BrokerageBuilder review: pricing, downloads and accounting
BrokerageBuilder is Zywave's agency management system for employee benefits brokers. It holds employer accounts, plans, renewals, carrier RFPs, proposals and commission statements in one place.
It fits benefits shops from one owner to brokerages with over 1,000 employees. Zywave quotes it after a demo, and it runs in a browser.
- Best for
- Employee benefits brokers, from one-owner agencies to brokerages with 1,000+ employees
- Lines
- Group and individual benefits: health, dental, vision and voluntary
- Price
- Quote only. No pricing tiers or forced upgrades
- How it runs
- In a browser through Zywave Home. Optional Windows add-in for Office
- Carrier downloads
- None. Carrier commission statements import from Excel
- Accounting
- Commission statements reconciled against expected commission. No general ledger
- Contract
- Renews on its own unless you give 60 days' notice
- Demo or trial
- Demo. No free trial
Our take
BrokerageBuilder suits a benefits broker who wants plans, rates and contributions on each employer, RFPs sent to several carriers at once and commission statements checked against what each plan should pay. It is built for benefits first, with only a simple list for P&C policies.
Three limits matter. There is no general ledger, and Zywave's benefits quoting tool and client portal are sold separately. The contract renews on its own with uncapped renewal increases, so mark the 60-day notice date.
Pros
- Plans, rates and contributions kept by employer, with history
- RFPs emailed to several carriers at once
- Commission imports from almost any Excel layout
- AI fills plan data from benefits summaries
- Documented REST API for customers
Cons
- No published prices or free trial
- No general ledger or carrier downloads
- Quoting tool and client portal cost extra
- Renewal increases have no cap
- No way to cancel early for convenience
Plans and pricing
- How it's priced
- Quote only, by user license. Zywave has no pricing tiers
- How licenses work
- Each sign-in uses a license, and so does the Office add-in. A license frees up after 20 minutes idle
- Benefits quoting
- Zywave's quoting tool, CPQ Benefits, is sold separately
- Client portal
- MyWave or MyWave Elements, sold separately
- Who to ask
- Zywave sales at (855) 454-6100
Good to know before you buy
- Training canceled late can cost 25% of the training fee.
- Late invoices accrue 1.5% a month, and after a payment default Zywave can bill the rest of the term.
Clients and policies
Each employer or individual account holds contacts, plans, opportunities, RFPs, proposals, activities and files. An account counts as a client with an active plan, a prospect with an open opportunity and a lead otherwise.
- Plan details
- Plan design, benefit items, contributions, rates (tiered, fixed, volume and self-funded), waiting periods, carriers and expected premium and commission
- History
- Prior plan designs and contribution changes are kept
- Renewals
- A renewal calendar, with alerts starting 90 to 120 days out
- Custom fields
- At the account and plan level, and they can feed RFPs
- Teams
- Benefit Teams control who sees and edits each account
- P&C policies
- A simple P&C policy list per account. RFPs and proposals are built for benefits only
Rating and quoting
- Carrier RFPs
- Built from the account's plan data and emailed to several carriers at once
- Proposals
- Carrier quotes compile into branded proposals and cost analyses you can edit in Excel
- Plan setup
- AI reads Summary of Benefits and Coverage documents to fill plan data. Copy From reuses another plan
- Quoting tool
- Zywave CPQ Benefits, sold separately
Accounting and commissions
Commission statements
- Keyed in or imported from almost any carrier Excel layout
- Column mapping saved per carrier
- Reconciled against expected commission, then posted and locked
- Producer splits by plan
General ledger
Not in BrokerageBuilder. Expected premium and commission can sync to Applied TAM or Vision.
- Commission types
- Annual, scheduled, equal payments or by rate, with flat, graded or per-subscriber schedules
- Starting mid-year
- A template lets you post last year's statements yourself
Documents, email and e-signature
- Storage
- A file manager on each account. Files from Office or Outlook up to 50 MB
- The Office add-in saves Outlook emails, appointments and tasks to an account. It needs classic Outlook on Windows
- Mass email
- To saved account or contact lists
Tasks, texting and phones
- Tasks and renewals
- Workflows by transaction type assign tasks. Each user gets a daily list of overdue and upcoming work
- Sales pipeline
- Opportunities in a pipeline used for revenue forecasts
- Reports
- More than 80 report templates, scheduled reports and dashboards for renewals, commissions and workload
Mobile and client portal
Clients
Renewed plans can be released to a MyWave or MyWave Elements portal, sold separately. Plan data can also copy to HRconnection sites.
