Just Released: SKYGEN’s Pulse 2026 Report—What 500 Brokers Are Saying

What do brokers want most from their carrier partners? The answers are in SKYGEN’s latest addition to the Pulse research series. The 2026 SKYGEN Pulse Report: Broker Perspectives is a new national research study based on insights from 500 brokers across the country.

“Brokers who sell dental and vision coverage aren’t just part of the future of healthcare—they’re helping to create it,” said SKYGEN Chief Innovation and Growth Officer John Schaak. “As the advisor on whom employers rely in making their coverage decisions, brokers shape how dental and vision benefits are selected, communicated, and delivered every day. Carriers can improve their offerings—and turbocharge their growth prospects—with a deeper understanding of broker perspectives, and SKYGEN’s Pulse 2026 delivers those essential insights.”

What Informs Broker Recommendations
According to Pulse 2026, while brokers typically recommend three or more carriers to a client, only two carriers are usually top of mind. When asked what drives plan selection and recommendations, brokers are nearly evenly split between cost savings and customizability. 

Plan Selection Balances Cost & Customization

This finding represents an opportunity for carriers to be sure they’re consistently being recommended by prioritizing plan flexibility and providing brokers with ready-made insights and comparison tools to make client recommendations faster and smarter.

Other Key Takeaways from Pulse 2026
Participants in the Pulse 2026 research work full-time in the U.S. and actively sell or influence the sale of dental and/or vision coverage. They offered some key insights into their priorities:

• Digital enablement is paramount. Brokers aren’t just looking for data—they’re looking for contextual, real-time, and actionable insights that help them guide clients effectively.
• Voluntary benefits are on the rise. Brokers report that their clients are more aware of the importance of financial protection for their workforce, and 9 in 10 say their clients are adding voluntary benefits such as accident insurance, life insurance, and critical illness coverage. 
• There’s growing interest in alternative funding models such as self-funded plans, level-funded plans, Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs), and Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) ICHRA/HRA models. More than a third of dental brokers and vision brokers expect these models to expand rapidly.

“Pulse 2026: Broker Perspectives is our most extensive Pulse Report to date,” said Schaak. “We wanted to give brokers a voice and they stepped up. We received an enormous number of responses to the open-ended questions, and brokers were frank in communicating their expectations about how carriers can better support their clients and employees as well as themselves. This report is a must-read for dental and vision carriers of all sizes.”

Ready for the full picture on where carrier-broker collaboration is headed next? View and download SKYGEN’s Pulse 2026 Report here at no cost.
 

About SKYGEN
SKYGEN transforms dental and vision benefits management and administration with flexible technology and services that connect and change lives for the better. Through partnerships with payers, providers and government agencies, SKYGEN helps its customers navigate dental and vision benefits management and administration. With its portfolio of third-party administration (TPA), intelligent Software as a Service (SaaS) automation, marketplace connectivity, risk management solutions and above-and-beyond services like Enhanced Benefit Management (EBM), Provider Select Suite platforms, mobile apps and portals, SKYGEN serves nearly 50 million members across all 50 states, more than 40 government and commercial insurers and process 3 million claims monthly. For more information, please visit www.skygenusa.com.