FastechHR Is Not for Every Workers' Comp Account. That Is the Point.

Let me start with what FastechHR is not.

We are not a direct-to-employer sales organization.

We do not go around the retail agent. We work through retail insurance agents. If an employer reaches us directly, we want an introduction to the employer's agent. The agent relationship matters, and we intend to protect it.

We are also not the cheap solution chasing the cleanest small and middle-market accounts.

There are plenty of standard markets and PEO programs competing for best-in-class risks, sometimes offering commissions of 15% to 25% on small accounts and 12% to 15% on middle-market accounts. That is not our lane.

If a standard market is willing to quote an account on reasonable terms, the account probably belongs there.

FastechHR was built for the account that is running out of ordinary choices.

01The account has to have a real problem

An employer does not need another quote simply because renewal is approaching.

There should be a meaningful reason to evaluate a specialty PEO workers' compensation structure. The accounts that deserve our attention are often dealing with one or more of the following:

• An experience modifier from approximately 1.30 to above 3.00, with the strongest fit often falling between 1.50 and 2.50
• Cancellation or non-renewal
• Few or no quality standard-market options
• A new venture with limited operating history, typically beginning at a 1.00 experience modifier
• A lapse or gap in coverage—even when the employer otherwise has a good experience modifier
• Premiums that have become commercially punishing
• A hazardous operation that falls outside normal carrier appetite
• An urgent need for valid proof of coverage or certificates of insurance

If none of those conditions exists, we may not be the right fit.

That is not false scarcity. It is underwriting discipline.

02This is not an experimental corner of the insurance market

Some employers still hear “PEO” and assume they are being shown an unfamiliar or fringe alternative.

The numbers tell a different story.

The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations reports that more than 500 PEOs now serve over 230,000 client businesses. Together, those businesses employ more than 4.5 million worksite employees, and the industry represents approximately $414 billion in revenue. NAPEO reports that the industry has more than quadrupled in size since 2012.

The operating outcomes are worth understanding, too. NAPEO-commissioned economic research comparing PEO clients with similar non-clients found that businesses using a PEO grew more than twice as fast, had 12% lower employee turnover, and were 50% less likely to go out of business.

Those findings do not mean a PEO causes every client to outperform, nor do they make every PEO structure right for every employer. They do establish that the model is mature, widely adopted, and economically significant—not a last-minute insurance gimmick.

For a retail agent, that matters. You are not asking the employer to experiment with an unproven category. You are evaluating whether an established operating model can solve a workers' compensation problem that the standard market is no longer solving.

There are two legitimate ways to discuss the size of the industry. NAPEO's economic-footprint measure includes client payroll and related amounts flowing through PEO arrangements. A narrower commercial-market measure counts administrative fees and net service revenue instead. Straits Research valued that narrower U.S. market at approximately $58.46 billion in 2025 and projected $62.79 billion in 2026. The figures are not competing estimates; they measure different things.

The historical direction is equally clear. NAPEO's 2021 footprint study reported that, in 2020, PEOs served approximately 173,000 clients and 4 million worksite employees, paid $216 billion in wages, and represented roughly $254 billion in industry revenue. Later NAPEO research reported 4.5 million worksite employees and more than 208,000 clients by the end of 2022. The current footprint has reached more than 230,000 client businesses.

Sources: NAPEO Industry Research & Data, NAPEO's 2021 Industry Footprint, NAPEO's 2023 Industry Footprint, NAPEO's 2024 economic research, and Straits Research's U.S. market forecast.

The growth is not hard to explain. Smaller employers are managing more complicated multistate compliance, rising benefit costs, tighter competition for labor, and pressure to reduce administrative overhead. In NAPEO's 2025 tracking survey, 76% of business decision-makers identified economic uncertainty as a major challenge, 68% identified healthcare costs, 67% cited hiring, and 62% cited employee retention. The survey breakdown also identified saving time and focusing on the business (55%), gaining access to experienced HR experts (41%), and reducing risks and costly mistakes (40%) as leading reasons for outsourcing. The PEO model has expanded because many employers would rather put experienced infrastructure around those responsibilities than build every capability internally. Source: NAPEO 2025 Annual Tracking Survey release.

