How CAA broker disclosure flows into Schedule C

A broker or consultant working with a group health plan is now described in three places. Before the engagement starts, the broker must put expected compensation in writing under ERISA §408(b)(2)(B), added by §202 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. After the plan year ends, each insurer reports what it actually paid the broker on Schedule A of the plan's Form 5500. And if the plan itself paid anyone $5,000 or more, a large plan reports that on Schedule C.

None of the three replaces the others. The first is a private document handed to the plan fiduciary. The other two are public record, which is where BenefitsLedger gets the figures on every employer page and in the broker-commission benchmarks. When the three disagree, the public record is what plaintiffs, auditors, and DOL investigators read first.

§202 of the CAA extended the retirement-plan fee-disclosure framework to group health plans. It applies to brokerage and consulting services for which the provider reasonably expects to receive $1,000 or more in direct or indirect compensation, for contracts entered into, extended, or renewed on or after December 27, 2021. The disclosure must be in writing and delivered reasonably in advance of the date the contract is signed, extended, or renewed. It goes to the responsible plan fiduciary, not to the DOL. Nothing is filed anywhere.

The content is specific: the services; whether the provider will act as a fiduciary; direct compensation (paid by the plan or sponsor); indirect compensation (paid by anyone else — carrier commissions, overrides, contingent bonuses, vendor referral fees); compensation shared among related parties; and the payer of each indirect amount. Changes must be disclosed as soon as practicable and no later than 60 days after the provider learns of them. The statute also requires the provider, on written request, to furnish whatever compensation information the plan needs to meet its own ERISA reporting obligations. That clause is the bridge to Form 5500.

EBSA's Field Assistance Bulletin 2021-03, issued December 30, 2021, said the Department would enforce on a good-faith, reasonable-interpretation basis and treated the retirement-plan regulation at 29 CFR 2550.408b-2(c) as a sensible template. As of October 2026 there is still no health-plan-specific regulation; the statute and the FAB are what you have. Our CAA broker-fee disclosure guide walks the content requirements line by line.

Schedule A is attached to Form 5500 for any plan that holds an insurance contract, whatever the plan's size. The insurer must supply the data to the plan administrator within 120 days after the end of the plan year (ERISA §103(a)(2)). Part I names each agent, broker, or other person the insurer paid on the contract, with commissions and fees shown separately and the purpose of any fees.

Two features matter for reconciliation. Schedule A is retrospective: it reports what was paid during the year, not what was expected. And it reports on the insurer's basis, which often means the policy year rather than the plan year, split across separate Schedule A pages when medical, dental, vision, and life sit with different carriers. Overrides and contingent bonuses paid at the agency level rather than attributed to one contract are frequently absent from Schedule A even when they were correctly disclosed under §408(b)(2)(B).

Schedule C is required only for large plans — 100 or more participants at the start of the plan year — that file Schedule H. It lists every service provider that received $5,000 or more in direct or indirect compensation in connection with the plan. The instructions direct filers not to repeat on Schedule C commissions already reported on Schedule A, so a broker paid solely through carrier commissions on an insured plan belongs on Schedule A and not on Schedule C.

Schedule C also carries the flag litigation screens key on: Part I, line 4, where the administrator names any provider that failed to furnish the compensation data it asked for. A plan that lists a provider there has made a public statement that a §408(b)(2)(B) disclosure was incomplete. Our Schedule C disclosure guide covers the mechanics.

One more wrinkle explains why many fully insured plans show no Schedule C at all. Welfare plans that are unfunded, fully insured, or a combination are exempt from Schedule H and Schedule C under 29 CFR 2520.104-44, even above 100 participants. A plan whose broker, consultant, and TPA are paid from the employer's general assets may have nothing to report. The §408(b)(2)(B) disclosure still applies in full, because its trigger is the service arrangement, not the plan's funding.

• Collect the current §408(b)(2)(B) disclosure for every broker and consultant, plus any change notices. If a renewal happened and no fresh disclosure arrived, that is the first gap.
• When each carrier's Schedule A data arrives (due 120 days after plan year end), compare Part I commissions and fees against the expected indirect compensation in the disclosure, adjusting for policy-year versus plan-year timing.
• Match everything the plan paid from plan assets against the Schedule C $5,000 list. A broker or consultant paid a flat fee by the plan belongs on Schedule C, not Schedule A.
• Confirm no provider is named on Schedule C line 4 unless you actually requested the data and were actually refused.
• Keep the dated tie-out memo with the Form 5500 file. ERISA §404 asks whether the fiduciary assessed the reasonableness of compensation; the memo is the evidence.

• Pull your sponsor's record on BenefitsLedger and check the Schedule A commissions against the §408(b)(2)(B) disclosure in your file.
• Compare the total against the broker-commission benchmarks for same-size, same-industry plans.
• Look up your broker's book on the brokers index to see how its commissions on your plan compare with its other clients.
• Calendar the reconciliation for 120 days after plan year end, when carrier Schedule A data is due.
• Before the next renewal, ask for the updated disclosure before you sign — not after.