Alan Friesen here certified Employee Benefits specialist, I have another tip or suggestion for your consideration. This one's about Administrative Services only relationships or sometimes they're just called self insured relationships. And I've done lots of these with great success Actually, I've never had one be less than positive. And how I do it is that the insured the the group, the plan, sponsor the company signs and in agreement with the insurance company, and with that agreement, it specifies what claims are to be paid what the provisions are that way it specifies the reporting that will be done. It specifies who keeps the surplus and who's responsible for the for the surplus and on the insurance company's books, the client surplus, it shows as a liability that this is an obligation that they have to pay out further. Of course, the insurance company is monitoring by the Office of Superintendent of Financial institutions to ensure that those reserves are kept appropriately.

So that's how it works. And I've had great success with it. What I've seen lately lately lately concerns me. And here's what it is. It's when you have a small company that acts as the insurance company. Basically, you sign the agreement with, you know, this little Insurance Agency, which I don't believe in most cases, one, they had the capacity to adjudicate the claims correctly.

They don't have the capacity to do the reporting correctly correctly. They don't have the ability, I'm a little concerned about their ability to make good on the payment of the surplus when those triple stores are created. You'll see a screenshot of a check recently that I got distributed to one of my clients this was a surplus from their administrative services only account so fairly significant dollar amount, and And what if they had had a relationship with The small agency and the owner that agency died or became bankrupt, what would happen with their funds? So I guess my only caution is ASO type agreements, administrative services only services only agreements make really good sense. But I think you should contract with an insurance company that has the resources to do the job to meet the commitments that they've made. And to ensure that those surplus dollars are being held appropriately and available for you when you want them.

I kind of is sort of an analogy where instead of dealing with the manufacturer of the car, you're saying to the dealer of the car, or the service shop for the car, build me a car, well, that doesn't make sense. They don't have the resources to do that. So that's my thoughts on it. If you'd like to discuss that more, give me a call. I'd love to hear from you. So my contact information is on the on the screen.

Thank you much and keep well