03We focus where ordinary appetite gets thin

Many insurance companies say they write blue-collar business. What they usually mean is that they write the best-performing slice of it.

FastechHR evaluates difficult accounts across industries including:

• Blue-collar staffing
• Trucking
• Last-mile delivery
• Healthcare and assisted living
• Towing
• Roofing in selected circumstances
• Construction
• Agriculture

The target account can range from approximately $15,000 to $1 million in workers' compensation premium.

The common thread is not industry alone. It is limited choice.

The employer may have a deteriorating loss history. The carrier may be leaving. The experience modifier may have crossed a threshold that eliminates standard options. The company may be new, growing rapidly, or working in a class most carriers would rather avoid.

The modifier is only one signal. FastechHR considers accounts with modifiers from approximately 1.30 to above 3.00, with a sweet spot generally between 1.50 and 2.50. We already have accounts on the books with modifiers above 3.00.

We also evaluate accounts with otherwise favorable modifiers—from below 1.00 to under 1.30—when another condition has made the employer difficult to place. A gap in coverage is a common example. Some carriers will consider only gaps shorter than 45 days; FastechHR may consider a gap of up to six months, subject to underwriting and carrier approval.

New ventures require their own interpretation. They generally begin at a 1.00 modifier because they do not yet have the loss history used to produce an experience rating. A 1.00 modifier on a new venture does not make it a conventional-market account, nor does it tell the complete risk story.

That is where an agent needs another tool.

04The agent keeps the relationship

This needs to be said plainly: we do not sell direct.

FastechHR works through the retail agent. We are not looking for an opportunity to replace the broker or separate the employer from the advisor who brought us the account.

The retail agent has usually done the hard work already. You know the insured. You understand the history. You have the rest of the account—the auto, general liability, umbrella, property, benefits, or some combination of them.

A workers' comp failure can put that entire relationship at risk.

Losing a $75,000 workers' compensation policy may not mean losing only the WC commission. It may give another broker an opening to take the whole account.

Our role is to help you defend the relationship when the conventional market no longer gives you a credible answer.

05Speed matters when coverage is at risk

On a clean renewal, a few extra days may be inconvenient.

On a cancelled or non-renewed account, time becomes an operating risk.

Other programs serving difficult, high-mod accounts may take one to four weeks to produce a quote. FastechHR can often provide a quote indication on a complete, eligible submission in under two hours.

That distinction matters. The initial indication is not final underwriting approval and should not be presented as bound coverage. If the indication works and the insured wants to move forward, FastechHR can typically obtain final approval within one business day, subject to complete information, underwriting review, carrier approval, and program requirements.

If the account needs to move quickly, setup can generally be completed in five to ten days. When the employer is motivated, responsive, and prepared to complete the requirements needed to fund the first payroll, setup may be possible in three to five days.

Many competing programs require two to six weeks of lead time.

Subject to carrier review and approval, an effective date as much as ten days earlier may also be available in certain situations. That is not automatic, and it should never be promised before approval. But when an employer is facing a coverage gap, the ability to ask matters.

Speed does not eliminate underwriting. It eliminates unnecessary waiting.

06The employer may keep its experience modifier

One of the most persistent misconceptions about entering a PEO arrangement is that the employer automatically loses its experience modifier.

That is not universally true.

Several states in which FastechHR operates are MCP states. In many of these key jurisdictions, the client maintains its own experience modifier. The exact treatment depends on the state, program structure, and applicable rating rules, so it should be verified for the individual account.

For an employer working to improve its loss record, this matters. A specialized structure does not necessarily erase the company's risk history or prevent the business from receiving the future benefit of better performance.

07The cash-flow structure may be easier to absorb

Employers coming out of the traditional market may be facing a significant upfront deposit before coverage can begin.

