# Insperity review: good HR, bad math

Source: https://www.getprescience.com/guides/insperity-review
Author: Rishab Jain, Cofounder and CEO, Prescience
Published: 2026-10-29
Updated: 2026-10-29
Cite as: Rishab Jain. "Insperity review: good HR, bad math." Prescience, October 29, 2026. https://www.getprescience.com/guides/insperity-review

Insperity is the largest pure-play PEO in the country and the most polished sales organization in the category. Its HR support is genuinely better than most. The problem is what you pay for it: a fee built on your own payroll, no published rate, and a co-employment contract that makes leaving expensive at exactly the moment you have grown enough to negotiate. Insperity sells the HR. You should be buying the health plan.

- **Public pricing:** None on any of the three plans
- **Plans it markets:** HRCore, HR360, HRScale
- **Contract shape:** Co-employment, with the plan and tax IDs inside it
- **Prescience Diamond:** Group plan, no co-employment, no admin fees

## What Insperity is selling, and what it is not

Insperity markets three tiers. HRCore is the lighter package, HR360 adds a broader HR technology and full-service PEO offering, and HRScale is aimed at larger companies. Every tier is a PEO arrangement: Insperity becomes a co-employer, provides payroll, workers' compensation and health coverage through its own arrangements, and charges a fee that is not published anywhere.

I want to be precise about what that means, because "PEO" gets used loosely. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce describes a PEO as a co-employer. Insperity's contract is the real thing: your employees appear under Insperity's employer identification numbers for payroll tax purposes, and health coverage runs through Insperity's master plans rather than a plan you own.

- **You get** payroll administration, HR consulting, compliance support, workers' compensation and access to Insperity's health plans.
- **You give up** ownership of the group health plan, the direct carrier relationship, and the simplicity of one vendor per function.
- **You keep** the employees, the culture and the operational decisions. Insperity is not going to run your company.

> **The tell is in the pricing page:** Insperity's own pricing page explains the factors that go into a quote: employee count, locations, benefits, workers' compensation class. Three tiers, zero numbers. Any vendor that confident in its value would put a range on a page.

## What Insperity costs, as far as anyone can tell

There is no published price. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce puts PEO fees generally at 2% to 12% of monthly payroll, or roughly $50 to $250 per employee per month. Insperity sits inside that market and does not narrow it. What you get is a bespoke proposal with an all-in service fee, a health plan cost rolled into it, and a workers' compensation component priced on your risk class.

This is where the incentives go wrong. A percentage-of-payroll fee means Insperity earns more every time you give someone a raise, and more when you hire senior people. Nothing about the work changes. The invoice does.

**Insperity's published plan tiers, October 2026**

| Tier | Who it is aimed at | Published price |
| --- | --- | --- |
| HRCore | Smaller employers wanting payroll, benefits and HR support | Not published |
| HR360 | Employers wanting full-service PEO plus HR technology | Not published |
| HRScale | Larger employers with more complex HR needs | Not published |
| Health coverage | Through Insperity's arrangements | Bundled into the fee |

**The raise that raises your PEO bill**

Illustrative. 60 employees, monthly payroll $570,000. You give the whole team a 5% raise in January, and the PEO charges 5% of payroll.

- Monthly payroll before the raise: $570,000
- Monthly PEO fee at 5%: $28,500
- Monthly payroll after a 5% raise: $598,500
- Monthly PEO fee after the raise: $29,925
- Extra fee for the year: $17,100

You paid your team more, which was the point. You also paid the administrator $17,100 more for the same headcount and the same work. That is not a service fee. That is a tax on your own generosity.

## The health plan is the part you cannot inspect

Here is my real objection, and it is not about Insperity specifically. In a PEO, the health plan is not yours. You cannot request the full plan document and compare it line by line with three alternatives, because you are not the plan sponsor in the way you would be outside the arrangement. You get a rate sheet and a summary.

