We provide investment banking, research, sales and trading, asset and wealth management, public finance, insurance, private capital, and family office services.
We are a family-owned financial services firm that values client relationships, long-term stability, and supporting the communities where we live and work.
The idea of family defines our culture, because each of us knows that our reputation is on the line as if our own name was on the door.
Our reputation as a leading independent financial services firm is built on the stability of our longstanding and highly experienced senior executives.
We are committed to corporate philanthropy; economic and financial literacy advocacy; and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Stephens is proud to sponsor the PGA TOUR, LPGA Tour, and PGA TOUR Champions careers, as well as applaud the philanthropic endeavors, of our Brand Ambassadors.
Stephens is the official investment banking partner of Williams Racing, one of the most winning teams in F1 history. We share that tradition of success.
We host many highly informative meetings each year with clients, industry decision makers, and thought leaders across the U.S. and in Europe.
At Stephens Insurance, data drives our strategy as we support our clients’ management of their health plans. By benchmarking their employee benefit programs against geographical and industry peers, our clients gain valuable insights on how they compare with their competitors in terms of:
United Benefit Advisors (UBA), the nation’s leading independent employee benefits advisory organization, has released its 2024 Employee Benefits Trends Report. This report offers an insightful analysis of national trends in employer-sponsored employee benefits plans segmented by region, state, industry, and business size. This report empowers clients to benchmark their employee benefits programs against competitors, enabling them to develop strategic, data-driven employee benefits programs to attract and retain top talent.
The 2024 Employee Benefits Trends Report captures 2023 data, representing $13.2 billion in healthcare dollars spent, approximately 1 million employees, and 7,800 employers nationwide.
Key trends identified in this report are:
Nationwide, health plan costs rose by 6.4% in 2023—up from the previous year’s 5.7% increase. Small employers with 50 or fewer employees were the hardest hit by medical inflation. Across all plans, the average annual cost per employee in 2023 was $12,776.
Compared to last year, nearly 73% more employers added prescription drug tiers, making it the fastest-growing cost mitigation strategy. Other cost management strategies utilized are insurance carrier changes, plan design changes, and increasing employee contributions.
Regional trends primarily drive plan prevalence. High deductible health plan (HDHP) cost rose more than 9% on average in certain parts of the U.S., including the North Central, Southeast, and Northeast and yet enrollment in HDHPs increased significantly.
In 2022, small groups were more reluctant to shift costs to employees and used this cost lever less often than their larger counterparts. However, in 2023, in the face of 7.1% cost increases for small group plans, this cost mitigation strategy increased by 43% among small businesses. Small businesses also raised out-of-pocket maximums and copays for specialty medication.
Midsize companies are price shoppers and switch carriers more often than their larger counterparts to keep inflation below the national 6.4% median. In 2023, midsize employers focused on families and increased their contributions to all non-single plan tiers.
In 2023, large employers faced significantly higher cost increases (6% in 2023 vs 3.9% in 2022). They generally absorbed the cost increase and did not increase deductibles, copays, or employee contributions.
Self-funding continues to be an attractive option, growing 7.8% among groups with 50 to 199 employees, 4.4% among groups with 200 to 499 employees, and 6.5% among employers with more than 1,000 employees over the previous year. The data shows 24.5% of plans were self-funded, including 61.3% of plans with 500-999 employees and 79% of plans with 1,000 or more employees.
Small businesses with 50 or fewer employees are driving growth in basic life insurance and short- and long-term disability insurance, with respective increases of 14.5%, 8.5%, and 12.4% over the past year.
The fastest growing wellness offerings are discounts or reimbursements for health clubs or weight management programs, from 28% prevalence in 2022 to more than 50% of those offering wellness in 2023.
Click here to read the full 2024 Employee Benefits Trends Report.