If you’ve been around the insurance industry, you’ve likely heard your share of specific terms. One of the terms you might have heard is Form 5500. It can come up in prospecting process discussions, often with little context attached.
What is this form and how does it tie into new business processes? We’re here to unravel the mystery.
What Is Form 5500?
Form 5500 is a document generated by the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). To stay compliant with Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) requirements, all companies who provide employee benefits to at least 100 eligible participants must file Form 5500 annually. Eligible participants include members of the organization’s workforce and their enrolled dependents.
Form 5500 contains details of the employer who files it – including who the sponsors and administrators of employee benefits plans are. It also indicates how many participants are accessing the benefits plan.
Why Does This Matter for Insurance Prospecting?
In the insurance industry, prospecting hinges on finding the right targets. It wouldn’t make sense to approach someone about homeowner’s insurance if they rent their home, for example.
Form 5500 makes it easy to determine which businesses offer employee benefits coverage, and to gauge the scope of the coverage they offer. This context allows you to confidently approach prospects without needing to ask Do you offer a benefits plan? and How many people are on it?
Since companies are required to file Form 5500 annually, the information is reasonably fresh. And since federal government agencies administer the form, the data is non-proprietary.
There are few prospecting sources as trustworthy and cost-effective as Form 5500. That’s why several insurtech companies have made it the backbone of their prospecting solutions.
Is Form 5500 Data Sufficient for Finding New Leads?
Prospecting can sometimes feel like finding a needle in a haystack. Form 5500 can make that haystack smaller. But it won’t make the needle magically emerge from the hay – at least not on its own.
Effective prospecting tools integrate Form 5500 information with additional data sources to create a comprehensive profile of each prospect in their database. They provide the extra context that can produce refined lists of targets that are actually likely to close.
How Can I Leverage Form 5500 to Enhance my Prospecting Process?
Insurance producers can get the most out of Form 5500 by turning to one of the many comprehensive insurtech solutions on the market. Zywave’s miEdge solution, for instance, incorporates Form 5500 information with third-party resources to create holistic employer records that are easy to access, export or integrate into such critical workflow solutions as Customer Relationship Management systems.
That said, if you’re evaluating which insurance prospecting solution is right for you, some Form 5500 knowledge can come in handy. You can ensure you’re asking the right questions to assess the viability of these solutions.
Here are some questions that you could ask:
• How is Form 5500 data presented within your solution?
• Does your solution enrich the data provided through Form 5500? Do proprietary data sources play a role?
• What is your insurance prospecting solution’s strategy for company contacts? Does it only include what’s entered on Form 5500, or does it provide enhancements?
• What are some ways to search and filter the data provided through Form 5500 within your solution?
• How does your solution incorporate the data from Form 5500 into its reporting module?
• Can the data sourced through Form 5500 be exported from your solution?
You don’t need to ask all of these questions to get a clear view of a solution’s potential fit. But be sure to ask the questions that are most critical to your prospecting process.
The Form 5500 Advantage
In an age brimming with data, it can be difficult to know which sources to trust. Form 5500 assuages these concerns, and it provides the foundation for many insurance producers’ lead generation processes. A bit of base knowledge on the filing form – when paired with a reputable prospecting solution – can go a long way in driving success.
Finding the Right Solutions for Insurance Prospecting
When it comes to technology, there are a lot of options out there, and finding the right one to fit your unique needs is essential, especially when it comes to prospecting.
If you’re ready to accelerate success with insurtech solutions, Zywave is here to help.