That matters at renewal, and it matters more as your team ages. KFF's 2025 survey put average annual employer plan premiums at $9,325 for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage. Those are market averages. A PEO plan is one plan, in one risk pool with every other client in your state. If your team's claims are light, you do not capture that. If they are heavy, you find out at renewal.

- **Ask for the plan document.** Not the summary. The document, with the network, formulary and rate methodology.
- **Ask how the renewal is set.** Is it a loss-ratio calculation on your group, or a book-wide rate increase? The answer tells you whose performance you are paying for.
- **Ask what happens if you have a bad year.** A single large claim in a 40-person group can move next year's rate by double digits inside a PEO pool.

**Two 40-person teams, one PEO pool**

Illustrative. Both teams are 40 people at a $9,325 single-coverage average. Team A has a light claims year; Team B has one $400,000 claim. Both sit in the same PEO book.

- Team A annual premium: $373,000
- Team A renewal: Rises with the pool, not with its own claims
- Team B annual premium: $373,000
- Team B renewal: Also rises with the pool

Inside a PEO, a healthy team subsidizes a sick one across the book. That is not wrong, and it is not unfair. It is also not the deal you think you signed, and nobody explains it on the demo.

## The HR pitch is real, and it is the only honest reason to buy

I will defend Insperity on one point: for a company with no HR function, a multi-state footprint and 40 people who need handbooks, leave policies and a place to call, the HR support is worth real money. Insperity staffs that function well. Founders who buy purely for the insurance are overpaying. Founders who buy because they are drowning in HR paperwork are buying something real.

So the question to ask is not "is Insperity good?" It is "what am I buying the co-employment wrappers for?" If the answer is payroll and paperwork, fine. If the answer is health insurance, you are paying for a warehouse when you wanted one product.

The trap is that the sales process blends the two so thoroughly that founders cannot separate them afterward. You are shown an HR portal, a compliance calendar, a payroll dashboard and a benefits page in the same hour, all under one price. By the end you believe the price is for the whole thing, and you cannot ask for the part you wanted. Ask anyway. Ask what the health coverage costs on its own, with the service fee removed, and watch how quickly the conversation returns to the portal.

- **What you actually need from a PEO:** payroll filings, multi-state registration, workers' compensation, and someone to call when a leave law changes.
- **What you are being sold:** all of that, plus an insurance program you did not shop.
- **What the fee hides:** which of the two got more expensive at renewal.

## Leaving Insperity, in practice

Every PEO exit has the same shape and the same traps. Insperity's notice period is written into the service agreement and tied to your plan year. Miss the window and you are in for another year.

1. **Find the notice date** Read the service agreement for the cancellation window and the effective date. Put both in a calendar with a 30-day warning.
2. **Get the replacement plan quoted first** A group plan needs a start date that matches the day after coverage ends. Ask for a full rate table on your census.
3. **Confirm who carries workers' compensation** If it is inside the PEO, bind a new policy before the end date. Never let coverage lapse while you shop.
4. **Re-register in every state** Unemployment and withholding accounts outside the PEO. This takes weeks, not days, in slow states.
5. **Move payroll on the same date** One clean cutover. Running two payroll systems for a month creates reconciliation work nobody has time for.

The exit is a project, not a catastrophe. What makes people stay is that the exit happens to coincide with the moment the fee starts to hurt, so it feels like a bad deal either way. It is not. One is a one-time project. The other is a permanent percentage.

**Price replacement coverage before leaving Insperity**

Use the current employee census and contribution policy for the proposal. Keep notice dates, payroll transitions and confirmed replacement coverage on the same timeline before ending the PEO arrangement.

[Compare my Insperity alternative](https://www.getprescience.com/quote)

[Check the PEO transition steps](https://www.getprescience.com/guides/how-to-leave-a-peo)

[Download the census CSV template](https://www.getprescience.com/api/employer/census-intake/template)

## What to ask on an Insperity call

- Give me the service fee in dollars, per employee per month, and separately as a percent of payroll. I want both.
- What is the health plan's cost if I strip out the service fee, per tier of coverage?
- What is the renewal methodology, and what was the average increase for clients my size last year?
- Which carriers and networks are available, and can I see the rate table for my counties?
- What is the cancellation window, and what date does it attach to?
- If we outgrow HRCore, what changes in price and service?
- Who pays the transition costs if we leave?

