The DBL Center is your wholesale general agency, helping your clients save money and rolling those savings into enhanced ancillary benefits all year long.
Retailers seeks to boost revenue in the last quarter of the year. With the winter holidays coming up, they offer Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals to boost sales. In the insurance industry, we don’t have sales like retail stores do, obviously. But The DBL Center offers our brokers savings on required and voluntary benefits all year long, and has been for decades. Focusing on both renewals and new business in Q4 can help insurance brokers close the year strong.
When you write mandatory benefits like PFML, DBL, and TDB through The DBL Center, your clients save money and often get better, more personalized service. The DBL Center, as an insurance wholesaler, has the carrier relationships to negotiate lower premium rates through private plans. By working with our team of paid leave and ancillary benefits experts, your can also find opportunities for your clients to roll that savings into other benefits that employees want. Plus, you can track all the renewals, cancellations and commissions through our Net Revenue Tracker apps.
Premium Rate Increases Will Stretch Budgets in 2027, Representing Opportunities for Brokers
New Jersey has increased employee contributions for New Jersey Temporary Disability Insurance (NJ TDI) for 2027, with employees contributing 0.24%, up to a maximum of $425.04 per year. Additionally, the employee contribution for Family Leave Insurance (FLI) in New Jersey has increased to 0.24%, as well. Combined, an employee’s maximum deduction is $850.08 for the year. For example, an employee earning $177,100 would pay $131.46 more per year in 2027 than they did in 2026.
This makes private plans in New Jersey more affordable than the state plan, and The DBL Center can help you write NJ FLI with TDI to maximize the savings. The maximum weekly benefit in New Jersey is $1,158 for 2027.
In New York, the Paid Family Leave (PFL) premium rate will increase to .0452% of an employee’s gross wages in 2027, up from .0432% in 2026. The maximum annual contribution is $451.81, up from $411.91
Meanwhile, New York has not increased its short-term disability benefit for 2027. The maximum benefit for DBL remains at $170 per week, providing opportunities for insurance brokers in New York to help their clients enhance this benefit with enriched DBL.
Through our decades in the industry and longstanding relationships with carriers, The DBL Center secures the best rates on TDB in New Jersey and Paid Family and Medical Leave benefits in a growing number of states. Stay tuned and subscribe to our newsletter to learn about PFML changes in other states.
In New York, we can help you enhance DBL benefits to provide a safety net for your employees who have to take leave. Enhancing disability benefits up to $850 per week, plus in-hospital coverage, makes DBL a viable and important benefit.
The DBL Center: Boutique Service, Wholesale Prices
Let’s go back to our thoughts about Black Friday and the rest of the upcoming holiday sales week. American Express has been promoting Small Business Saturday, as an alternative to shopping big box retailers, since 2010. In a recent QuickBooks survey about holiday spending, reported by TheStreet, shoppers said they expect to use 43% of their 2026 holiday budget on purchases from small businesses.
But that still leaves a majority of holiday spending at large businesses, e-tailers like Amazon, and wholesale clubs like Costco. We understand. It’s good to save money. When you work with The DBL Center, you receive the white-glove service of a small business with the buying power of Costco or Amazon. You don’t have to choose.
Founder David Cohen launched The DBL Center long before Amazon existed with a clear vision: He wanted to help insurance brokers save business owners money on required benefits while offering personalized service.
Cohen always loved traveling. On trips, he would seek out unique experiences and small, boutique hotels that delivered personalized service and would go the extra mile to treat guests better than the large hotel chains.
From this concept, The DBL Center’s philosophy of cost savings combined with white-glove service was born. Since then, the insurance products we offer have expanded dramatically. Our footprint has extended from coast to coast as more states introduce mandatory paid family and medical leave benefits. But our philosophy of providing stellar service and best-in-class pricing remains.
If the idea of saving your insurance clients money while having a white-label, back-office staff to provide superior service appeals to you, reach out today to work with The DBL Center as your insurance wholesaler.
FAQs
What is a wholesale insurance broker?
A wholesale insurance broker works with top-rated insurance carriers to negotiate volume pricing on employee benefits and other insurance products for insurance brokers. Insurance brokers who work with a wholesaler can pass that savings on to their clients, while offering expanded coverage lines. The DBL Center is an insurance wholesaler that has been providing mandatory and ancillary benefits since 1976.
What is an example of ancillary benefits?
Ancillary benefits include dental, vision, Group Life / AD&D, accident insurance, and other benefits that are not mandatory but may be provided by an employer on a voluntary, employee-funded, employer-funded, or cost-shared basis.
