Great Lakes Group Advisors | Group Insurance for your Business!

About Great Lakes

Great Lakes Insurance Advisors is an insurance agency based in Detroit, Michigan. Our Life & Disability Practice exclusively focuses on Group Life and Disability benefit plans, Absence Management, FMLA and ADAAA programs for large employers.

We founded our Practice on the fundamental belief that life and disability are undervalued benefits. Certainly by employees, who need and deserve proper income protection. But also by large employers, who are looking for more specialized expertise than what traditional brokers and consultants provide.

Our Practice is led by industry experts with more than a decade of experience at leading national life and disability carriers. Great Lakes also partners with best-in-class legal, technology, education and communications firms to provide our clients with fully customized, more relevant and effective solutions.

We invite you to contact us and learn how Great Lakes can help you engage and retain your best employees. And secure the success of your company.

We invite you to
contact us to learn how our unique end-to-end approach can help create more value and satisfaction
for both your employees and your organization.

Our Process

At Great Lakes Insurance Advisors, we utilize leading edge, best practices in insurance - and partnerships with subject-matter experts - to deliver more customized, relevant and effective life, disability and absence management programs.

Our end-to-end service and relationship management process includes:

1. Discovery

We begin by understanding your unique circumstances, needs and goals through our detailed intake methodology.

2. Analysis

We evaluate every aspect of your life, disability and absence programs utilizing both qualitative and quantitative metrics.

3. Recommendations

– As life and disability experts and advisors, we believe you deserve to know the truth as we see it. We owe you our best thinking.

4. Implementation

We develop detailed strategies, plans and timetables to execute our agreed-to plan with exceptional precision and accountability.

5. Communication

We ensure all stakeholders are kept informed throughout the process and manage their individual expectations.

6. Education

We help employees maximize the value of income protection through relevance, credibility and behavioral change.

7. Feedback

With ongoing inquiry and customized research, we help you sustain a cycle of continuous improvement and satisfaction.

We invite you to
contact us and learn how our relationship management process can help you create a new level of value,
and help secure success for your organization.

Our Services

Great Lakes Insurance Advisors offers a comprehensive services portfolio. Everything from proactive plan management, to evolving compliance issues like FMLA and ADAAA.

Given our Life & Disability Practice’s focus on serving large employers, we believe offering a complete range of services should not be exceptional, but an expectation. At our core, we aim to address every one of your needs through Great Lakes personnel, or in partnership with our legal, technology, marketing and communications subject–matter experts.

We want to distinguish our firm by the quality of our service. Not just what we believe defines quality, but what our clients confirm through measurable, actionable feedback research. Our standards are only top percentile performance, because we know that satisfaction is the key to successful, long-term business relationships.

Now that you understand how we provide and measure our life & disability services, we invite you to learn more about them. Which we’ve segmented into three categories:

Plan Management

The approach Great Lakes Insurance Advisors takes towards plan management is both an art and a science.

We use science to ensure our recommendations are based on the most accurate and reliable data available. And art to ensure our recommendations are tailored to the interests of your organization’s specific goals and values.

A brief description of the plan management services we offer include:

Plan Design Review

Plans for each class of employee are examined to ensure you attract and retain the best, most productive talent.

Funding Methods

We identify the issues and risk factors of being self-insured, fully-insured, or other mixed funding arrangement.

Contract Review

There is no “one size fits all” insurance contract. We make sure yours is written to support your unique needs and aspirations.

Claims Process Review

We help you identify and define an efficient claims process which can have a dramatic effect on the overall bottom line.

Benchmarking

Using tools from groups like the IBI and DMEC, we can demonstrate how competitive your plans are to peer organizations.

Executive Coverage

We examine the coverage of your most valuable executives, so they receive the right protection for their individual situation.

Supplementary Coverage

For those employees with limited or no coverage, we can identify programs to provide them the necessary additional protection.

Non-Standard Coverage

We can access non-traditional markets, like Lloyd’s of London, to cover hard-to-place risks, as well as other exceptional terms.

Compliance Management

At Great Lakes Insurance Advisors, we appreciate just how difficult issues relating to FMLA, ADAAA, and legal compliance have become. That’s why we partner with subject matter experts who help our clients succeed in this complicated, ever evolving environment.

Whether it’s legal, tax, or other requirements, we hand-pick the right team of people, policies and communications for each client. Our goal is to provide clarity, consistency and above all, proactivity to your organization’s compliance management processes.

A brief description of the compliance management services we offer include:

FMLA

With the growing complexity of FMLA, we help create a program that is accurate and consistent across your entire organization.

ADAAA

We have a unique partnership with two of the top law firms in this field to provide our clients with unparalleled protection and counsel.

Paid Leave

We will make sure our clients are operationally and financial prepared in advance of this pending legislation.

Statutory Disability (State Mandated)

For your employees that live and/or work in these states, we make certain you have the proper coverage.

Tax

Given the number of tax issues that affect both employers and employees, we provide the necessary guidance to manage your IRS obligations.

Legislative Requirements

Because federal regulations affect Life and Disability plans in numerous ways, we partner with top law firms to ensure compliance.

Vendor Management

A key advantage Great Lakes Insurance Advisors offers with vendor management is our years of experience working for leading national Life and Disability carriers.

We have an insider’s knowledge on how to work with the different disciplines within an insurance company. We leverage this knowledge to maximize value and produce better outcomes for our clients and their employees. Quite simply, we can and do hold vendors to a higher standard.

A brief description of the vendor management services we offer include:

Vendor Review

With our proprietary system, we evaluate the performance of your current vendors, and determine how well they are satisfying your organization’s needs.

RFP Platform

Better programs are built with better RFP’s. We focus on the details; everything from experience information, to the claims process, to performance guarantees.

Financial Review

We have experience working directly with underwriters and the technical expertise to make sure you pay the right price for the right reasons.

Renewal Negotiation

Given our technical knowledge, we understand how risk is viewed over the long term. As a result, we can negotiate better terms and pricing.

Technology Solutions

Technology is both a catalyst for success and anxiety. That’s why we partner with a top employee benefits technology firm to provide you the most current and advanced solutions.