Building a Benefits Proposal and Sharing It With Your Client

Purpose

A benefits proposal (also called a benefit package) is everything a client offers its employees for a plan year: the benefits, the plans in each, the waiting periods, the contribution split, and the benefit classes that decide who gets what. You build the proposal on the Broker Portal, check it, and then share it: with the employer for review, or with employees so that enrollment opens. This article walks through building a new proposal and the actions on the proposal list.

Who can do this: the client's broker, their agency, and account managers linked to that broker. See Getting Started on the Broker Portal.

Before you start

• Census. The client's employees are in UZIO with hire dates, work locations, and classes. Eligibility, waiting periods, and rates all read from the census.
• Classes. If different employee groups get different benefits, create the classes first. See Creating and Managing Benefit Classes for a Client.
• Plans and rates. Every custom or shelf plan you plan to offer is added, rated, and activated. See Adding a Medical, Dental, or Vision Plan and Loading Its Rates.
• Dates. You know the coverage start and end dates and the open enrollment window you and the client agreed.

Build the proposal

1. Go to Clients, open the client's page, and click Create Proposal.
2. Click Skip and Create Proposal to go to benefits setup.
3. Enter the package basics:
• Package Name, for example Acme Corp Benefit Package 2026. The employer sees this name on their proposals page.
• Coverage Start Date and Coverage End Date.
• Open Enrollment Period: the dates employees can enroll.
• Whether dependents are covered.
4. Select the benefits to offer under Health, Supplemental, Tax Savings, and Life & Disability. Coverage dates can differ by benefit. For example, medical and vision can start on different dates.
5. Set the Waiting Period for each benefit, and per class where classes differ (see Waiting period options below).
6. Set the health contribution strategy and how it applies to dependents. See Choosing a Contribution Strategy for a Client's Health Benefits.
7. Set Tax Savings contributions (HRA, HSA, FSA, limited-purpose FSA, dependent care) and Commuter amounts, by tier and class as needed.
8. On the ancillary and supplemental page, choose when a salary change updates salary-based coverage: on the plan anniversary, or on the first of the month after the change. If employees already hold voluntary life, AD&D, or critical illness amounts from a previous carrier, upload them here with the template provided. See the employer-side explanation in Understanding Grandfathered Coverage.
9. Browse the available plans. Filter by deductible, out-of-pocket maximum, employer contribution, monthly premium, carrier, metal level, plan type, HSA eligibility, or work location. You can compare up to six medical, dental, or vision plans side by side and download the comparison.
10. Click Add to Cart for each plan you want. You can refine contribution values per plan from the cart.
11. Repeat for vision, supplemental, tax savings, and life and disability.
12. On Package Review, check every section. Download the Benefit Proposal spreadsheet and the Coverage Validation Report, then click Finalize.

[Screenshot: Package Review page with the Coverage Validation Report download highlighted (use demo data)]

Share the proposal

After you click Finalize, choose who to share with:

• Share with employer sends the proposal to your client to review in their portal, under Benefits > Benefits Proposals. Use this when the client wants to see the final package before employees do. UZIO emails you when the client accepts the proposal ("Benefit Package … ready to be shared with employees") or declines it. Agree the outcome with your client before you share with employees.
• Share with employees opens enrollment on the dates in the proposal. Click Notify to send.

Before a full rollout you can set a preview window: a small group of employees previews the package and enrolls first, so problems surface before everyone sees it. Set the notification date for everyone else after the preview ends.

When the package is shared with employees, the client's administrators receive an email ("Benefit package has been shared with employees") with the coverage effective date and the open enrollment dates. Employees receive their enrollment invitation. See Enrolling in Benefits for what they see.

Waiting period options

The waiting period decides when a new hire's coverage starts: Date of Hire + the waiting period. You can set it per benefit and per class:

• On the date of employment
• 30, 60, or 90 days following the date of employment
• On the first day of the month following the date of employment
• On the first day of the month following 30 or 60 days of employment
• On the day following a custom number of days
• On the first day of the month following a custom number of days

How many days a new hire has to make their elections is a separate setting the employer controls in their own preferences. See Viewing Your Benefit Proposals.

Where a proposal can be

The proposal list shows each proposal's status. The ones you will meet most:

Actions on the proposal list

Open Proposals from the top menu (or the client's page) to see every proposal with its action icons:

Common problems

Why can't my client see the proposal? It has not been shared with them. A proposal appears on the employer's Benefits Proposals page only after you share it. The employer can view it, but cannot change it: any change goes through you.

Why can't I find a plan I added? Custom and shelf plans must be activated in Manage Plan before they appear in plan selection.

A new hire's coverage date looks wrong. Check the employee's hire date and class in the census, then the waiting period for that benefit and class. Coverage starts on the hire date plus the waiting period.

Why can't I delete this proposal? Once a proposal is shared with employees, it cannot be deleted. Change it with Edit, or reject it and start again. See Changing a Proposal After It Has Been Shared.

Related articles

• Changing a Proposal After It Has Been Shared
• Choosing a Contribution Strategy for a Client's Health Benefits
• Tracking Enrollment and Releasing It When Open Enrollment Ends
• Your client's view: Viewing Your Benefit Proposals
• Your client's view: Tracking Open Enrollment and Completing an Enrollment for an Employee