Alliant Insurance Services has added Dan Colarchik to its Employee Benefits Group as senior vice president, bringing experience in human capital management and data-driven benefits consulting to a firm that is expanding its benefits practice as employer health costs rise at their fastest pace in more than a decade.
Colarchik will design and deploy benefits solutions focused on employee well-being, operational efficiency and cost management. Kevin Overbey, president of Alliant Employee Benefits, said his background aligned well with the pressures employers are currently navigating.
"Dan's diverse background in employee benefits and human capital management gives him a valuable perspective on the challenges employers face today. His ability to align benefits strategy with broader organizational objectives makes him a trusted resource for clients seeking innovative and impactful solutions."
Before joining Alliant, Colarchik served as a business consultant with a national employee benefits consulting firm and held leadership roles at one of the world's largest HR services organizations, where he worked with HR leaders and C-suite executives on human capital strategy. He holds a bachelor's degree in human resource management from Portland State University.
Alliant reported $5.1 billion in revenue and more than $47 billion in premium, making it one of the largest and fastest-growing insurance brokerage and consulting firms in the country, with more than 14,000 employees across North America. The firm distributes through specialized national platforms and has been building out its employee benefits capability through a combination of organic growth and targeted hiring.
Colarchik's appointment follows recent additions to the group, including Scott Machut, who joined as SVP to lead value-based healthcare and risk management solutions, and Dan Powers, who was brought in to head reinsurance within the same practice.
The hire comes at a moment of acute strain in employer-sponsored health benefits. According to Mercer's 2025 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, the total health benefit cost per employee is expected to rise 6.5% on average in 2026, the highest increase since 2010, even after accounting for planned cost-reduction measures. Without intervention, employers projected an average increase of nearly 9%.
Private sector health insurance costs rose 5.7% in the 12 months to March 2026, having reached a 20-year high of 6.4% in Q4 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Cost Index. Aon projected the average employer health insurance cost to surpass $17,000 per employee in 2026, a 9.5% jump from 2025.
Several forces are driving the trend at once. Higher hospital prices, persistent inflation in provider labor costs, deferred care returning from the pandemic years, and escalating spending on high-cost specialty drugs, including GLP-1 medications for weight loss, are all contributing to an acceleration that experts say has no obvious near-term fix. In response, 59% of employers surveyed by Mercer said they plan to make cost-cutting changes to their plans in 2026, up from 48% the prior year, with many moving beyond incremental plan adjustments toward more structural benefit redesign.
For benefits brokers and consultants, that environment creates both opportunity and urgency. Employers are looking for advisors who can deliver measurable cost containment alongside strategies to maintain engagement and retention, two objectives that are frequently in tension when costs are rising. Consultants with backgrounds spanning both insurance and broader human capital strategy are in particular demand, because rising benefits costs are now directly suppressing wage growth across many organizations. New York Federal Reserve research published in March 2026 found that businesses facing higher health insurance costs are partially offsetting them through lower wage increases, with firms at renewal reporting health insurance cost hikes of more than 13%.
Colarchik's combination of benefits consulting and HR services experience fits the profile of advisor employers are actively seeking as they confront benefits decisions that carry direct implications for workforce strategy, not just plan design. His appointment reflects the direction Alliant is pursuing with its Employee Benefits Group: building a team capable of engaging at the C-suite level on the full intersection of benefits, human capital and business performance.