Startup costs with FastechHR are often lower than the deposit requested by an insurance company. Workers' compensation premiums are then paid on a pay-as-you-go basis, aligning premium payments with actual payroll rather than relying on a large estimated annual premium and a later audit adjustment.

That can reduce the immediate cash requirement and make costs easier to match with the employer's operating cycle. It is not automatically the least expensive option, and final economics vary by account. The advantage is often the structure and timing of the cash outlay—not a promise of the lowest rate.

08Admitted paper, A− rated, and direct bill

The workers' compensation coverage is written on admitted carrier paper rated A− by AM Best.

Billing is direct bill—not agency bill. The agent does not collect the premium, hold client funds, or manage the billing transaction. FastechHR bills the client directly under the applicable program terms.

For the retail agent, that means a specialty solution without turning the agency into the billing department. For the employer, it provides an admitted-market structure supported by an A− rated carrier while preserving the pay-as-you-go payment model.

09Flexibility can remove the barriers that kill the deal

High-mod employers often reject PEO structures for reasons that have little to do with workers' compensation.

They may already have benefits they want to keep. They may have a 401(k) arrangement they do not want disrupted. They may be unwilling to hand over every part of the employee relationship merely to solve a coverage problem.

FastechHR can carve out benefits and 401(k), helping preserve arrangements that would otherwise block the transaction.

For accounts with at least $250,000 in workers' compensation premium, the employer may request an arrangement that does not require FastechHR to handle payroll. Approval and program requirements still apply, but the flexibility exists.

Most PEOs want the entire package. Our starting point is different: what structure actually solves the account's problem?

10Why the employer acts

The employer is not buying an insurance concept.

They are trying to stay in business without creating a new liability.

They may need proof of insurance to keep a contract. They may need certificates issued so crews can remain on a jobsite. They may be trying to comply with state law, avoid fines, prevent personal exposure, keep employees protected, or stop a customer from terminating an agreement.

Those are operating consequences—not sales talking points.

The best conversation is not, “Would you like to learn about a PEO?”

It is:

If the honest answer is “nothing,” there may be no urgent problem.

If the answer is lost contracts, stopped work, regulatory exposure, personal liability, or an uninsured workforce, then the agent has something real to solve.

11A practical fit test

Before sending an account, ask five questions:

1. Is the account cancelled, non-renewed, new, uncovered, or materially underserved by standard markets?
2. Is the experience modifier approximately 1.30 to above 3.00—with the likely sweet spot between 1.50 and 2.50—or is a coverage gap, new-venture status, or another risk characteristic restricting appetite despite a lower modifier?
3. Does the employer operate in a blue-collar class where quality choices are genuinely limited?
4. Is there a business consequence if coverage is not secured quickly?
5. Is the employer prepared to provide complete information and act if the solution makes sense?

If the answer is yes, bring us the account.

If good standard markets are still competing for it, use them. We are not trying to force a specialty structure onto an account that does not need one.

12I am not here to convince anyone

That is how I see this business.

I am not here to talk an agent into submitting every account. I am not here to talk an employer into a PEO structure they do not need or understand.

I am here to help determine whether a difficult account has a viable path forward.

If the fit is wrong, we should say so quickly.

If the standard market can solve it, that is probably where it belongs.

But if the employer is facing a high experience modifier, cancellation, non-renewal, a coverage gap, limited appetite, or an urgent contractual need, FastechHR may give the retail agent another way to protect the client.

Bring us one difficult account. We will tell you the truth about whether it fits.

13Send me the account before you worry about an appointment

You do not need an official FastechHR appointment to send us an opportunity for review and a quote indication.

Start with the account. If it fits, we can work through the opportunity together and complete the appointment after we land our first account.

Contact Ronnie O'Dell, Chief Revenue, FastechHR, at ronnie@fastechhr.com. Send the account details, current challenge, desired effective date, and available underwriting information. We will determine whether it belongs in our lane and tell you what is needed next.

No appointment hurdle before the first conversation. No pressure to submit business that does not fit. Just send the difficult opportunity and let us take a look.