I was in Nashville a few weeks ago for the 2026 ICHRA Conference, leading a breakout session on ICHRA marketing for brokers. What struck me most wasn't the policy momentum or the market data, though both are compelling. It was the room itself. Brokers at every stage of their ICHRA journey, some who'd been selling it for three years and some who'd never introduced it to a single client, all sitting with the same underlying question: Do I actually know enough to serve my clients well here?
 

That question is what drives everything we do at TWG. We're not trying to sell ICHRA to brokers as a product. We're trying to help brokers show up as the most knowledgeable person in the room when their clients are ready to have this conversation. That's how we built our practice, and it's what we see working for the brokers we partner with.
 

At the conference, we handed out a simple worksheet. No email required. No form to fill out. Just a set of yes or no questions organized around the four stages every broker needs to nail: they find you, they choose you, they trust you, they become fans. The broker version covers your marketing and sales infrastructure. The employer version covers what happens once ICHRA is in place.
 

This worksheet asks simple Yes/No questions about your current marketing capability. Your no's are your starting point. If you circled more than you expected, that's where the work is.

 

The exact worksheet from the Nashville session, for both brokers and employers. No email required. Yours to use and share.

If you've been watching the ICHRA market build, 2026 is when it stops feeling like a trend and starts feeling like a structural shift. A few things are happening at once, and together they change the conversation you're able to have with clients.
 

Employer costs are at a tipping point. The KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey found average family premiums hit $26,993, up 6% year over year and the third consecutive year of increases at that level. Mercer projects average employer health costs will exceed $18,500 per employee in 2026. Those aren't abstract numbers. They show up in your clients' renewals every fall, and clients are done absorbing them quietly.
 

ICHRA adoption is accelerating fast. The HRA Council's 2024-2025 Growth Trends report documents total ICHRA and QSEHRA enrollment between 500,000 and 1 million covered lives, representing over 1,000% growth since 2020. Large employer adoption grew 34% year over year. Perhaps most telling: 83% of new ICHRA adopters had never previously offered health coverage. The market isn't just shifting. It's expanding.
 

Employer confidence is measurably higher. The 2026 Second Annual ICHRA Report from zizzl health and Deft Research, released at the Nashville conference, surveyed 643 employers and benefits consultants and found employer awareness jumped from 50% to 75% in a single year. Confidence improved across every dimension measured, and the share of employers reporting low confidence in their understanding of ICHRA dropped by nearly half. Employers are no longer asking what ICHRA is. They're asking whether their consultant can help them implement it.
 

Satisfaction holds even through a turbulent enrollment season. The 2025-2026 open enrollment period was rough for the individual market, with average on-exchange premiums up roughly 25% due to subsidy reform uncertainty and ACA market disruption. Despite that, employer satisfaction with ICHRA held steady year over year. And employers who have offered ICHRA for four or more years now rate their satisfaction on par with, or higher than, those offering traditional group coverage. The longer they're in it, the better it works.
 

The cost story is hard to ignore. Among employers who have offered both ICHRA and traditional group and can compare the two directly, 65% recognize ICHRA's cost advantages for their organization and 50% say it's better for their employees too. Even in a year of elevated individual market premiums, 36% of employers who first offered ICHRA in 2026 reported their premiums were lower than what they had been paying for group coverage.

The data below comes from the 2026 Second Annual ICHRA Report, a joint study by zizzl health and Deft Research released at the Nashville conference in May. With 643 respondents across employers and benefits consultants, it's the first longitudinal look at how ICHRA perceptions are shifting year over year.

That 20% figure is the one worth sitting with. One in five employers making the switch is walking out the door to find a consultant who can handle it. The research also found that when consultants proactively present ICHRA alongside traditional options, client satisfaction rises. Those who avoid the conversation risk losing the relationship at exactly the moment the client is making a major decision.

The gap analysis worksheet from the Nashville breakout session walks through four stages. Here's a quick look at what each one covers, and why each matters.

Your client sets the contribution. Their employees shop individual market plans. You're the broker who moved them off the group renewal rollercoaster and into a predictable, budget-controlled model.

 

Dental, vision, life, disability, voluntary benefits — all alongside ICHRA in one seamless enrollment experience. Your client's HR team manages everything in one place. You have one point of contact for every benefit line.

 

Licensed benefit counselors — on-site at major locations during enrollment, available via call center year-round — guide employees through their options in plain language. No commission. No upselling. Just clear answers.

— Benefits Administrator, TWG Client

Have a client who's looking at ICHRA and wondering what happens to the rest of the benefits package? 

That's exactly the conversation to have before enrollment.

My latest blog post is about the call that comes six months after a clean ICHRA implementation. HR is happy with the health plan. But what about dental? What about vision? Where do employees go for life insurance?
 

After 250+ ICHRA projects, this is one of the most consistent friction points we see. ICHRA handles medical and stops there. Everything else still needs a home, a platform, a carrier connection, and a support structure. When brokers defer that conversation until after go-live, they end up with clients managing two separate systems, two enrollment portals, and two timelines. HR gets overwhelmed, voluntary benefits enrollment stalls, and the broker who built the solution gets blamed for an administration problem.

 

If you're in an active ICHRA implementation or about to start one, the ICHRA Ancillary Checklist at the bottom of the post is worth grabbing. Twelve items across four areas: enrollment setup, employee experience, HR and administration workflow, and open enrollment coordination. One page. Free and ungated.

Ready to Bring this Conversation to your Clients?

We work with benefits brokers and consultants who are done watching their clients absorb double-digit renewal increases and hoping for a different result. ICHRA isn't right for every client — and we'll tell you that upfront. But for the clients where it fits, there's no better time to have that conversation than right now.
 

We've completed more than 250 ICHRA implementations. We speak broker language because we work in your world every day. And the path is straightforward: tell us about the client, we'll assess the fit, design the right solution, and handle white-glove implementation from start to finish — while you stay in front of the relationship.
 

The path is straightforward: Tell us about the client. We'll assess the situation, design the right solution, and handle white-glove implementation from start to finish — while you stay in front of the relationship.

 Andy Stein | Founder & President