Evan Collart co-founded PEO Advisors out of Tampa Bay in 2010, after starting in the PEO business at 20 years old. His firm's specialty is narrow and specific: businesses with workers' comp problems bad enough that standard-market insurance agents can't place them anymore. I wanted to understand what happens to a company once it hits that wall.
The "Fire Sale" Business
Evan's clients typically arrive through referring insurance agents, usually 72 hours before a policy is set to lapse. "We really try to embrace that fire sale model," he told me. The businesses in question have a gap in coverage, a high experience mod, a frequency or severity problem on claims, or they're a startup in an industry carriers won't touch — roofing, tree trimming, towing, and increasingly, home healthcare, where back injuries from lifting patients have driven premiums down and carrier appetite with them.
A Rental Car Detailing Account With 51 Claims in One Quarter
One case Evan shared: a thousand-employee account detailing rental cars for a major agency had 51 workers' comp claims in a single quarter — 32 of which went to litigation, on what looks like a low-risk job. PEO Advisors added a $2,500 deductible to the account, and almost 40 of those 51 claims fell under that threshold, making the account viable for a PEO to write. Their next step wasn't insurance — it was recommending on-site risk managers and better training to get ahead of both the legitimate injuries and the suspicious pattern of small claims.
The Mod Reset That Gets a Business Back to Competitive
Evan's favorite example: a business owner trying to get onto a major beverage distributor's approved vendor list needed a modifier under 1.0. He came in at 1.11 — an 11% surcharge on his rates. Once placed in a PEO, he took on the PEO's pooled mod of 0.89, qualified for the contract, and stayed competitive on bids going forward. Businesses can also request that the PEO continue reporting their own claims history to the rating bureau, so a strong mod doesn't get lost while they're inside the PEO.
The Myth That Won't Die
"There's a misconception that I'm going to lose control of my staff," Evan said — the idea that a PEO takes over hiring, firing, and day-to-day management. In 20-plus years and roughly 250 cases a year, he's seen a PEO actually exercise that authority exactly once, and only because the business owner couldn't bring himself to terminate an employee who'd failed a drug test after falling off a roof.
Why Companies Rarely Leave Once They Join
Evan's rollout rate — clients who leave a PEO once their mod cleans up — is under 10%. The reason isn't inertia. It's that once a business experiences claims management inside a PEO (file a simple first report of injury and the PEO handles the rest, including litigation) versus fighting a claim solo, most owners don't want to go back to doing it themselves.
If your business is facing a high mod, a coverage gap, or a carrier that just said no, that's exactly the kind of situation a PEO conversation can fix — often faster than you'd expect.
Suzanna Martinez, President | PEO For The CEO