An existing partnership ready for its next chapter. After years protecting Caruso's people and properties through your P&C program, we'd like to bring HUB's full Employee Benefits capability to a relationship we already share.
YOUR EB LEADEmployee Benefits Program
Strategic Employee Benefits Leadership
For a multi-state, family-owned wholesale produce distributor with a workforce that runs warehouses, drives fleet, and serves customers across two states, the employee benefits program is both a material cost center and a strategic financial lever. It directly impacts EBITDA, workforce stability, and long-term growth scalability. Samantha Bradley manages the program at all three levels simultaneously, aligning cost containment, funding strategy, and operational execution.
What Samantha Delivers for Caruso
Samantha delivers disciplined financial stewardship of the employee benefits program. She ensures the plan is structured not only to support the workforce, but to operate as a cost-efficient, strategically aligned component of the enterprise.
Her role extends beyond renewal execution. She aligns plan design, funding strategy, network negotiations, and vendor partnerships with Caruso's broader operational and financial objectives. Every decision is evaluated through the lens of cost containment, trend management, and long-term scalability.
She bridges executive leadership priorities with HR implementation, ensuring that strategic direction translates into measurable financial outcomes. The objective is not simply to maintain coverage. It is to engineer a benefits program that performs efficiently, protects EBITDA, and scales with the company's growth.
Proactive Network Advocacy
February 2026
When Regence and Legacy Health entered contract negotiations that put Legacy's Oregon facilities at risk of falling out of network before April 1st, Samantha did not wait to be asked. She proactively:
When the client's executive team asked "Why wasn't there a solution given when the problem was raised?" — the answer was that Samantha already had one. That is the standard her team operates to.
Samantha's Team
Director of Financial Analytics
Justin oversees the financial analytics function for Caruso's benefits program. With over 20 years of experience in employee benefits, he produces experience reporting, financial projections, and reserve estimates that allow Caruso to make data-driven decisions on plan design, funding strategy, and cost allocation. For a family-owned company managing benefits across multiple equity partners and a multi-state workforce, this analytical layer is not optional — it is how you manage trend and protect EBITDA.
Director of Pharmacy
Matt brings nearly a decade of specialized pharmacy benefit experience — working directly with PBMs, GPOs, retail pharmacies, and pharmacy manufacturers. Pharmacy is consistently one of the fastest-growing cost components in any employer health plan. Matt's role is to ensure Caruso's pharmacy benefit structure is optimized, competitively priced, and aligned with the clinical utilization patterns of Caruso's workforce. He presents directly at renewal to ensure the pharmacy strategy is understood at the leadership level.
Account Executive
Ashley manages the day-to-day client service on the Caruso EB account — coordinating with HR leadership on enrollment, compliance requirements, member communications, and carrier coordination. She is the operational point of contact that ensures the benefits program runs without disruption between the strategic conversations.
Strategic Planning
Samantha's pre-renewal strategic planning for Caruso is built around three core priorities, each centered on financial discipline and best-in-class performance. The first is a comprehensive review of the current employee benefits program to ensure it reflects the same operational excellence that defines the broader organization. This includes evaluation of plan design, contribution strategy, network alignment, and cost trend performance, with careful consideration of how the company's multi-state structure impacts funding efficiency and member experience. The objective is clear: ensure the benefits program operates at a best-in-class level, both in performance and cost efficiency, consistent with how Caruso is judged in its industry. By elevating network strategy, removing embedded inefficiencies within insured structures, and negotiating from a position of strength, the focus remains on controlling cost trend and protecting EBITDA year over year.
A comprehensive review of Caruso's current benefits program — plan design, contribution strategy, network alignment, and cost trend — benchmarked against peer multi-state distributors. The objective: identify embedded inefficiencies before renewal, not after.
Samantha brings Caruso's leadership team to the Pareto event — a deliberate move to elevate EB from a transactional renewal into a strategic planning exercise. Carrier leadership access, benefits innovation previews, and peer benchmarking a standard renewal cannot replicate.
A benefits program architecture built to absorb new employees cleanly, compete for talent in a tight labor market, and communicate simply across a multi-state workforce. Built for where Caruso is going, not just where it is today.
Coverage Map
A coordinated read across the six Employee Benefits lines that matter most to a multi-state, family-owned distributor with a blue-collar workforce.
How HUB Structures the EB Program
Four structural complexity drivers, one coordinated program response.
Oregon and Washington don't operate on the same insurance, leave, or payroll-tax architecture. A program that absorbs both cleanly looks different from one that lives in either state alone.
We treat OR and WA as one integrated benefits program — not two parallel accounts. HUB's compliance team manages both calendars under a single platform, coordinates STD with each state's paid-leave program correctly, and checks network adequacy in Canby, Bend/Redmond, and Tukwila/Seattle every cycle. Caruso's HR team gets one renewal, not two.
