Branded Insurance GroupHealth insurance for CPAs and their clients.
For CPAs, tax professionals and the planners they work with. What to check, when to send a client over, and when to leave them exactly where they are.
Before you send anyone over, here is who is fine where they are.
You can run this from the return, without calling us first. Most clients land in the left column, and that is the right answer for them.
Fine where they are
- Receiving a meaningful premium tax credit. Under 400% FPL, the credit beats anything we can underwrite. Keep it.
- Covered by a solid employer plan, their own or a spouse's, FEHB, or TRICARE.
- Already 65 and on Medicare that is working.
- An active, significant medical condition. Underwriting will decline, and the marketplace is the correct answer. We will say so.
Send these over
- Above 400% FPL and under 65. Paying full price into a risk pool that got sicker this year.
- 1099, self-employed, or between employers with nothing to fall back on.
- Retiring before 65 with no group plan to bridge the gap.
- Deductible over $5,000 and no reserve set aside for it.
- An owner with employees and no plan, or a renewal that came in double digits.
- The plan calls for term coverage that is not in force, or that runs out before the need does.
When a client turns out to belong in the left column after all, that is what you hear back. No pitch follows it.
Six situations, and what to do with each one.
One entry per situation. What changed, what to check, when to send it over, and when to leave it. Written to be used in the meeting, not read afterward.
01Above the subsidy cliff and under 65The 400% FPL line came back in January with no phase out.
What changed
The enhanced premium tax credits expired in December 2025. For 2026, a household one dollar above 400% of the federal poverty level receives no credit at all. Not a reduced credit. None. For a single filer that line is $62,600. For a family of four it is $128,600.
KFF, 2026 marketplace analysis. That is a 438% effective marginal rate on the dollars that cross, and it does not appear anywhere in bracket math.
What to check
MAGI against the line before a Roth conversion, a gain, or a retirement date lands for anyone between 60 and 65. Health insurance is a variable in that model whether or not it is in the spreadsheet. Put the health line in first, then size the rest.
The timing trap
Most clients who get hit are not high income. They are near the line and something lands in December: a bonus, a capital gain, a distribution. The credit is reconciled on Form 8962 at filing, so the whole year's worth comes back on the return you prepare, and you are the one who explains it.
Send it over if
They are above the cliff, under 65, and their health is clean or managed. Underwritten coverage prices on health rather than income, which takes the premium off the MAGI treadmill entirely.
Leave it alone if
They are under the line and receiving a real credit. If the credit is real, keep it. We are not going to outrun a government subsidy with a private product, and we will not pretend otherwise.
02Just went 1099, or has been for yearsNo group plan, no open enrollment email, and the premium is a line on the return you already see.
What changed
Nothing on a schedule. That is the problem. There is no HR department and no renewal notice, so whatever the client set up when they went independent is usually still what they have, priced at this year's rates. You see the number every year on the self-employed health insurance deduction. Nobody else does.
What to check
What they are on now: COBRA and when it ends, a marketplace plan and whether a credit is attached, or nothing at all. The deductible. Whether the household income sits near the 400% line.
Worth knowing
The long-time 1099 client who "has a plan" is the one most often overpaying. They set it up once, it renewed every year, and nobody has priced it since.
Send it over if
They are paying full price on the marketplace with a clean health history, COBRA is about to run out, or they have been going without.
Leave it alone if
They are receiving a real credit, or there is a significant active condition. The marketplace is right for both.
03The owner deciding between a group plan and individual coverageThe question comes up at hiring and at renewal.
What changed
Owners tell us the same three things. Premiums went up again and nobody explained why. The deductible is so high the plan feels like it does nothing. And they have no idea whether covering their employees would even be affordable. Group and individual are different products, priced differently, and the right answer depends on the headcount and who would actually enroll.
What to check
Headcount. How many employees would take coverage if offered. What the owner and the owner's family are on today. The renewal letter, if there is one, and the percentage on it.
Worth knowing
Group plans are not only for large businesses. Sometimes the owner's own household is the whole reason a small group makes sense, and sometimes the reverse.
Send it over if
There are employees and no plan, the owner is on an expensive individual plan, or the renewal came in double digits.
Leave it alone if
The current group plan renewed at a reasonable number and the employees are happy with it.
04Retiring before MedicareThe bridge from the retirement date to 65.
What changed
Out of pocket marketplace premiums rose 58% on average in 2026. For a couple in their early sixties with no group plan, health coverage can be the largest single expense in the plan between the retirement date and Medicare, and it moves with income in a way no other line does.
