Loyalty
Act solely in the interest of the plan's participants and beneficiaries.
In practice: nobody advising the plan should have an interest in it costing more.
ERISA §404(a)(1)(A)
Fiduciary employee benefits consulting for employers who run on strategy.
You run every other part of your business on strategy. Your health plan gets a renewal meeting and another increase. Ethos Benefits is the employee benefits consultant that accepts fiduciary responsibility for its advice on your health plan, in writing, keeps the record that proves it, and builds a plan that does more for your people and costs your company less.
- Our fee does not move with your premium.One fee for health plan advice, agreed in writing before the work starts and disclosed in full.
- Fiduciary, in writing.We accept fiduciary responsibility for our health plan advice in the engagement agreement.
- No kickbacks on your health plan.No contingent bonuses, overrides or vendor payments tied to the plan we advise on.
Recognized by the industry.
Listed exactly as awarded, with who won each one. Every award and all the press coverage
Fiduciary Validation, Benefits FirmEthos Benefits. Validation Institute.
Advisor of the Year, Health Value AwardsDonovan and Chelsea Ryckis, two of twelve Charter Fiduciary Advisors. Validation Institute.
Cover story, bip MagazineDonovan and Chelsea Ryckis. NABIP, Spring 2025.
Advisor of the YearChelsea Ryckis. BenefitsPRO.
Most Innovative Healthcare ConsultantDonovan Ryckis, 2026. Chelsea Ryckis, 2024.
You are a fiduciary of your health plan. Nobody told you.
Your 401(k) has a committee, minutes, benchmarking and an advisor who signs a fiduciary acknowledgment. Your health plan is the larger and less predictable spend, and it has a renewal meeting. ERISA does not distinguish between the two: if you sponsor the plan and make decisions about it, you are a fiduciary of it. ERISA §3(21)(A).
The duty is the reason to run the health plan the way you already run the retirement plan, and to expect the people advising you to share it.
What the duty requiresSame duty, two plans
- A committee that meetsIn placeA renewal meeting
- Minutes keptEvery meetingUsually none
- Vendors benchmarkedOn a scheduleThe renewal quote
- How the advisor is paidA disclosed feeBuilt into the premium
- Advisor signs as a fiduciaryIn writingDeclined in the agreement
How these plans are typically run.
A fiduciary owes your plan three things. Most brokers owe it none of them.
Your retirement plan has always been held to these ERISA fiduciary duties. Here they are in plain language, with the section of ERISA that says so.
Prudence
Act with the care, skill and diligence a knowledgeable person would use.
In practice: document the alternatives, benchmark the vendors, read the claims, keep minutes.
ERISA §404(a)(1)(B)
Follow the plan documents
Run the plan according to the documents that govern it.
In practice: the plan document, the SPD and the vendor contracts agree, and the plan does what they say.
ERISA §404(a)(1)(D)
Employee benefits broker or fiduciary consultant?
| What the plan needs | A typical employee benefits broker | Ethos Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Fiduciary responsibility for health plan advice | Usually declined in the agreement | Accepted in writing |
| The renewal | The carrier's quote | Alternatives documented and benchmarked |
| Claims and pharmacy data | The carrier's summary | Read directly |
| Vendor contracts | Reviewed at renewal, if at all | Reviewed on a schedule |
| The decision record | Email threads | Committee minutes, kept in one place |
How these roles typically work.
The Ethos Method. How a fiduciary benefits consulting firm works.
Your engagement runs the same five phases, in order. We take your plan apart and put it back together, and each phase teaches you something about your own plan before anything is changed.
1
Risk Reality
- Cost trend
- Stop-loss exposure
- Contract terms
- Who is paid what
2
Anatomy of a Plan
- Every vendor
- Every fee
- Every hand-off
- On one page
3
Invisible Invoice
- Compensation
- Spread
- Quantified
- Sourced
4
Ground Truth
- Claims data
- Pharmacy data
- Read directly
- No carrier summary
5
Fiduciary Framework™
- A committee
- A charter
- Benchmarks
- Minutes
Our executive team. Named in writing.
Your plan is served by an Ethos Benefits client team of account executives and account managers, led by these executives. Every benefits advisor on that team works to a fiduciary standard of care. Your current benefit advisor can sign the same acknowledgment. If the answer is a paragraph, you have your answer.
