“Disrupter” is the term most often used to describe health care industry thought leaders like Mark Gaunya of Borislow Insurance in Boston, Massachusetts and Andy Neary of VolkBell in Longmont, Colorado. These consultants, among many others, have developed and adopted some of the most cutting-edge ideas and strategies to help transform how their employer clients view and fund health insurance. And they've done it in ways I have yet to see anyone write about when it comes to voluntary benefits, or as industry veteran Nelson Griswold and I refer to them, enhanced benefits.

How do you disrupt a side of the employee benefits industry which isn't likely to see commissions disappear anytime soon? Where rising costs are not adding extreme pressure to a company's bottom line or an employee's paycheck? Sure, you could charge an employer a consulting fee to lessen employee cost and offset your reliance on commissions, but then you're asking them to help fund the implementation, education, and enrollment of benefits that are purposely designed to be employee funded with no outlay of employer funds.

What about technology as a disrupter? Benefit administration systems and enrollment platforms have become so advanced and sophisticated we now have multilingual avatars which can educate employees on the value and need for enhanced benefits through quick and simple whiteboard videos in an interactive and (artificially) intelligent format. Each year, technology continues to develop and impress, and is certainly a disruptive force that challenges the status quo, making this type of technology a positive disruption to our market.