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Understanding the Group Benefits Renewal Process
By: Benefits by Design | Tuesday November 25, 2025
Like many things in life—mortgages, car leases, Spotify memberships—after some time, you have to renew your contract. The same holds true for your group insurance plan. If only the employee benefits renewal process was as easy as clicking “Agree” to another year of your favourite music app!
Though your group benefits renewal is more comprehensive and important, that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated. We outline the steps so you can feel confident and see that once you know the process, it’s not too complex .
The group benefits renewal process
Group benefits renewals are completed annually (after the rate guarantees have expired) and are necessary to ensure a group benefits plan is appropriately funded based on plan usage.
Four months from your renewal date
Four months prior to your group benefits renewal, Benefits by Design (BBD) evaluates the plan based on internal and external factors. These include the claims experience of your organization, trend and inflation, as well as the demographic makeup of your employees, including age, gender, occupations, and salary. From there, we put together a proposal with adjustments to your insurance rates to ensure plan sustainability.
Two months from your renewal date
Renewal packages are sent out to your advisor roughly 60 days before your group benefits renewal date.
Your advisor then reviews the renewal package. There is a lot of information given at renewal, and their goal is to make sure that your benefits plan:
- aligns with your benefits plan philosophy;
- is sustainable for the future; and that
- the renewal rating aligns with the claims experience and current trends.
Sometimes, the process continues with your advisor negotiating your renewal. They’ll take the renewal information and negotiate with us to ensure that you are receiving a sustainable plan and fair rate.
Achieve a Sustainable Benefits Plan Using Your Claims Experience Data
Preparing for your meeting with your advisor
Finally, your advisor will meet with you to discuss their findings. They will have recommendations for what you can do to keep your benefits plan sustainable.
Prepare yourself to discuss your options by:
- Knowing what your current coverage is. Understand the benefits you have available and the options that could be added or removed from the plan if needed.
- Understanding what your employees like about your current plan. Are there certain aspects or perks that employees use frequently or like to brag about? Perhaps the insurer has excellent customer service? A bundled service that is being well used (for instance, a telehealth platform or paramedical services).
- Reflecting on any changes since your last renewal. Have you added new employees to your benefits plan? This could indicate a need to upgrade or change an existing employee benefits plan. Depending on group size, it could open up options for higher life insurance or long-term disability volumes.
You can find more specific details on preparing for your renewal in our blog:
Making a decision at your group benefits renewal date
With the guidance and support of your advisor, plan sponsors can make plan design changes to mitigate rate increases or remove under-utilized aspects of the plan. Keeping a plan sustainable while maintaining coverage may mean accepting increases. On the other hand, employers looking to recruit and retain top talent through competitive employee benefit plans may be interested in adding extra services and perks.
Depending on the direction you decide to go, your advisor will contact us with any requested plan amendments, and/or confirmation that you agree to the new renewal rates.
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