plan never provided. That means future renewals can be shopped and negotiated on facts instead of accepted at face value, and as a healthy group, AWM keeps the surplus on unused claims rather than handing it to the carrier.