## Who Insperity fits, and who should not sign

**My take by situation**

| Your company | Does Insperity make sense? |
| --- | --- |
| 15 people, one state, needs payroll and a health plan | Overkill. Buy the two things you need |
| 40 to 120 people with no HR lead and staff in five states | Yes, if the HR support is the reason |
| A team with families and older employees | Only if you can see the full plan documents first |
| A team that wants one specific network | Check first. The PEO plan decides, not you |
| Anyone who wants to switch plans each year | Poor fit. You are inside one book |

If you want the health plan handled by someone who runs health plans, and you want to keep your payroll system, that is what we do. No co-employment, no percentage of payroll, one monthly cost in a quote.

> **Prescience Diamond: A company health plan with an effective $0 deductible.** Diamond is a company group plan with an effective $0 deductible and a broad national PPO network, usually 10–20% below comparable fully insured coverage, with no admin fees.
> - **An effective $0 deductible** and simple copays shown before a visit
> - **A broad national PPO network,** plus providers we contract with directly
> - **24/7 physician-led care navigation** that books visits and explains costs
> - **Usually 10–20% below comparable fully insured coverage,** fixed in your quote, with no admin fees
> Best for teams of about 15 or more that want one great group plan. [Get a Diamond quote](https://www.getprescience.com/get-started?p=Employer&product=diamond)

## Frequently asked questions

**How much does Insperity cost?**

Insperity does not publish prices for HRCore, HR360 or HRScale. The fee is quoted per client and generally runs as a percentage of payroll plus per-employee charges. Across the PEO market, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce puts fees at 2% to 12% of monthly payroll, or about $50 to $250 per employee per month.

**Is Insperity a health insurance company?**

No. Insperity is a professional employer organization. It becomes a co-employer and provides health coverage through its own plan arrangements along with payroll, HR support and workers' compensation.

**What is the difference between HRCore and HR360?**

HRCore is the smaller-employer package and HR360 is marketed as a broader full-service PEO offering with more HR technology. Neither has a published price, so the difference is only meaningful once you have both quotes in writing on your own census.

**Can I keep my own payroll provider with Insperity?**

No. Payroll is part of the PEO bundle, which is most of the reason to use one. If you want to keep your payroll system, you are paying for services you will not use.

**Why do PEO fees go up when we give raises?**

Because the fee is usually a percentage of payroll. A 5% raise raises the fee 5% for the same headcount and the same administrative work. Ask for the fee in dollars per employee per month to see what the work actually costs.

**What happens to our health plan if we leave Insperity?**

You need a new group plan effective the day after Insperity coverage ends, with no gap. Your company also re-registers for payroll taxes in every state where you have employees, and needs its own workers' compensation policy if that sat inside the PEO.

**What is a better alternative to Insperity?**

If the health plan is what you want and the HR bundle is not, Prescience provides a company group plan with an effective $0 deductible and a broad national PPO network, with no admin fees and no co-employment. You keep your own payroll provider.

## Sources

- [U.S. Chamber of Commerce, PEOs vs. insurance brokers (PEO fees of 2% to 12% of monthly payroll or $50 to $250 per employee)](https://www.uschamber.com/co/run/human-resources/peos-vs-insurance-brokers)
- [NAPEO, What is a PEO (502 PEOs, 233,000 businesses, 5.4 million people)](https://www.napeo.org/what-is-a-peo)
- [KFF, 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey](https://www.kff.org/health-costs/2025-employer-health-benefits-survey/)
- [Insperity, Plans and pricing (checked October 2026; no published prices)](https://www.insperity.com/)
- [PEO Marketplace, How to leave your PEO](https://peo-marketplace.com/how-to-leave-your-peo-without-getting-burned-2/)