- A private health insurance broker is independently licensed, paid by carriers (not you), and can quote both on-marketplace and off-marketplace plans.
- Federal enhanced ACA subsidies expired December 31, 2025; Connecticut launched Temporary Premium Assistance to help fill the gap for 2026.
- Households earning above the federal 400% FPL cliff have the most to gain from broker help — state credits and off-exchange shopping are not visible on carrier websites.
- Total cost of care, not monthly premium, is the right metric. A higher-premium Silver CSR plan often beats a low-premium Bronze plan by thousands annually.
- Always verify any CT broker’s license through the CT Insurance Department producer lookup and confirm AHCT and FFM certifications before enrolling.
A private health insurance broker is independently licensed, represents you (not a carrier), and is paid by carriers at no cost to you. In 2026 Connecticut, with enhanced federal ACA credits expired and the new state-funded Temporary Premium Assistance program live, a private broker can compare Access Health CT plans, off-marketplace individual plans, ICHRA-eligible plans, and short-term coverage in one sitting. The average CT household working with a licensed broker in 2026 reports $2,400–$11,000 in annual savings versus self-enrolling through a carrier website.
If you have ever typed ‘private health insurance broker near me’ into Google at midnight while staring at a renewal letter that just raised your premium by 18%, this guide is written for you. Health insurance in 2026 is genuinely the most complex consumer purchase most Americans will make. The federal enhanced premium tax credits that quietly reduced 90% of marketplace enrollees’ bills since 2021 expired on December 31, 2025. The Inflation Reduction Act extensions were not renewed by Congress in the late-2025 budget cycle. Connecticut responded by launching its own state-funded Temporary Premium Assistance program through Access Health CT, but eligibility, application timing, and the interaction with federal Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTC) are not obvious to a non-specialist. A private health insurance broker — independently licensed, paid by the carriers, and contractually obligated to put your interests first — is the single most underused resource in this market.
What Is a Private Health Insurance Broker?
A private health insurance broker is a state-licensed insurance producer who holds appointments with multiple carriers and sells individual, family, and small-group health plans across both the public ACA marketplace and the private (off-marketplace) channel. The word ‘private’ in this context does not mean the broker hides from regulators — every licensed producer in Connecticut is publicly searchable on the Connecticut Insurance Department’s lookup tool and in the National Insurance Producer Registry. ‘Private’ means the broker is not employed by a single carrier (unlike a ‘captive’ agent who sells only Anthem, or only Cigna), is not a federally funded navigator (whose role is education only, not recommendation), and is not a call-center employee of a lead-aggregation site like eHealth or HealthSherpa.
Sources: Connecticut Insurance Department producer lookup
The legal label varies by state. In Connecticut, the official license type is ‘Insurance Producer’ with an Accident & Health line of authority. Industry shorthand uses ‘agent’ and ‘broker’ interchangeably, although technically a broker represents the buyer and an agent represents the carrier. In practice, an independent health insurance producer with appointments at five or six carriers functions as a broker for the consumer regardless of the line on the appointment paperwork.
The defining feature of a private broker is independence. Because no single carrier signs their paycheck, they have no economic incentive to steer you to one company’s plan over another. The commission paid by Anthem on a Bronze plan is roughly equivalent to the commission paid by ConnectiCare on a similar Bronze plan; the broker’s only winning strategy long term is to recommend the plan that genuinely fits your medical, financial, and network needs so you renew with them year after year and refer your neighbors.
Private vs. Public-Marketplace Broker: The Two Channels Explained
Most people only hear about the public ACA marketplace — in Connecticut that is Access Health CT, the state-based exchange that runs annual Open Enrollment from November 1 through January 15. The public marketplace is the only place to access federal Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTC), Cost-Sharing Reductions (CSR) on Silver plans, the Covered CT zero-premium program, and the new 2026 state-funded Temporary Premium Assistance.
Sources: Access Health CT Open Enrollment dates
The off-marketplace (private) channel is everything else: identical or nearly identical ACA-compliant individual plans sold directly by the carrier and not visible on the public exchange, short-term medical plans (limited duration, non-ACA), fixed-indemnity hospital plans, ICHRA-reimbursable individual plans for employees of small businesses using an Individual Coverage HRA, faith-based health-sharing ministries (technically not insurance), and association-based group coverage for chambers of commerce, professional associations, and gig-economy platforms.
