Houston, Texas · Est. 1996 · 350+ Texas companies
Employee benefits, 401(k) and retirement plans, individual health built on real autism and ABA expertise, and CFO & payroll services — for Texas employers with 2 to 1,000 employees. Anyone can quote your insurance. The rates are the rates. What you are hiring is everything we do around them.
Thirty years advising Texas employers and families. Justin Boulet joined the practice in 2004.
From 2-person shops to groups above 300 lives — benefits, retirement and payroll under one roof.
We tell you upfront how fast we respond, and you get one advisor who knows your account. Michael takes the call himself.
We keep one plan record for your account, and both teams work from it. If something comes up in one pillar, we handle it inside that same relationship — you don't get sent somewhere else.
Group medical, dental, vision, life and disability — designed around your claims data, not a carrier's package.
Plan design, staying compliant with the federal retirement law known as ERISA, sending in contributions on time, and a fee comparison you can hand to an auditor.
Policies that actually cover ABA therapy, placed for families of children with autism — and the appeals nobody else will file with you.
CFO-level oversight without the $200k hire. Our team runs your payroll, sends in your 401(k) contributions, and files your ACA forms.
Free tool · No sales call required
If you averaged 50 or more full-time employees last year — counting part-time hours added together as "full-time equivalents" — the IRS requires you to file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. Most companies with variable-hour workers get this wrong. Payroll vendors miss it. Small CPA firms miss it. The penalty letters show up years later.
Our free audit takes about three minutes: how many employees you have, their hours, what coverage you offer, and what you've already filed. You get a written report on where you stand — before the IRS sends you a letter.
Start the free ACA auditSources: IRS §4980H indexed amounts and information-return penalties for 2026; Rev. Proc. 2025-25 (9.96% affordability).
The principals
Michael E. Hipson founded the practice in 1996 and still answers his own phone. Justin Boulet joined in 2004 and leads CFO & Payroll Services — and the autism coverage work that has quietly become the heart of the firm.
Between them they write everything on this site — the ACA guides, the renewal strategy, the autism coverage work. No ghostwriters, no content farm.
Problem, method, result. Each one client-approved and available as a one-page PDF on request.
Record 2025-04 · Manufacturing · 180 lives
Record 2025-09 · Energy services · 412 lives
Record 2026-02 · Family · ABA advocacy
Case records are published with written client consent and are historical; they are not a promise of comparable results. Outcomes vary by group, plan year, claims experience and carrier.
Built for the person who owns this problem
Renewals, claims escalations, ACA letters, the employee whose ID card never came — one number, one team, same business day.
Talk to a personNames shortened at client request · consent on file
"They navigated the insurance side of our son's ABA therapy so we could spend that energy on him instead."
"The 401(k) transition was documented start to finish. Our committee finally has minutes worth keeping."
"Michael answers his own phone. After two national brokers, that alone changed how we run renewals."
The Hipson Brief · on Substack
Plain-English pieces on ACA filings, 401(k) rules, benefit renewals and autism coverage — written by Michael Hipson and Justin Boulet, based on the questions clients actually ask. A podcast edition lives on the same feed.
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Three questions, ninety seconds. You will hear back the same business day — from Michael, not a queue.
2000 Dairy Ashford, Ste #360 · Houston, TX 77077
