CBIZ Benefits & Insurance has launched as an independent company, backed by New Mountain Capital, separating from CBIZ, Inc. after more than four decades as part of the broader professional services firm. The move, effective November 2, 2026, creates a standalone benefits and insurance brokerage with more than 1,600 professionals and annual revenue exceeding $400 million with growth of nearly 40 percent since 2020.
The new entity enters the market as a Top 30 broker in the US, serving employers across nearly 40 markets with employee benefits consulting, property and casualty insurance, retirement and investment solutions, and human capital advisory services.
"This is a defining moment for our organization," said Michael Kouzelos, chief executive officer of CBIZ Benefits & Insurance in Kansas City, Missouri. "Our clients face increasingly complex decisions around benefits, risk, retirement, talent, and workforce strategy. As a standalone firm, we are uniquely positioned to expand our capabilities and enhance the support we provide."
The plan to spin off the benefits and insurance business was first reported by Insurance Business America in July, so while the launch is no surprise, it resurfaces questions about its plans for the future.
For Cole Harris, who leads the firm's National Health Innovations Practice and has been with CBIZ for nearly 22 years, the separation resolves a longstanding structural tension. Regulatory constraints on the accounting and CPA side of the business had historically prevented the benefits and insurance division from serving publicly held companies and certain other employer clients.
"It unshackles those opportunities," Harris said in an interview with Insurance Business Benefits US. "We get to keep our relationships that we've built with the accounting side of the fence, but now we have the opportunities to really provide our expertise across the entirety of the marketplace."
The firm will operate under the CBIZ Benefits & Insurance name on an interim basis while a full rebrand is developed. Harris noted that aggressive acquisition activity on the accounting side over the past five-plus years had shifted external perception of CBIZ toward being primarily an accounting firm - a perception the new independent entity is positioned to correct.
New Mountain Capital, a New York-based growth-oriented investment firm with more than $60 billion in assets under management, is backing the transition.
"Our investment is focused on building upon the company's incredibly strong foundation and enabling the business to make increased investment in talent, technology, and capabilities," said Bob Mulcare and Sean Donovan, managing directors at New Mountain Capital in New York.
Harris said the independence comes at a pivotal moment for the group benefits market, with employer healthcare costs continuing to climb.
Benefits now represent a top-three spend for most companies, and cost-shifting back to employees - which had been largely paused between the COVID years and approximately 2024 - has resumed over the past two years as employers absorb sustained financial pressure.
At the center of CBIZ Benefits & Insurance's value proposition is its Health Innovations Practice, which Harris describes as differentiated not by the data tools it uses - which are broadly available across the industry - but by how deeply the firm acts on that data.
"Really, if you dig into a lot of companies and ask how are you using data, I would say that it's very superficial," Harris said. "Without understanding the action behind the data, it's just a tool."
The practice breaks down internal silos between its actuarial, pharmacy, clinical, innovations, and account management teams to collaboratively diagnose the root causes of cost increases - going beyond surface metrics such as emergency room utilization rates to examine specific geographies, plan design gaps, and vendor performance.
That vendor accountability piece is increasingly important, Harris argued, as employers stack so-called point solutions onto their health plans without independently validating whether those add-ons are delivering measurable returns for their specific workforce.
"We've identified tremendous discrepancies between the two," he said, referring to the gap between vendor-reported outcomes and actual client-level claims data. "Our clients appreciate that we're looking at: is this a good vendor? Do we need to punt and maybe not use that vendor anymore?"
Looking across the next two to three years, Harris identified several forces that will define the group benefits landscape and separate the firms that lean into them from those that don’t.
Cost pressure tops the list. Between the COVID years and approximately 2024, Harris said the vast majority of employer clients absorbed rising healthcare expenses without passing them on to employees - an unusual stretch of restraint he described as unlike anything he had seen in his previous 15 years in the industry.
That period has ended and with benefits now representing a top-three spend for most companies, cost-shifting to employees has resumed, and Harris does not expect relief soon.
“Last year was the worst and this year is the worst,” he said. “So it just continually is the worst.”
Carrier consolidation is compounding the pressure. The number of traditional fully insured carriers has narrowed significantly, Harris said, and employees - once resistant to any suggestion of switching carriers - are now more open to change as premium costs begin affecting their own paychecks. That shift in employee appetite creates new flexibility for brokers and plan sponsors alike.
On the regulatory front, broker fee transparency and fiduciary responsibility are the issues Harris expects to drive the most significant market change. CBIZ Benefits & Insurance already provides clients with annual financial disclosures detailing all revenue sources. Harris believes the broader industry will be compelled to follow and that firms with a client-first mindset will be the ones to lead it.
“We have the right leadership in place with the right mindsets of the client first,” he said. “We’ll be on the forefront of driving that message home - the whole marketplace needs to change.”
Artificial intelligence rounds out the picture. Harris said AI is already being deployed in underwriting tactics and rate evaluations across the industry, and he views that development as a net positive - one that CBIZ Benefits & Insurance is actively incorporating into its own operations.
Polly Thomas, chief operating officer of CBIZ Benefits & Insurance, emphasized that client-facing teams, carrier relationships, and day-to-day operations will remain unchanged through the transition - a key message for employer clients entering the fourth-quarter open enrollment period, the busiest season in the group benefits calendar.
"In this next chapter, our commitment to our clients will not change," Thomas said. "We will continue to advise employers across benefits, payroll, retirement and risk with innovative, tailored solutions designed to best serve and grow their business."
Growth under New Mountain Capital will pursue both organic and acquisitive paths, Harris said, with a particular emphasis on deploying benefits- and insurance-specific technology rather than repurposing platforms built for accounting operations.
Any acquisitions, he added, will be evaluated on cultural fit and their potential to support future organic growth, not simply to add top-line revenue.
"Our goal is not to just grow top line; it's to build out," Harris said. "If acquisition helps us with future organic growth, then that's going to be the right acquisition."