A five-partner family-controlled business with multiple non-family equity holders sits in a planning conversation most regional EB brokers don't run.
HUB's executive benefits practice runs the buy-sell, key man, SERP, and supplemental disability conversation as a single coordinated planning track — not a one-off product sale. We size key man coverage to actual operational dependency on Sam and Matt, structure SERP and deferred comp to match each partner's role, and integrate it all into a succession framework the partners can actually act on.
A workforce that runs warehouses, drives fleet, and handles produce daily has a utilization profile that drives medical, disability, and voluntary benefit decisions.
Because Team Haugen already holds the WC account, we structure short-term disability and the medical plan to integrate cleanly with Caruso's existing WC program — fewer claim disputes, better return-to-work outcomes, lower total cost. Voluntary accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity are positioned as low-employer-cost retention tools that actually fit a warehouse and fleet workforce.
Produce distribution carries seasonal labor patterns. Tracking ACA eligibility correctly across that fluctuation — across three locations and two states — is a compliance landmine without the right HR technology underneath it.
We deploy HUB's benefits administration platform as the single system of record — one portal for employees, one engine for ACA eligibility tracking and 1094-C / 1095-C reporting, one surface for multi-state enrollment rules. The seasonal workforce stops being a manual spreadsheet and starts being a tracked, audited, automatically-reported population.
The Fit
Caruso Produce already trusts Team Haugen with its commercial Property & Casualty program. This conversation is about extending that relationship — not replacing it. Here is what HUB's full Employee Benefits capability brings to a partnership we already share.
We are not asking Caruso to start over with a new partner. We are extending a P&C relationship they already trust. The pitch is not "hire us" — it is "let us do more for you." We walk in warm.
Oregon and Washington are genuinely different states with different mandates, different leave programs, and different insurance requirements. HUB has the compliance team, carrier relationships, and technology to manage this as a single integrated program — not two separate accounts duct-taped together.
Because we hold the WC account, we can build a genuinely coordinated STD/WC integration — reducing claim disputes, improving return-to-work outcomes, and lowering total cost for both programs. No other broker can offer Caruso this integrated view without owning both sides of the relationship.
A five-partner, family-controlled business approaching succession is a complex planning scenario. HUB's executive benefits capabilities — key man, buy-sell funding, SERP, supplemental disability — exist at a level that a regional benefits agency simply cannot replicate. This is a conversation Caruso's current EB broker is almost certainly not having.
HUB's national volume gives access to markets, underwriting flexibility, and plan designs that independent brokers cannot access for a 100-employee account. When we go to market for Caruso's medical, we are going as part of one of the largest brokerages in North America — not as a small regional agency.
Caruso has built 80+ years of business on partnership and care for their people. Team Haugen and HUB Northwest operate the same way — relationship-first, long-term oriented, and committed to the communities we serve.
Benefits Servicing
HUB International Northwest's Benefits Servicing team operates as an embedded partner — not a renewal vendor. For a multi-state, family-owned distributor like Caruso Produce, this means a benefits team that understands warehouse and fleet workforce dynamics, multi-state compliance calendars, ACA seasonal eligibility tracking, and the operational reality of running open enrollment across three locations in two states.
Full-service open enrollment coordination including employee communications, multi-state plan presentation materials, on-site or virtual meetings as needed, and bilingual support for diverse workforce communication.
Active management of the OR + WA dual compliance calendar — Oregon Paid Leave, WA Paid Family & Medical Leave, WA Cares Fund, ACA reporting, ERISA filings, COBRA administration, and Section 125 plan compliance.
Member-level claims support for employees navigating denied claims, network access issues, and complex billing questions. The advocacy team handles the conversations HR doesn't have time for.
Ongoing strategic touchpoints between renewals — regulatory change advisories, plan design discussions, vendor performance reviews, and proactive communication when carrier or network changes affect Caruso's program.
The Existing Partnership
The team Caruso has trusted with its commercial Property & Casualty program. Same group, same standards, same long-term commitment — extending into Employee Benefits with Samantha and her team.
SVP, Commercial Lines — Team Haugen Lead
Associate Advisor, Commercial Lines
Associate Advisor, Commercial Lines
Private Client Risk Advisor
Senior Advisor, Commercial Insurance
Private Client Risk Advisor
Private Client Account Manager
Vice President, Workers' Compensation
Workers' Compensation Claims Analyst
Manager II, Workers' Compensation
Insurance Adjuster
Client Services Advisor
CL Sr. Account Manager
CL Account Manager II
CL Account Manager II
CL Account Manager II
Ready to extend the partnership? Samantha and Logan are ready to walk through what an integrated P&C + EB program could look like for Caruso.
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