Benefits, compliance & people ops, decoded.
Playbooks, cost math, and hard-won lessons for teams leaving the PEO and building a modern benefits stack.
Level-Funded Health Plans: How They Work and When They Beat Fully Insured
A level-funded plan costs the same every month, caps your downside, and can hand money back after a good year. Here's how the money moves, what to check in a quote, and who it fits.
The Broker of Record Letter: How to Switch Health Insurance Brokers
Changing brokers doesn't mean changing your plan. It runs on a one-page letter, takes effect on the 1st of the month at most carriers, and the part that actually goes wrong is the handoff.
Your 2027 Health Insurance Renewal Came In High. Here's What to Do Before You Sign
Small group insurers asked for a median 14% increase for 2027. Here's how to tell whether your number is normal, what you can still change, and how much time you have before January 1.
How to Compare Health Insurance Plans: A Practical Guide
Choosing a health plan takes more than comparing premiums. Learn how to weigh deductibles, provider networks, prescription coverage, and total yearly costs before you enroll.
Hiring in a New State: The Multi-State Payroll Registrations That Come With It
Your obligations in a new state attach on the employee's first day. The account numbers take four to six weeks. That gap is where almost every multi-state payroll failure happens.
Crossing 50 Employees: The Compliance Rules That Actually Kick In (And When)
Fifty employees isn't one compliance threshold. It's four, each with its own definition of "employee" and its own start date. The expensive one lands a full year after you cross.
PEO Advantages and Disadvantages: A Practical Guide
A clear look at PEO advantages and disadvantages, when a PEO makes sense for a growing company, and how it compares to a broker-led benefits model like Sdine.
The PEO Exit Playbook: 90 Days From Decision to Clean Open Enrollment
Most PEO exits go wrong in the first 30 days, missed underwriting deadlines, coverage gaps, misaligned payroll. The operational sequence that prevents all of it, and what Sdine owns for you in each phase.
PEO vs Sdine: The Real Cost Math at 30, 75, and 150 Employees
Most 'is it worth leaving the PEO' calculators stop at admin fees. The actual cost gap lives in master plan pooling, hidden margin layers, and the claims data you don't own. Real math at three startup sizes, and where Sdine fits in each.
PEO Graduation: 5 Signals Your Startup Has Outgrown Justworks, Rippling, or TriNet
Most founders don't decide to leave their PEO, they hit a renewal where staying costs more than leaving and realize the window closed six months ago. The five signals that actually matter, and what changes when you move to an AI-native broker built for this transition.