About this episode

This episode discusses the broken benefits industry and the origin story of Ethos Benefits through the experiences of its founders.

The benefits industry is broken. $37,824. That's the average cost of a family of four on an employer-sponsored health plan in 2026 and it's growing at 9% a year. So how did we get here, and what does it actually look like to fight back? In this episode, host Austin Townend sits down with Chelsea Ryckis (President) and Donovan Ryckis (CEO) of Ethos Benefits for the origin story nobody asked for but everyone needs to hear. From Donovan's background as a fiduciary securities advisor who saw the same conflicts in healthcare and couldn't look away, to Chelsea getting hit in the head with a softball and learning the hard way that you can run but you can't hide from medical debt... this is the story of how Ethos was built different on purpose. Take the next step in your career. Start your CEBS journey today at CEBS.org. https://bit.ly/48k4aeZ What You'll Learn Why Donovan left a lucrative securities career to fix a bigger problem in healthcare Chelsea's personal experience with medical debt and how it shaped the Ethos mission The real definition of fiduciary — and the three things it actually requires Why there is zero fiduciary standard in insurance (and what that means for you) The…

People in this episode

Host: Austin Townend

Guests: Chelsea Ryckis, Donovan Ryckis

Topics covered

• healthcare
• medical debt
• fiduciary responsibility
• insurance
• employer-sponsored health plans
• benefits industry

Keywords

• health plan costs
• fiduciary standard
• medical debt
• healthcare risk
• insurance conflicts

Sponsors

CEBS

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ethos Benefits, CEBS

More episodes of The Business of Benefits Podcast

• 82. A Panel Discussion with 2 Employer Case Studies w/ Jaimie Jarvis & Stephanie Porrino · July 16, 2026 · 1h 3m
• 81. Why Your Wellness Program Isn't Working: The Data-Driven Fix for Employee Burnout w/ Dr. Romie Mushtaq · July 2, 2026 · 44 min

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