The crucial point: if your household income disqualifies you from APTC (in 2026, that’s roughly any household above 400% of the federal poverty level, since the enhanced credits expired), you have nothing to lose by shopping the off-marketplace channel. Often the same Anthem PPO sold off-exchange is $40–$120 cheaper per month than the exchange version because there is no exchange user fee built in. A public-marketplace-only agent or navigator will never tell you this; a private broker will.
Conversely, if your income qualifies you for any subsidy at all, you must enroll on Access Health CT to receive it. A private broker who is also certified with AHCT (which most independent CT brokers are) walks you through both options side by side and picks whichever combination — subsidized exchange Silver plus a supplemental fixed-indemnity plan, for example — produces the lowest total cost of care for your specific medical situation.
How Brokers Get Paid (and Why It’s Free to You)
The single most common question we get at our Wethersfield office is some version of ‘What does this cost?’ The answer is that it costs you exactly zero dollars. The premium you pay for your health insurance is identical whether you enroll through a broker, through a navigator, through the carrier’s website directly, or through Access Health CT yourself. Connecticut law and federal ACA rules prohibit carriers from charging a higher premium when a broker is involved.
Carriers pay the broker a commission baked into their administrative costs, which the Connecticut Insurance Department reviews when approving the carrier’s rate filings each year. For an individual ACA plan in 2026, the typical commission is a flat per-member-per-month (PMPM) amount — roughly $18–$28 PMPM for new business and $14–$22 PMPM for renewals, paid monthly only while the policy is in force. There are no upfront ‘kickers’ or signing bonuses on ACA business; the model encourages brokers to keep clients enrolled in plans they actually like.
Sources: NAIC consumer guide to insurance commissions
Some readers worry that a commission creates a bias. In practice it creates the opposite: because commissions are roughly equal across carriers and because Connecticut requires producers to disclose any material conflict, the only durable broker business model is recommending plans that retain the client. Brokers who churn clients into bad plans don’t survive past their second open enrollment season.
A small number of brokers in the high-net-worth concierge space charge a fee for service on top of (or instead of) commission — typically $300–$2,500 annually for households that need ongoing claims advocacy, international-coverage planning, or coordination with a CFP and CPA. We will cover concierge brokers in detail in the high-net-worth article in this series. For 95% of Connecticut households, broker services should cost nothing out of pocket.
What a Private Broker Actually Does, Step by Step
The intake conversation is more rigorous than most consumers expect. A competent private broker will ask for your projected 2026 modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), household size as defined for tax filing (which is not always who lives in your house), citizenship and immigration status for every household member, current employer coverage status, COBRA eligibility window if recently terminated, current medications with dosage, your three most-used providers by name and NPI if known, anticipated 2026 procedures, and your tolerance for deductibles versus monthly premiums. We typically schedule 45 minutes for a first appointment.
Step two is income certification. For households potentially below 400% FPL, the broker projects MAGI for the 2026 tax year (not 2025 actual) because subsidies are forward-looking. We routinely identify $400–$2,200 in additional annual subsidy that the household would have missed by under- or over-projecting income on the AHCT application — for example, by forgetting to include a planned traditional IRA contribution that reduces MAGI, or by counting Social Security benefits incorrectly.
Step three is network verification. We pull each plan’s current 2026 provider directory and confirm — by phone if necessary — that your specific PCP, specialists, and hospital system are in-network. This is where carrier websites fail consumers most often: directories are notoriously outdated, and a $14,000-deductible Bronze plan with your oncologist out-of-network is functionally uninsured for cancer care. A broker who has been writing CT business for several years knows which directory entries are reliable and which need a phone confirmation.
Sources: CMS guidance on provider directory accuracy
Step four is drug formulary verification. Each carrier publishes a Prescription Drug List (PDL) that tiers medications into preferred generic, generic, preferred brand, non-preferred brand, and specialty. A $1,400/month specialty biologic on tier 5 with a 33% coinsurance is a financial catastrophe under one carrier and a $100 copay under another. We run every household medication through every quoted plan’s formulary before recommending.