What to check
The retirement date against 65 for each spouse. What income lands in the bridge years: conversions, gains, pension start dates, Social Security timing. Whether either spouse has group coverage that can carry both of them.
The number that hides
Two spouses with different birthdays can have a bridge that is two years for one and five for the other. Price the longer one.
Send it over if
They are 60 to 64, there is no group plan, and they are above the cliff or close enough that one conversion would put them there.
Leave it alone if
A spouse's group plan covers them, or they are comfortably under the line and the credit is doing its job.
05The deductible nobody can absorbThe premium is not the number that hurts.
What changed
The average 2026 marketplace deductible is $3,786, up 37% in a single year. A standard silver plan runs about $5,304. Coverage a client cannot afford to use shows up as an unplanned distribution, and if they are anywhere near 400% FPL, that distribution has a second consequence on the return.
What to check
The deductible against the cash reserve. Whether a $5,000 surprise breaks the plan or just dents it.
Worth knowing
Supplemental coverage (accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity) pays against the deductible without changing the underlying plan. The client keeps the marketplace plan and the credit. This is the one case where we are not replacing anything.
Send it over if
The deductible is over $5,000 and there is no reserve set aside for it.
Leave it alone if
The reserve covers it, or the client would rather self-insure and knows what that means.
06The plan calls for a term policyThe plan assumes the income continues. If it stops, the plan breaks.
What changed
Usually the plan did. A new investment strategy, a mortgage, a second child, a business that grew. The life coverage was bought for an earlier version of the client's life and nobody has stress tested it against this one.
What to check
The coverage amount against what actually needs replacing: years of income, the mortgage, education, the buy-sell if there is one. The term length against the horizon. Any policy bought before the business grew. Key person coverage where the business would not survive losing one person.
Worth knowing
A term policy running out three years before the mortgage does is the most common gap, and it is invisible until the renewal notice arrives at a much higher rate.
Send it over if
There is a gap between what the plan needs and what is in force, the term ends before the need does, or the policy has not been reviewed in years. For a quick number, the client can price term across carriers at brandedinsurancegroup.com/life.
Leave it alone if
The coverage matches the plan and the term outlasts the need. That is a good policy. Nothing to do.
Including what it cannot do.
You would find the limitations anyway. Better that you hear them here first.
Health
Individual and family plans, medically underwritten. Priced on health rather than income. Underwriting means a client can be declined, which is exactly why it costs less for the ones who qualify.
Guaranteed issue coverage for clients whose conditions are managed and who would not pass full underwriting.
Group plans, marketplace and ACA plans, short term medical, and supplemental coverage that funds a high deductible without touching the underlying plan. Dental and vision.
Life
Term, sized to the need, not to a rule of thumb.
Whole life and indexed universal life where the plan calls for permanent coverage.
Final expense and guaranteed issue. Key person coverage and buy-sell funding for business owners.
Price term life in about a minute →
Medicare supplement is coming. Not listed until it is contracted.
Individuals, families and business owners come through the same door.
Same screen applies to you. If you are fine where you are, that is what you will hear. If you are not, one conversation and one number to call.
Individuals & families
Health and life coverage for households with no employer plan to fall back on, anyone between jobs, and anyone retiring before Medicare. Term life can be priced online in about a minute.
Start here →Self-employed & 1099
Coverage for you and your family when there is no open enrollment email coming. A straight read on what you have now and whether you are overpaying.
Start here →Business owners
You are the one person nobody is covering. Group plan or individual coverage for a team your size, the deductible gap, and key person life. We handle the paperwork end to end.
Start here →Three steps. You are in the loop for all of them.
Send the name
Email the client's name and email to referrals@brandedinsurancegroup.com, or use the form below. That is the whole handoff.
We do the work
We reach out within one business day, price what is actually available, and walk the client through it. Your client stays your client. We do not prepare returns, offer planning, or manage assets.
You hear how it ended
Placed, or nothing to do. Either way you get the outcome, and the client goes back to you.
Independent means we are not tied to one company. Health through UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealthOne, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Ambetter and Oscar. Life through MassMutual, Pacific Life, Symetra, Mutual of Omaha, Transamerica, Corebridge, Foresters, Americo, American Amicable and Gerber Life. Not every product is available in every state.
One person answers the phone.
I started Branded Insurance Group as an independent brokerage so I could sit on the client's side of the table, compare what is actually available, and recommend what fits. That includes recommending nothing. You get a real person who answers the phone, explains things in plain English, handles the whole thing start to finish, and is still here long after the policy is issued.
See if it's a fit.
Tell us who you are and what the situation is. That is enough to start. A referral can be as short as a client's name and email.