Donovan Ryckis
Founder and CEO
2026 Advisor of the Year, Validation Institute. 2026 Most Innovative Healthcare Consultant, YouPowered Symposium. Former Series 65 investment advisor.
Chelsea Ryckis
Founder and President
2026 Advisor of the Year, Validation Institute. 2024 Advisor of the Year, BenefitsPRO. 2024 Most Innovative Healthcare Consultant, YouPowered Symposium.
Patrick Ansara
Partner and Director of Client Operations
Runs the Ethos Experience: the standing client call, the committee record and the service calendar.
What it looked like for three employers.
Your plan has its own starting point. These employers' published case studies show what changed for their companies and their people.
Kalos Services
HVAC, 400 employees
42%lower healthcare cost. Over $13.5 million saved.
One delivery: the hospital pre-authorized $37,594, the plan paid $18,000, and the employee paid nothing.
Read the Kalos case studyAxiom Healthcare
Senior living, 1,000 employees
27 to38%lower employee premiums, depending on the plan.
Plan redesign moved cost off employees without moving it onto the employer.
Read the Axiom case studyHendry Marine
Shipyard, 300 employees
77%below billed charges on $50.4 million in claims over five years.
A self-funded plan with reference-based pricing paid $11.4 million.
Read the Hendry Marine case studyFigures as published in Ethos Benefits case studies, with client permission.
The reality is, if this industry worked well, there’d be no need for Cost Plus Drugs. There’d be no need for Ethos… We’re here because of the information asymmetry.
Mark CubanFounder, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. On Business of Benefits, Episode 75.Watch the episode
The numbers spoke for themselves. We were able to lower deductibles and decrease employee premiums by 27 to 38% depending on the plan. The service we’re getting from Donovan and his team is just tremendous.
Brenda KruseCFO, Axiom Healthcare ServicesRead the Axiom case study
There’s no legal requirement for them to act in your best interest. And once you understand that… everything starts to make sense.
Bryan OrrPresident and Co-Founder, Kalos ServicesRead the Kalos case study
I said there is absolutely no way, you guys are nuts, and it sounds too good to be true. So I decided that I needed to learn. We took an EOB from one of my employees, ran it through what it would be through reference-based pricing, and the light bulb went on.
Stephanie PorrinoFormer HR Director, Hendry Marine IndustriesRead the Hendry Marine case study
The Fiduciary Framework™. A business plan for your benefits.
Your benefits get the same plan as the rest of your business: three to five years out, measured every quarter. Your committee sets the goals and tracks the numbers against them. Ethos builds the plan with you, reports against it and keeps the record of every decision.
- Goals for the planWhat the plan has to do for your people and for your budget, agreed by your committee.
- KPIs and targetsCost, trend, claims and pharmacy spend, each measured against a target you set.
- A three to five year planThe direction for funding, vendors and plan design, year by year.
- Quarterly reviewsResults against target, reviewed with your committee every quarter.
- Committee recordEvery decision, filed with its minutes.
The record your team keeps. Your plan finally has a memory.
Most benefits programs run on inboxes, last year's deck and a renewal call. Your Ethos team keeps every file, number and decision about your plan in the Ethos Fiduciary OS, in one place, year after year, and you can ask it anything. Tour the Fiduciary OS
Your files, KPIs and history
Today. Files in inboxes, KPIs in last year's deck, no trend line and no benchmark.
With Ethos. Every file, KPI, benchmark and trend in one place, kept for every plan year.
How decisions get made
Today. The renewal is decided on a call, and the reasoning is never written down.
With Ethos. A formal review and decision process, with the reasoning in your fiduciary file.
Answers to plan questions
Today. Plan questions mean digging through PDFs or waiting a day for your broker.
