About us · Houston, Texas
Thirty years, two principals, one standard.
Michael Hipson opened the practice in 1996 with a phone, a fax machine and a rule he has never broken: the client hears back the same day. Justin Boulet joined in 2004 and built the compliance and CFO discipline the firm runs on. Today 350+ companies work with the two of them — Texas businesses down the road and employers across the country — not with a call center.
Founder · Est. 1996
Michael E. Hipson
Michael has advised Texas employers and families for thirty years, holding both insurance and securities registrations. He leads employee benefits, 401(k) plans and investment management — the first two pillars — and still takes the renewal call, the claims call and the ABA appeal call himself.
His conviction, tested across three decades of renewals: the rates are the rates. Give ten brokers the same census (your employee roster and basic health data) and they'll come back with the same numbers. What separates a benefits partner is everything around the quote — how the plan is funded, how well the compliance paperwork is kept, and whether a human answers when something breaks.
He writes about all of it in the newsletter — thirty years of renewals, distilled into what actually decides them.
Principal · Joined 2004
Justin Boulet
Justin is the firm's numbers-and-rules mind. He leads Compliance Services — CFO-level financial oversight, outsourced payroll, sending in 401(k) contributions and ACA filings for companies that cannot justify a $200,000 executive — and the compliance work underneath every group we serve. When a 300-life client's CPA didn't understand the ACA filing rules, Justin was the one on the phone walking him through them.
The other half of his practice is personal, and it is the part he would want mentioned first. For the last ten years Justin has served with FACES — the Foundation for Autism Care, Education and Services, a Houston nonprofit that awards scholarships so children with autism can get ABA therapy. Alongside it he has spent years placing individual health policies that actually cover that therapy. This is not a service line the firm added because the market looked good; it is work the two of us care about, and it has made Hipson a quiet fixture in the Texas ABA community — many clinics across the state are clients, and families he helped first later brought their companies.
He writes the ACA and autism-coverage pieces in the newsletter — the rules that cost employers money, in plain English.
What you can hold us to
Not values on a wall — commitments a client can test in the first ninety days.
01
Same-day response
We've promised this since 1996, and kept it. A person who knows your account answers — the same business day.
02
Everything in one file
One file covers benefits, 401(k), health and payroll — you can ask to see it any time.
03
Value before the quote
The free ACA review, the plan reviews, the appeals work — before anyone asks for the broker-of-record letter (the form that officially makes us your broker).
04
Verifiable standing
Securities and insurance registrations you can check yourself on BrokerCheck ↗.
Put a thirty-year practice on your side of the table.
Start with the free ACA review or a ninety-second plan review — either way, you hear back the same business day.