Integrations and API
| Connects to | Type | Direction | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zywave Account Management | Zywave platform | Both ways | Plan basics sync every 30 minutes. Phone and fax edits come back |
| Applied TAM, Vision, Sagitta | Agency system | Both ways | A Windows sync tool adds accounts and sends client, producer and split changes |
| Microsoft Office add-in | Email and documents | Into BrokerageBuilder | Saves Outlook items and opens files in Word and Excel |
| MyWave portal | Client portal | Out of BrokerageBuilder | Renewed plans for clients, sold separately |
| HRconnection | Employer sites | Out of BrokerageBuilder | Copies plan data |
| Zywave CPQ Benefits | Quoting | Separate product | Benefits quoting, sold separately |
- API
- A REST API for accounts, plans, rates, commissions, activities and files
- Who can use it
- Customers. Register an app in Zywave's admin tool or ask your Zywave contact
Hosting and product status
- How it runs
- In a browser through Zywave Home
- Computers
- Any device online. The Office add-in needs Windows and classic Outlook
- Uptime
- 99.9%, per Zywave
- Product status
- Current. It syncs plan basics with Zywave Account Management, Zywave's newer client account tool
Getting started
Book a demo
Zywave quotes after the demo.
Sign the order
Sign an order schedule under Zywave's Master Subscription Agreement.
Load your book
Upload leads and contacts from Excel, or bring accounts over from Zywave Account Management.
Set it up
Admins set Benefit Teams, custom fields and plan types.
Train
Zywave University courses, live sessions and an admin webinar.
Zywave says setup takes 60 to 90 days on average.
Support and training
- Channels
- Phone, support tickets, a knowledge base and community forums
- Hours
- Monday to Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Central, Friday until 5 p.m.
- Training
- Zywave University
- Paid help
- Personalized support adds a dedicated customer success consultant
Security
Health data
Zywave's Master Subscription Agreement includes business associate terms for protected health information.
How client data is protected
- SOC 2 Type II
- Benefit Teams and roles limit who sees each account
- Activity log on accounts, plans and files
Contract and your data
- Term
- Set in your schedule
- Renewal
- Renews for the same length on its own
- Notice
- In writing, 60 days before the term ends
- Price changes
- Once a year. Renewal increases have no cap
- Canceling early
- Only for an uncured breach. Orders can't be canceled or refunded
- Your data when you leave
- Access ends the day it ends. Pull data extract reports or use the API before then
From Zywave's Master Subscription Agreement, January 2026 version, checked October 2026.
BrokerageBuilder alternatives
- BenefitPointQuote onlyReverse auctions and a link to AMS360 or Sagitta
- AgencyBloc AMS+Quote onlyLife, health and group benefits with commission tracking
- NextAgency$85 a user a monthPublished price, with Employee Navigator sync
- Applied EpicQuote onlyBenefits and P&C in one system
See every option in insurance agency management systems.
Frequently asked questions
How much does BrokerageBuilder cost?
Zywave quotes it after a demo and publishes no prices. It has no pricing tiers.
Does BrokerageBuilder track commissions?
Yes. Carrier statements import from Excel and are reconciled against each plan's expected commission.
Does BrokerageBuilder connect to Applied TAM or Sagitta?
Yes. A Windows sync tool adds accounts from TAM, Vision or Sagitta and sends client and producer changes back.
Is BrokerageBuilder cloud based?
Yes. It runs in a browser through Zywave Home.
Can I cancel BrokerageBuilder early?
No. It renews on its own unless you give written notice 60 days before the term ends.
How we researched this review. We based this review on the terms and product pages published by BrokerageBuilder, reviewed in October 2026, together with our team's experience working with insurance agents and agency owners since 2008.
Corrections
Vendors change their pricing all the time and they don't email us when they do. So if you see a price on here that's gone up, a plan BrokerageBuilder quit selling or a contract term that reads different now, let us know and send the link to the page where BrokerageBuilder has it. Somebody here pulls up that page and checks it before we change anything on ours.