Lockton vs Newfront: How Do They Compare for Employee Health Benefits?

Lockton's People Solutions designs and places employee benefits, supporting engagement and program management. Newfront's Total Rewards team helps employers plan benefits and offers benchmarking and strategic plan services.

Lockton fits employers using published 2025 cost trends to plan renewals; Newfront fits employers comparing level-funded, self-funded or captive plans and needing stop-loss, pharmacy and IBNR analysis. ^1,³

What Are the Key Differences Between Lockton and Newfront Employee Health Benefits?

Lockton’s Q3 2026 update gives a market benchmark, reporting 7.7% medical and pharmacy trend for 2025; Newfront models your own plan options, including level funding, captives and IBNR claims costs. ¹ ³

How Each Practice Frames the Work

Lockton People Solutions and Newfront Total Rewards both design and place employer health programs; the reviewed pages describe brokerage and advisory work, not either firm as the plan underwriter. Lockton names three service areas: employee experience and engagement, total rewards and benefits design, and program management and measurement. Newfront describes funding, pharmacy, disease management and actuarial work for clients from start-ups to enterprise. Choose Lockton if your immediate need is an external trend reference for renewal planning; choose Newfront if you need to model alternative funding and stop-loss structures. ¹ ² ³

What Each Publishes About Plan Cost

Lockton publishes a quarterly People Solutions Market Update with U.S. health-plan cost data; the Q3 2026 update reported 2025 medical and pharmacy trend at 7.7% year-over-year. Newfront’s reviewed pages do not publish that trend series. Newfront instead forecasts future claims costs, including incurred-but-not-reported estimates, and consults on disease management. Lockton’s reviewed page does not describe IBNR modeling. ¹ ³

Newfront evaluates fully insured, level-funded, self-funded and captive arrangements and stop-loss program design. Lockton’s reviewed page does not name those funding types. ¹ ³

How You Engage

You request Newfront through a Total Rewards or Strategic Planning consultation. Lockton’s reviewed page does not describe a self-serve quote. Neither names the issuing carrier. ¹ ²

What Should You Confirm in Lockton and Newfront Employee Health Benefits Quotes?

Ask Newfront which funding model and pharmacy strategy it would put on paper, including IBNR assumptions. ³
Ask Lockton how the 7.7% trend figure would be applied to your census. ¹
Compare Lockton’s experience and measurement workstreams with Newfront’s benchmarking and disease-management scope. ¹ ³
Get the issuing medical carrier from both. If Newfront proposes stop-loss, get that carrier too. ¹ ³

Lockton vs Newfront Employee Health Benefits Compared

Lockton vs Newfront: Employee Health Benefits: documented features by provider

Criteria	Lockton People Solutions Employee Benefits Brokerage	Newfront Total Rewards Employee Benefits
Coverage Features	Lockton publishes a quarterly People Solutions Market Update with U.S. health-plan cost data; its Q3 2026 update reported 2025 medical and pharmacy trend at 7.7% year-over-year, following 8% the year before. ¹Company-reported. People Solutions page as read 2026-09-23. Cost-trend figures are company-reported market commentary, not a specific client's premium.	Newfront's Strategic Planning team evaluates fully insured, level-funded, self-funded and captive funding arrangements for health benefits, and works on stop-loss program design and pharmacy-benefit contract management, including strategies for high-impact drug categories. ³Company-reported. Strategic Planning page, Funding Approach and Pharmacy Solutions sections; advisory scope, not a named health plan design.
Role in This Line	Lockton's People Solutions practice designs and places employee health and benefit programs; the reviewed page describes brokerage and advisory services, not Lockton acting as the benefits underwriter. ¹Company-reported. People Solutions page as read 2026-09-23. The page URL for this line moved from the 'employee-benefits' path cited on Lockton's provider record to 'people-solutions'.	Newfront's Total Rewards practice helps employers design, fund and administer employee health-benefit programs. It works with payroll, people-operations and benefit administrators, technical consultants, and compliance officers and ERISA attorneys, rather than issuing the underlying health plan itself. ²Company-reported. Total Rewards page, Service Excellence section.
Risk Services	Lockton describes three service areas for employee benefits clients: employee experience and engagement, total rewards and benefits design, and program management and measurement, aimed at balancing talent attraction and retention against cost control. ¹Company-reported. People Solutions page as read 2026-09-23.	Newfront offers benchmarking reports on benefits by company size and industry, disease-management consulting (preventive care, early detection and centers of excellence), and data analytics and actuarial services that forecast future claims costs, including incurred-but-not-reported (IBNR) estimates. ³Company-reported. Strategic Planning page, Benchmarking, Disease Management & Risk Mitigation, and Data Analytics & Actuarial Services sections.