Founders Investment Banking, LLC (“Founders”) is pleased to announce that Innovative Benefits Consulting, LLC (“Innovative Benefits”) has been recapitalized by a private investment group. Innovative Benefits, based in Birmingham, Alabama, is a leading provider of health insurance solutions designed to reduce employer costs and improve employee benefits. Innovative Benefits has a unique platform, combining the ability to provide sales and support in the delivery of individual health insurance products with training for insurance agents interested in pursuing a career in selling individual health insurance products. With the new capital investment, Innovative Benefits is poised to achieve significant growth and an industry leadership position, and is well positioned to benefit from the increased focus on health insurance costs in the United States.

Founders’ John Thomas acted as the exclusive advisor in the transaction. President of Innovative Benefits, Josh Hilgers, commented, “We were first introduced to Founders to address the health insurance needs of their officers and employees. We were able to successfully convert over 90% of their team from their existing group health insurance plan to one of our individual health insurance products. The Founders principals were focused on identifying ways to provide access to better quality health insurance at lower costs. They quickly understood the value of the health insurance products we were providing. Over time, they moved from being a consumer of our services to inquiring about our growth plans. We explained that our platform not only provided access to health insurance products, but also contained a proprietary web-based training platform for our agents. However, we needed some growth capital to reach our full potential.

Founders was able to quickly assess Innovative Benefits’ needs and devise a capital solution. “This was one of those rare times when an opportunity literally walked in our front door,” says Founders Managing Director Andy Sink. Sink continues, “We were sold on the value of their services and the quality of their products immediately. Since health insurance is one of the larger expenses for a company like ours, we acted quickly when presented with such a compelling solution to the traditional group health insurance program. Our assessment was that they could provide our employees and partners with higher quality health insurance at a lower cost. When we became aware of their need for additional growth capital, we knew we could help deliver a solution. Since we had already experienced Innovative Benefits’ services from the perspective of a satisfied customer, it was easy for us to create a compelling investment story to help raise the needed growth capital. We look forward to watching them grow.