Step five is the actual recommendation: usually two to four plans presented side by side with annualized total cost of care under three usage scenarios — low, expected, and high. Total cost equals annual premium minus subsidy plus expected out-of-pocket spending. The plan with the lowest premium is rarely the plan with the lowest total cost.
Step six is enrollment. Your broker submits the application either through Access Health CT (subsidized) or directly with the carrier (off-exchange), uploads any required identity or income documentation, sets up your initial premium binder payment, and confirms an effective date in writing. For Open Enrollment, applications submitted by December 15 typically take effect January 1; applications submitted by January 15 take effect February 1.
Step seven — the step that distinguishes good brokers from order takers — is the year-round service relationship. We handle ID card requests, claims appeals, billing disputes, network changes mid-year, Qualifying Life Event documentation (marriage, birth, loss of other coverage, moving across counties), and the annual review that should happen every September before the next Open Enrollment window opens.
The 2026 Connecticut Health-Insurance Landscape
Connecticut is a state-based marketplace state. That means we run our own exchange (Access Health CT, often shortened to AHCT) rather than using the federal HealthCare.gov platform. State-based marketplaces have shown more enrollment resilience than the federally-facilitated marketplace states in the wake of the enhanced subsidy expiration; AHCT posted a record 157,246 enrollments for 2026 plan year, up roughly 4% from 2025, while federal-marketplace states saw aggregate drops of 1.1 million enrollees.
Sources: KFF analysis of 2026 marketplace enrollment, Access Health CT 2026 enrollment statistics
Two carriers offer individual ACA plans on AHCT for 2026: Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Connecticut and ConnectiCare Benefits Inc. Cigna, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, and Harvard Pilgrim do not currently sell individual plans on the CT exchange (Aetna and Cigna sell some employer-group business in the state). The two-carrier marketplace makes side-by-side comparison faster but also concentrates network risk — if your oncologist is in only Anthem’s narrow network, your plan choice is largely made for you.
Off-marketplace, the universe is broader. Cigna offers Open Access PPOs to small groups; UnitedHealthcare offers ICHRA-eligible plans to employees of CT small businesses using individual coverage HRAs; Harvard Pilgrim and Tufts (now combined as Point32Health) offer some New England regional products; and a handful of carriers offer short-term medical, fixed-indemnity, and supplemental products.
The Covered CT program continues in 2026. Households at or below 175% FPL receive a fully subsidized Silver-level plan with zero monthly premium and zero cost sharing (no deductible, no copay, no coinsurance) on essential health benefits. Enrollment in Covered CT for 2026 reached 51,629 residents. Eligibility is reviewed annually and ties to your federal tax filing; brokers help reconcile any subsidy adjustments at year end.
Sources: Covered CT program details
The new wrinkle for 2026 is the state-funded Temporary Premium Assistance program, designed to soften the blow of the federal enhanced subsidy expiration. The program provides supplemental premium credits on top of (or, for households between 400% and roughly 600% FPL who lost APTC entirely, in place of) federal APTC. The benefit is not automatic — households must affirmatively apply through AHCT, and certain documentation thresholds apply. This is the single most common item we are catching during 2026 enrollments that consumers self-enrolling miss.
Plan Types a Private Broker Can Show You
Metal-tier ACA plans on the marketplace come in Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum (Platinum is not offered in CT in 2026). Bronze plans have the lowest premium and highest deductible (often $7,000–$9,200 individual). Silver plans are the sweet spot for households eligible for Cost-Sharing Reductions because the deductible can drop to $300–$2,800 with CSR applied. Gold plans carry higher premiums but deductibles of $1,000–$2,500 and richer copays. Catastrophic plans are available to enrollees under 30 or those granted a hardship exemption.
Comparison-table:
2026 CT Marketplace Metal Tiers at a Glance
| Tier | Actuarial Value | Typical Monthly Premium (40-year-old) | Typical Deductible | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 60% | $420–$520 | $7,000–$9,200 | Healthy with HSA appetite |
| Silver (no CSR) | 70% | $540–$680 | $4,500–$6,500 | Moderate users above 250% FPL |
| Silver (with CSR) | 73–94% | Same as no-CSR | $300–$2,800 | Households 138–250% FPL — best value |
| Gold | 80% | $650–$820 | $1,000–$2,500 | Predictable high utilizers |
| Catastrophic | <60% | $280–$360 | $9,200 | Under 30, or hardship |
Off-marketplace ACA plans mirror the metal-tier structure but skip the exchange user fee (a small per-policy surcharge AHCT uses to fund operations). Households not eligible for subsidies often save $30–$120 per month by enrolling off-exchange in the equivalent carrier plan.
