How To Become A Benefits Consultant: What It Is and Career Path

What is a benefits consultant and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Benefits consultants advise companies and manage employee benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, and many more. They assist employees in creating the optimal version of their benefits packages.

As a benefits consultant, you might work for a consulting firm and earn your salary on a commission basis. Your job will include handling the paperwork and documentation of the benefits plans, renewing them when necessary.

You will be helping out business owners in managing the time-consuming task of establishing benefits packages. You will help them decide on the type of benefits to offer with an insight into what the competitors in the area tend to offer. You will also possess tools to poll employees and have valuable information regarding their preferences.

ScoreBenefits ConsultantUS Average

Salary

6.2

Avg. Salary $79,068

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

6.0

Growth rate 2%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.44%

Asian 7.96%

Black or African American 11.23%

Hispanic or Latino 10.00%

Unknown 3.42%

White 66.94%

Gender

female 53.28%

male 46.72%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.5

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a benefits consultant

Explore benefits consultant education requirements

Most common benefits consultant degrees

Bachelor's

70.8 %

Associate

11.2 %

Master's

10.4 %

Start to develop specific benefits consultant skills

Skills	Percentages
HR	10.31%
Customer Service	8.25%
Life Insurance	6.59%
Strong Analytical	5.75%
Health Insurance	5.49%

Complete relevant benefits consultant training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New benefits consultants learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a benefits consultant based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real benefits consultant resumes.

Research benefits consultant duties and responsibilities

Manage benefits for fully insure medical/dental plans with life, long-term disability, and FSA accounts.
Manage annual non-discrimination testing, audit and IRS filings for qualify retirement plan, working with external vendors.
Manage vendors for medical, dental, pharmacy, vision, HSA, long-term care and work-life resource and referral programs.
Manage several SDLC phases for enterprise systems used by state government agencies to perform environmental and environmental management.

Prepare your benefits consultant resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your benefits consultant resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a benefits consultant resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable benefits consultant resume templates

Build a professional benefits consultant resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your benefits consultant resume.