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The benefits industry is moving fast, and brokers are feeling the pressure. New software platforms, tax strategies, and AI tools land in inboxes every single week. But in a space where you handle protected health information, make promises to employers and their employees, and navigate a maze of compliance obligations, moving fast without the right filters can cost you a client, a penalty, or worse.
Adam Smith, CMO at Plansight, sat down with Chris Vanderwolk, Director of Compliance and Innovation at OneDigital and Kistler Tiffany, to unpack a practical framework for vetting new vendors and strategies. Chris brings a rare combination of legal depth and innovation fluency to the conversation, and the result is one of the most actionable episodes Benefits Broker Boost has produced.
Chris's title says it all. Compliance and innovation are not natural partners.
As Chris explains it, "Innovation is maybe what we should do or what's next, and compliance is how do we do it. The rules are often created after looking at something that went wrong."
But brokers need both. Skip innovation, and you show up with outdated solutions. Skip compliance, and you expose your clients to real risk, and give a competitor the opening to walk in and point out every hole in your strategy.
"If you're not innovative, you're going to lose your clients. But if you're not compliant, you're gonna end up with scary letters, potentially penalties, and you're also going to lose your client."
The goal is not to choose between them. It is to move intentionally through both.
This is where the conversation gets practical and a little uncomfortable.
A few years ago, a polished website or a well-produced demo meant something. It meant a company had resources, went through internal review, and had skin in the game. That is no longer true.
"You can create a beautiful demo in 20 minutes and look like something that just a few years ago would have taken a development team months to put together."
Adam put it plainly too, noting that he has helped people build websites in minutes using tools like Claude or Codex. Someone can look like a legitimate, funded company overnight.
So what do you do? Chris's answer is to stop evaluating the pitch and start evaluating the source.
"The first thing I ask for when people are showing me something really cool is the source documents. If you've got a SOC 2 badge on your website, I want to see the report. Anybody can grab a JPEG off the internet and put it onto a website in thirty seconds and look like they're SOC 2 certified."
This applies as much to knowing how to choose the right AI as it does to any other vendor category. The question is never how good the demo looks. It is whether the infrastructure behind it can actually protect your clients.
For brokers, one of the fastest ways to separate serious vendors from side projects is the Business Associate Agreement.
"When a software vendor comes to you and wants to work with you and your employer clients and touch their PHI, they should have a BAA. If they have no comprehension of what a BAA is, or they're not willing to sign one, maybe they're not serious about working in benefits."
There are two red flags on either end of the spectrum. A sales rep who says they need to check with legal about whether they will sign a BAA is probably not your vendor. A sales rep who says they will sign whatever you put in front of them is also probably not your vendor. A legitimate company operating in the benefits space will already have one ready.
Chris also makes an important point that most brokers overlook. PHI is not just claims data. It includes enrollment information, billing software inputs, and personalized communication materials. Every system that touches that data needs a BAA in place.
Adam reinforced this with a real example: his brother-in-law, a dentist, was pitched an AI platform that turned out to be built on what appeared to be Claude's consumer interface, run as a side project by someone working full time at another company.
"I probably wouldn't put PHI through that platform because it's a side project for him."
That story is more common than people realize. Brokers currently evaluating tools in this category would do well to start by pressure-testing the AI behind the pitch before the demo ends.
The same scrutiny applies when a new tax strategy or benefits design concept lands in your inbox. Chris lays out two filters that should trigger immediate caution.
First: if it feels too good to be true, it probably is. Chris points to the Employee Retention Credit wave, VA disability schemes, and double-dip tax pitches as examples of legitimate programs that got weaponized by bad actors.
"If the only people who are telling you this thing is a great idea are the people who stand to make money from you if you agree to it, that should be a big red flag."
Second: build a trusted council of advisors who have no financial stake in your decision. This does not have to mean a lawyer on retainer. It means a handful of smart people in the industry you can call when something does not feel right. NABIP chapters are one way to build that network. LinkedIn is another.
"You also have to give trust to get trust."
Brokers who bet on themselves and invest in building that credibility early will find that peer network pays dividends well beyond any single vetting decision.
The anxiety brokers feel about AI is real. Nobody wants to be the last one to adopt something that changes the game. But Chris makes a point worth sitting with.
"Never have we seen anything in this industry where the second mover went out of business. Don't panic is step one, because overnight changes are not normally extinction events in this industry if you're swimming in the stream of where everybody else is."
His framework: do not be first, but be a fast follower. Vet the SOC 2. Look at the BAA. Check how long the company has been in business. Find references and keep tabs on them over time, not just when they are most excited about a new tool.
Then, if it looks legitimate, run a pilot with one client who is open to innovation.
"You've got your case study, and you've got your story to go tell other clients and prospects as you go along."
Adam adds a filter worth keeping front of mind when evaluating any AI solution, specifically: "AI is going to do one of two things. It's going to free up time for people to do things they're not getting to right now, or it's going to free up time and decrease your labor costs. Come at it from what am I actually trying to solve."
If neither of those applies to your situation, you are probably not missing the boat. You are just feeling the pressure of a noisy market.
For brokers who have identified the right problem and are ready to act, the next step is figuring out how to put AI to work without adding complexity to an already full plate.
Adam asked Chris for a single habit brokers could adopt from this conversation. His answer was simple.
"Check the primary sources. There is a hard-written statute somewhere, or a tax code, or a SOC 2 audit, or some sort of real primary source. Check that. Not the glitzy website. Not the hard sell. Because the primary source is where you can find your peace of mind."
That one habit, applied consistently, will protect your clients, protect your business, and keep you from chasing solutions to problems you do not actually have.
The benefits industry is not going to slow down. New tools, new strategies, and new vendors will keep arriving. The brokers who build a repeatable vetting process now are the ones who will move fastest later, because they will not be cleaning up messes or recovering from bad bets.
Brokers who are ready to stop being data entry clerks and start operating as true consultants will find that the shift starts with the habits Chris described in this episode.
If you haven’t seen Plansight in action and you want to, book a discovery call with us.
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