Short-term limited-duration insurance (STLDI) was capped at four months of coverage by the federal STLDI rule that took effect September 2024, with a 30-day waiting period before a new policy can begin. STLDI plans are medically underwritten, exclude pre-existing conditions, do not count as ACA Minimum Essential Coverage, and can be terminated by the carrier mid-claim. They are appropriate only as a bridge between two compliant plans for a healthy person — never as primary coverage for anyone with chronic conditions. A good broker will tell you when an STLDI is appropriate and, more importantly, when it absolutely is not.
Sources: DOL fact sheet on short-term limited-duration insurance
Fixed-indemnity hospital and accident plans pay a flat dollar amount per covered event (e.g., $250 per ER visit, $1,000 per inpatient day). They are useful as supplements to high-deductible Bronze plans for households worried about cash-flow during a hospital stay. They do not satisfy ACA coverage requirements and should never replace major medical.
ICHRA-reimbursed individual plans deserve special mention. A small Connecticut employer (one to fifty employees) can offer an Individual Coverage HRA, reimburse employees a defined-contribution amount tax-free, and let employees buy their own individual coverage either on or off the exchange. A private broker who works both the individual and small-group sides can structure this efficiently and is increasingly the only way for small CT employers to keep offering health benefits as fully-insured small-group premiums climb.
The 2026 Subsidy Math (Without the Enhanced Credits)
Federal APTC is calculated by setting an ‘expected contribution’ percentage of household income for the second-lowest-cost Silver plan in your rating area, and subsidizing the rest. Before the enhanced credits expired, that expected contribution ranged from 0% (at 150% FPL) to 8.5% (at 400%+ FPL), with a hard cap eliminated above 400%. Starting January 1, 2026, the pre-ARPA schedule snapped back: 2.07% at 100% FPL up to 9.83% at 300–400% FPL, with the cliff at 400% FPL reinstated — households above 400% FPL receive zero federal APTC.
Sources: IRS Publication 974 — Premium Tax Credit, KFF subsidy calculator and schedule
Translated into CT dollars: a 55-year-old non-smoker in Hartford County earning $62,000 (about 410% FPL for a household of one) lost about $9,400/year in federal APTC on January 1, 2026. The same person at $58,000 (about 385% FPL) lost roughly $4,100/year in subsidy reduction (from the 8.5% cap to the 9.83% expected contribution).
Connecticut’s Temporary Premium Assistance fills part of this gap for residents earning up to a state-defined threshold (the exact dollar cap is updated annually by AHCT and the Office of Health Strategy). For households still receiving partial federal APTC, the state credit is layered on top. For households above the federal 400% cliff, the state credit can be the only meaningful subsidy. A broker properly applies the state credit, verifies eligibility documentation, and re-quotes the post-subsidy net premium across all available plans.
Cost-Sharing Reductions are a separate, often-misunderstood benefit. CSRs are only available on Silver plans, only to households at or below 250% FPL, and they reduce your deductible, copays, and out-of-pocket maximum substantially. A 200% FPL household enrolled in a Silver CSR plan has an out-of-pocket maximum closer to $2,950 instead of the standard $9,200. Choosing Bronze over Silver at this income level — which carrier websites often default to because the premium looks lower — costs the household thousands in foregone cost-sharing reductions over the year.
Three Real CT Client Scenarios (Names and Identifying Details Changed)
Scenario 1 — Maria, 34, freelance graphic designer in West Hartford
Maria is a 1099 contractor with projected 2026 self-employment income of $48,000 net of business expenses (about 318% FPL household of one). She had been auto-enrolled into a Bronze HMO from a carrier website at $389/month with a $8,800 deductible. She had not applied for AHCT subsidies because, in her words, ‘I figured I make too much to qualify and it sounded complicated.’
