A benefits firm built around the question employers actually ask.
Which is not “what does this plan cost.” It is “why does it cost this, and what can I do about it.” Almost nobody answers the second one.
Hunter & Alexandria Howton
Co-founders, HowToHR
The founder story
HowToHR was founded by Hunter and Alexandria Howton, a husband-and-wife team combining experience in HR technology and PEO services with experience building and operating businesses. Alex brings the HR and people-technology perspective. Hunter brings the operating, financial, and technology perspective. HowToHR brings those disciplines together around one goal: making the systems employers rely on for their people simpler to understand, easier to manage, and more accountable.
The firm exists because of a pattern that shows up over and over with employers between 10 and 500 people. They are large enough that benefits are a serious line item, sometimes the second largest after payroll, and small enough that nobody inside the company has the time or the data to challenge it. So the renewal arrives, the number goes up, someone forwards it to the owner, and it gets approved. Not because anyone thinks it is right, but because the alternative is a project nobody has capacity for.
That project is what we do. The analysis is not magic and it is not proprietary. It is benchmarking, plan design, funding structure, contribution modeling, and a careful look at which vendors are doing work you are paying for twice. It just takes someone whose actual job it is.
Hunter Howton
Co-founder
Hunter is an operator and founder of other software and services businesses. His background spans financial services, technology, and energy, building and running companies rather than working inside HR departments. At HowToHR he brings the operating, financial, and technology perspective.
Alexandria Howton
Co-founder
Alex brings hands-on experience in PEO services and HR technology, working directly with employers on benefits, payroll, and people-technology systems. At HowToHR she brings the HR and employer-services perspective.
And on the team in spirit if not on the org chart: Roxi, a miniature dachshund, who supervises most calls from somewhere near the desk. Chief Morale Officer.
How we get paid
This is the question most employers want to ask and most firms make awkward to ask, so here it is up front.
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In the usual arrangement, when you appoint us as your broker of record, the carrier pays us a commission. That commission is already built into the premium rate whether you have a broker or not, so having us involved does not raise what you pay. For work that sits outside a carrier relationship, such as standalone HR consulting or a payroll implementation with no benefits component, we quote a flat fee in writing before we start.
What we will not do is let compensation quietly steer a recommendation. If two options in front of you pay us differently, we will tell you that as part of presenting them. If the right answer for your company is one that pays us nothing, including staying exactly where you are, we would rather say so and keep the relationship.
The free review really is free
There is no fee, no contract to sign before it, and no obligation after it. You keep the written report whatever you decide. We do it this way because it is the fastest honest way to show you how we work, and because employers who understand their own numbers make better decisions either way.
Full licensing and compensation detail is on our disclosures page. We are licensed by the Texas Department of Insurance under license #{{TDI_LICENSE_NUMBER}}.
What we hold ourselves to
Transparency
You will know how we are paid, what we recommend, and what we chose not to recommend and why. If our compensation differs between two options we are showing you, we will tell you that before you decide, not after.
Speed
A returned call the same day, a renewal process that starts 120 days out, and a question answered while it still matters. Most of what employers dislike about working with brokers is really about waiting.
One point of contact
One person who knows your plan, your payroll system, your renewal date, and your people. Not a service team, not a case number, not a different name on every email.
Where we work
Serving employers across Katy, Houston, and the Brazos Valley, which in practice means Katy, Houston and the surrounding suburbs, Sugar Land, Cypress, Bryan, and College Station. We meet employers in person when it is useful, and plenty of the work happens on video. If you are elsewhere in Texas, call anyway. Distance is rarely the deciding factor.
Start with the free review.
No contract, no fee, and a written report you keep whatever you decide.