The CFO Conversation: What Finance Actually Needs to Say Yes to Your Benefits Strategy

Healthcare costs no longer stay inside the HR budget. Employer costs are set to rise at their fastest pace ever in 2027, which means they compete with merit increases, headcount, and everything else finance is planning around. Employees feel it before anyone else does.

Finance has responded by tightening the budget it sets for benefits. That leaves benefits leaders with what looks like a choice: protect the budget or protect your people. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

Jake Shuster is Chief Financial Officer at Garner, where he also leads people and benefits. That puts him on both sides of this conversation: he sets the budget and he owns the benefits. Jake and Chad Schulz, VP, Managing Director at Alliant, will discuss how finance evaluates a plan change heading into renewal, what makes a benefits case credible in financial terms, and what your advisor should be putting in front of finance. 

What you'll learn:

• Why healthcare costs are no longer just an HR line item, and what that changes
• How to build the financial fluency to talk to your CFO
• How to protect employees while protecting the budget