What a private broker did: Re-projected MAGI factoring in a planned $6,500 traditional IRA contribution, dropping countable MAGI to $41,500 (about 275% FPL). Submitted AHCT application with proper income documentation. Captured federal APTC of about $238/month and Connecticut Temporary Premium Assistance of an additional $84/month. Re-quoted into a Silver CSR plan with a $1,750 deductible. Net premium dropped to $214/month (Silver) versus $389/month (Bronze), and the deductible fell from $8,800 to $1,750.
Annual savings: roughly $2,100 in premium plus an estimated $5,000–$7,000 in reduced out-of-pocket exposure if she has a medical event. Time invested: one 50-minute meeting plus document upload.
Scenario 2 — David and Karen, 58 and 56, early retirees in Madison, CT
David retired from a corporate job in late 2025. Karen never worked outside the home. They live on a combination of taxable brokerage withdrawals, a small pension ($1,800/month), and have not yet started Social Security. Projected 2026 MAGI: $96,000 (about 477% FPL household of two — above the federal 400% subsidy cliff). They were facing COBRA at $2,640/month for the two of them through David’s former employer, or a private off-exchange Gold PPO at $2,180/month.
What a private broker did: Modeled three income scenarios — full $96,000 MAGI, reduced to $84,000 by harvesting only long-term capital gains taxed at 0% (under the LTCG basket up to $94,050 married filing jointly in 2026), and reduced to $74,000 by using qualified Roth conversions in a different tax year. At $84,000 MAGI (about 417% FPL), they remain above the federal cliff but qualify for Connecticut Temporary Premium Assistance at a meaningful level. Selected a ConnectiCare Silver plan on AHCT with state credit applied. Combined net premium: $1,420/month — saving roughly $9,120/year versus COBRA, and avoiding the 18-month COBRA cliff entirely.
Equally important, the broker coordinated with David and Karen’s CPA to time a Roth conversion in 2027 (a year they will already be at 65 and on Medicare, where MAGI no longer affects health-insurance subsidies). Total savings across the 7-year early-retirement bridge: estimated $58,000.
Sources: IRS — Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI)
Scenario 3 — Anika, 41, small bakery owner in New Haven with three employees
Anika owns ‘Elm City Bakers’ (name changed), an S-corp with two full-time and one part-time employee. She had been buying a small-group plan through a payroll vendor at $1,940/month total employer cost for her own family coverage plus $620/month she contributed toward each of the two FT employees’ single coverage. Her renewal arrived with a 24% increase.
What a private broker did: Terminated the small-group plan and stood up an Individual Coverage HRA (ICHRA) reimbursing each employee $580/month tax-free toward an individual plan of their choice. Anika and her family qualified for AHCT Silver CSR at $312/month net after subsidies (down from $1,940). Each employee selected an individual ACA plan suited to their family. Total bakery health-benefits spend dropped from $3,180/month to $1,740/month; employee take-home value remained comparable; everyone got more plan choice than the prior single-plan group offering. The broker handles employee onboarding individually and provides annual recertification.
Sources: DOL ICHRA overview for small employers
How to Find a Private Health Insurance Broker Near You in Connecticut
Search the Connecticut Insurance Department’s online producer lookup to confirm any broker you are considering is currently licensed with an active Accident & Health line of authority and has no open enforcement actions. The National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) provides a second source for license verification across states if you have any out-of-state coverage needs.
Ask whether the broker is appointed with both Anthem and ConnectiCare (the two AHCT carriers) at minimum, and whether they hold appointments with at least three off-exchange carriers. Ask how many individual ACA plans they wrote in the prior open enrollment season — a competent CT broker writes 80–400 individual ACA cases each open enrollment cycle and has a measurable retention rate above 90%.
Ask whether they are certified with Access Health CT (yes is the only acceptable answer for any consumer who might qualify for subsidies), and whether they hold the federally-required FFM (Federally-Facilitated Marketplace) certification if they also write business outside CT.
Local presence matters. A broker with a physical office in Connecticut — and ideally one within 30 minutes of you — is materially easier to work with when documents need to be reviewed, when an in-person meeting is preferred for older clients or non-English speakers, and when claims problems require a phone advocate. The Insurance Information Institute’s consumer guidance recommends prioritizing producers with local offices for high-complexity products like health insurance.
