Alliant Insurance Services has added two senior hires to its employee benefits group within two days. The back-to-back appointments extend a build-out shaped by employer demand for advisers who can do more than manage renewal.
Jeff Black (pictured, left) joined as senior vice president in Chicago, while Barrett Esarey (pictured, right) joined as vice president in Los Angeles.
Black spent nearly 30 years at Mercer, most recently as global leader of its M&A advisory services business. That career arc mirrors a recognizable shift in what employers navigating transactions expect from their benefits adviser - someone who understands what happens to a workforce during a deal, well beyond renewal season.
A 2025 Transaction Advisors Institute report, produced in association with Mercer, found that 91% of corporate acquirers consider human capital requirements pre-deal, but only 46% use those requirements when formulating the deal thesis. The gap between those two figures is where Black's experience sits.
Esarey, meanwhile, brings a different background. Before joining Alliant, he was a business consultant at Sequoia Consulting Group, focused on client acquisition within the technology sector. He previously spent 11 years at ADP TotalSource, rising from district manager to vice president of sales. Kevin Overbey, president of Alliant Employee Benefits, said Esarey's financial background enables him to connect benefits decisions with broader business priorities.
Alliant's hiring pace in employee benefits has been sustained across 2026. The firm reported $5.72 billion in brokerage revenue in 2025, up 14.4% year over year, and has added consultants across multiple US markets during the year. Mike Malouf, executive vice president and managing director of Alliant Employee Benefits, said Black's background and industry relationships broaden the firm's Midwest capabilities.
The hires arrive as employer plan costs hit their steepest climb in years.
Private sector health benefit costs rose 6% in the 12 months to June, more than double wage growth over the same period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index. That pressure has reshaped what employers expect from their advisers, a shift that benefits brokers are grappling with across the market.
Lockton's 2026 National Benefits Survey, meanwhile, found that 54% of employers now rank cost reduction as their top benefits priority, up from 38% in 2025, with talent attraction falling sharply as a competing objective.
Those conditions favor advisers who can engage at the intersection of benefits strategy, workforce economics, and transactional complexity. They also help explain why established brokerages have been building out this space. The demand is there, and the talent capable of meeting it has historically sat inside consulting firms.
The US employee benefits brokerage market was valued at $34.74 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $70.11 billion by 2032, according to Allied Market Research, a trajectory that is accelerating consolidation throughout the sector.
