Texas Employee Benefits Broker Report
Who places Texas employers’ health and benefits plans? This report counts every employee benefits broker office named on Texas employers’ federal benefit-plan filings in the state’s four largest metros, and shows how the market is split between large national firms and local independents.
Key findings
- 310 employee benefits broker offices in Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin were named as broker on 2024 Form 5500 benefit-plan filings, across 51 cities. 272 of them were named by employers based in Texas; every employer count in this report covers Texas employers only.
- The same filings name 269 carrier agents who sell for a single voluntary-benefits carrier such as Aflac or Colonial Life. They are 46% of everyone listed, but they don’t shop the market for employers, so they are labeled separately and not counted as brokers.
- The broker office named by the most Texas employers is Lockton (Dallas), on 435 employers’ filings.
- The 10 largest offices account for 52% of all employer–broker relationships on the filings.
- National and regional brokerage firms run 35% of offices but hold 83% of employer relationships; independent agencies and agents make up the rest.
- The carriers that appear most often on broker-placed plans are Mutual of Omaha, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, and UnitedHealthcare.
- 94% of broker offices match an active Texas Department of Insurance license, and 51% have a Google Business Profile.
- Of the 35 offices with at least 10 Google reviews, 46% are rated 4.5 stars or higher (average 4.3).
- Dallas–Fort Worth has the most broker offices (131).
Brokers by metro
| Metro | Broker offices | Agencies | Individual agents | Cities | Employer relationships | Top 10 share | Carrier agents |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas–Fort Worth | 131 | 89 | 42 | 28 | 1,986 | 74% | 100 |
| Houston | 91 | 71 | 20 | 15 | 1,198 | 73% | 91 |
| San Antonio | 43 | 35 | 8 | 3 | 278 | 77% | 47 |
| Austin | 45 | 34 | 11 | 5 | 349 | 91% | 31 |
| Total | 310 | 229 | 81 | 51 | 3,811 | 52% | 269 |
An employer relationship is one Texas employer naming the office on at least one 2024 filing. An employer that uses two brokers counts once for each.
Largest broker offices in Texas
Ranked by the number of Texas employers that named the office on 2024 filings. Rankings within each metro: Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.
Top five in each metro
Dallas–Fort Worth
Houston
San Antonio
Carriers on broker-placed plans
How often each carrier appears among the top carriers on each broker office’s filings, summed across offices.
| Carrier | Plans | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Mutual of Omaha | 1,116 | 19% |
| Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas | 1,029 | 18% |
| UnitedHealthcare | 556 | 10% |
| Dearborn Life (BCBS) | 542 | 9% |
| Cigna | 521 | 9% |
| MetLife | 438 | 8% |
| Unum | 404 | 7% |
| Guardian | 309 | 5% |
| Lincoln Financial | 219 | 4% |
| Principal | 100 | 2% |
| The Hartford | 76 | 1% |
| The Standard | 69 | 1% |
Employer size
Size of the employers behind those relationships (active participants on the filing).
| Employer size | Relationships | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under 50 employees | 20 | 1% |
| 50–99 employees | 139 | 4% |
| 100–499 employees | 2,643 | 71% |
| 500–999 employees | 438 | 12% |
| 1,000+ employees | 460 | 12% |
How these numbers are built
- Starting point: every 2024 Form 5500 Schedule A for health, dental, vision, life and disability plans, which names the broker paid on each insured plan. Offices are listed if they are based in these metros. Employer counts include only employers based in Texas, so work for employers headquartered elsewhere is not counted.
- Broker names were grouped into offices, matched to the Texas Department of Insurance license file and to Google Business Profiles, and reviewed firm by firm. Wholesalers, administrators, payroll and enrollment vendors, carriers and employers that named themselves were removed.
- Carrier agents (Aflac, Colonial Life, Allstate Benefits and similar) are listed separately and not counted as brokers.
- Limits: employers with fewer than 100 participants usually do not file for insured plans, and self-funded plans have no Schedule A, so brokers focused on small or self-funded groups are under-counted. Counts measure reach, not quality.
- Full method: How the directory is built. Every office listed: brokers by city.
Cite this report: Texas Benefits Directory, “Texas Employee Benefits Broker Report (2024 filings),” October 2026, https://texasbenefitsdirectory.com/texas-benefits-broker-report/