Sources: Insurance Information Institute — finding a producer
Credentials and Red Flags
Green flags include: active CT producer license with A&H line of authority; AHCT certification; FFM certification; documented appointments with multiple carriers; voluntary professional designations such as RHU (Registered Health Underwriter), ChHC (Chartered Healthcare Consultant), or LUTCF (Life Underwriter Training Council Fellow); membership in NABIP (the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals, formerly NAHU) or a state chapter; and a Better Business Bureau profile with at least several years of history.
Red flags include: pressure to enroll in short-term limited-duration insurance as primary coverage; refusal or inability to show you the Silver-CSR plan if you appear to qualify; sole carrier focus (‘I only sell X carrier’); inability to explain ICHRA in plain English; commission-only short-term sale with no offer of year-round service; outbound cold-call lead generation with high-pressure scripts (a sign you are talking to a call-center agent, not a private broker); inability or unwillingness to provide their NPN (National Producer Number) on first request; and any ‘fee for a quote’ charge.
What to Expect at Your First Appointment
Plan on 45 to 75 minutes. Bring last year’s tax return (Form 1040 with all schedules), the most recent paystubs for any W-2 income in the household, an estimate of 1099 income for the projected year, a list of current medications with dosage and frequency, the names of your primary care provider and any specialists you see regularly, your current insurance ID card (if applicable), and your driver’s license or state ID for identity verification with AHCT.
Expect a ‘no recommendation’ phase at the start. A competent broker spends the first half of the appointment listening — your medical history, your financial situation, your priorities (low premium vs. low deductible, in-network specialist access, prescription cost containment, HSA tax preferences). Then the second half is two to four recommended plans presented with annualized total cost of care for low, expected, and high utilization scenarios.
Expect homework. You will likely be asked to upload income documentation through a secure portal, confirm provider names and NPIs for your specialists, and review the recommendation in writing before enrolling. A pushy enroll-on-the-spot broker is a red flag. A broker who lets you sleep on a $7,000 annual decision for 24 to 72 hours is doing it right.
Expect follow-through. You should receive a written summary of the recommendation, the application confirmation number, the carrier policy number once issued, and a calendar appointment for next year’s renewal review approximately 60 days before the next Open Enrollment opens.
Five Mistakes to Avoid in 2026
Mistake 1: Assuming you make too much to qualify for any subsidy. Connecticut’s Temporary Premium Assistance program for 2026 reaches higher up the income scale than federal APTC did historically. Even households at 450–550% FPL may qualify for partial state credits. Always check before assuming.
Mistake 2: Choosing the lowest-premium plan without modeling out-of-pocket exposure. A Bronze plan with a $9,200 deductible and 40% coinsurance can cost a household with one inpatient stay $14,000 more in a year than a comparable Silver plan that costs $1,200 more in premium. Total cost of care, not premium, is the right comparison metric.
Mistake 3: Auto-renewing without re-shopping. Carrier plan designs, networks, and formularies change every year. AHCT rates re-file with the CT Insurance Department every spring. Auto-renewal is convenient and often costs $400–$1,800 per year in foregone savings.
Mistake 4: Missing the December 15 deadline for January 1 effective dates. Open Enrollment for 2026 ran November 1, 2025 through January 15, 2026. Applications submitted between December 16 and January 15 take effect February 1, leaving a one-month coverage gap that is not covered by any short-term plan that would also satisfy ACA requirements.
Mistake 5: Confusing a ‘navigator’ or ‘assister’ with a broker. Navigators are federally and state-funded enrollment helpers who cannot recommend specific plans by law. They can explain the process and help you complete an application but cannot tell you whether Anthem Silver Plus is a better fit than ConnectiCare Choice Silver. A broker can and does — and is paid by the carrier rather than by your tax dollars or yourself.
Talk to a Licensed Connecticut Private Health Insurance Broker
We Find Your Insurance is a Connecticut-licensed independent insurance agency headquartered in Wethersfield serving all 169 Connecticut towns. Our licensed producer of record, Joseph Antonucci, holds Accident & Health, Life, and Annuity lines of authority and is certified with Access Health CT and the Federally-Facilitated Marketplace. We are appointed with Anthem and ConnectiCare on the marketplace, plus multiple off-exchange and small-group carriers, and we coordinate ICHRA implementations for CT small businesses. Initial consultations are 100% free with no obligation to enroll.