ICHRA Is Growing. Are You Ready to Offer It?
The real operational challenge TPAs and GAs face entering ICHRA: group vs. individual market mechanics, the honest build-vs-partner calculus, and what 'staying focused' actually means. Positions partnership as a strategic choice, not a concession.
We're at an inflection point in benefits distribution. ICHRA has moved from a niche product most administrators and brokers could safely ignore to something employers are actively asking about. That shift happened faster than most people in the industry expected — and it's creating a genuine strategic decision for every TPA and GA paying attention.
The opportunity is real. So is the operational complexity. And for most organizations, the honest question isn't whether to offer ICHRA — it's whether to build the infrastructure to support it or find a smarter way in.
The Opportunity Is Genuine
ICHRA is the fastest-growing segment in benefits administration, and small and mid-market employers — the segment most TPAs and GAs already serve — are the primary adopters. When an employer converts to ICHRA, they need ongoing administration: plan documents, reimbursement processing, affordability calculations, enrollment support, compliance monitoring. That's recurring, sticky revenue that deepens the relationship with the client in ways that one-time placement commissions don't.
For GAs specifically, ICHRA opens a path to individual market volume that didn't previously exist through commercial relationships. Every employer group that converts represents employees who need individual plan selection guidance — and that creates a new layer of value you can deliver.
The distribution opportunity here is structural, not cyclical. As group plan renewal costs continue rising — and we're seeing 15–30% increases become routine for small and mid-market groups — more employers will be looking for alternatives. The TPAs and GAs who can offer a credible ICHRA solution will be in the room for those conversations. The ones who can't will be on the outside looking in.
What It Actually Requires
Group plan administration and ICHRA administration look similar on the surface — employer groups, compliance oversight, employee-facing communications. Below the surface, they're meaningfully different operational problems.
ICHRA requires individual market mechanics that most group-focused TPAs haven't had to build: geographic class management, affordability determination using IRS safe harbor methods, individual enrollment support, reimbursement substantiation, and compliance monitoring that stays current as regulations evolve. None of it is impossibly complex, but it requires different systems, different data, and different workflows than what's running your group book today.
That gap is exactly where most organizations underestimate the real cost of moving into ICHRA.
The Build-or-Partner Question
When a TPA or GA decides to get serious about ICHRA, the choice looks deceptively simple: build internally or partner with a platform that already has it.
The realistic cost of building is higher than it first appears. You're looking at individual market carrier integrations, a reimbursement processing engine, affordability calculation tools, geographic class management, and a compliance system that evolves with the regulatory environment. Building all of that — and maintaining it — is an ongoing commitment that competes directly with everything else your organization is trying to do.
The time cost is the part that matters most right now. The ICHRA market is growing today. Organizations that spend 18–24 months building internal infrastructure are entering a different competitive landscape than the one they planned for. The window to establish distribution relationships and build a book of ICHRA business is open — but it won't stay open indefinitely.
The case for partnering is straightforward: it collapses the time-to-market problem, converts a capital-intensive build into an operational cost, and lets you stay focused on what actually differentiates your business — client relationships and distribution.
How We Think About It
The most successful TPAs and GAs I've talked to have landed in the same place: own the client relationship and the distribution, leverage infrastructure that already exists for everything else. That's not a concession — it's how most well-run businesses operate. You don't build your own payroll system because you process payroll. You shouldn't have to build your own ICHRA platform because you want to offer ICHRA.
The employers are asking. The distribution opportunity is in front of you. The question is how quickly you can be ready to capitalize on it.
Kyndly is built specifically for TPAs and GAs that want to move into ICHRA without rebuilding their operations from scratch — white-labeled quoting, enrollment, compliance, and reimbursement infrastructure, delivered through your existing client relationships. Let's talk →