With Ethos. Ask any plan question across every line of coverage and get the cited answer. Coming soon
- A self-assessment on the Ethos Fiduciary Framework™, scored every quarter
- Charter, meetings, minutes and decisions, with the reasoning recorded
- Each plan year kept separately and archived for at least six years
- Drop in a stack of files and Ethos AI sorts each one by plan and type
- Know right away what's on file, out of date or missing
- Filter by medical, pharmacy, dental, vision, life and disability
- Notices, ERISA, ACA, CAA, HIPAA, testing and filings in one calendar
- See what's due in the next 45 days and who owns it
- Add every deadline to your own calendar
- What drove the increase, and how much Ethos negotiated off
- Model cost sharing and see the paycheck impact first
- Approve a scenario and send leadership the summary
- Plain-language answers across every line of coverage
- Each answer links to the exact page it came from
- Your Ethos team sees every thread and steps in when needed
Portal screens show a sample company and sample figures, not client results. Features marked Coming soon are in development.
We publish what we learn. A podcast and two documentaries on who pays.
Your team can understand how the plan is priced whether or not you hire us. Chelsea and Donovan Ryckis and their guests cover what employers pay for health plans, who benefits, and how to change it. Real cases, real numbers, no sales pitch.
The Business of Benefits. A new episode every two weeks.
Every episode on YouTube · Episode notes and transcripts
Documentaries. Two films on who pays.
Learn the plan. Before the renewal does.
Your committee gets plain-English guides to the rules and the money behind an employer health plan, each with its sources, and the newest analysis as we publish it.
Benefits 101
- ERISA vs. non-ERISAHow ERISA and non-ERISA health and welfare plans differ: which plans are exempt, and how reporting, fiduciary duties, claims rules and legal remedies compare.
- Form 1095-B vs. 1095-CForm 1095-B vs. 1095-C: who files each ACA form, what each one reports, the deadlines for tax years 2025 and 2026, and how employees receive them.
- Self funded vs. fully insuredSelf-funded vs. fully insured health plans, plus level funding and reference-based pricing, compared on risk, cash flow, data, state law and filings.
- How does stop-loss insurance work?How stop-loss insurance works for self-funded health plans: specific vs. aggregate coverage, attachment points, contract types, lasering and cost.
- PBM spread pricingWhat PBM spread pricing is, a worked example, how to spot it in a pharmacy contract, and what the 2026 federal PBM law changes for employer plans.
- The ERISA compliance checklistAn ERISA compliance checklist for employer health and welfare plans, with each document, notice and filing, who it applies to, and when it is due.
New and updated
- Insight · Choosing an employee benefits brokerHow to choose an employee benefits broker, what to ask about pay and conflicts, and why a fiduciary standard of care matters for your health plan.
- Insight · ERISA health plan litigationERISA health plan lawsuits over drug prices, PBM contracts, tobacco surcharges and voluntary benefits. What each case alleges, where it stands, and what to do.
- Insight · How employers can lower healthcare costsHow employers can lower healthcare costs without raising deductibles, from pharmacy and large claims to site of care, and what Kalos Services did.
Questions employers ask first.
Am I a fiduciary of my company's health plan?
If you sponsor an ERISA-covered plan and make decisions about it, yes. ERISA §3(21) defines a fiduciary by function, not title.
Is my benefits broker a fiduciary?
Usually not, and usually by contract. Most agreements state the firm is not a fiduciary. Ethos provides a signed acknowledgment in its engagement agreement.
What does a well-run renewal look like?
Alternatives documented, vendors benchmarked, compensation disclosures reviewed, claims read directly, and a committee decision with minutes.
What is the difference between an employee benefits broker and an employee benefits consultant?
A broker places coverage and usually declines fiduciary responsibility in the agreement. An employee benefits consultant like Ethos Benefits accepts fiduciary responsibility for its advice on your health plan, in writing, and documents the alternatives, the benchmarks and the decision.
What ERISA fiduciary services does Ethos Benefits provide?
Ethos Benefits provides fiduciary governance for your health plan: a committee charter, documented vendor reviews and benchmarking, minutes and compliance deadlines, with fiduciary responsibility for its advice accepted in writing.
How is Ethos paid?
A fee for healthcare plan advice, agreed with you in writing, that does not change when your premium changes.
Start with the plan nobody has shown you.
Your Strategic Analysis begins with your broker agreement and your plan documents, then the plan itself: what it costs, where the risk sits, and what a committee would decide with the full picture.
The Ethos Edition
One email a month on what is changing in employer health plans, written for the person who signs the check.