Then & Now: Raymond Raphael Jr.’s professional career continues on with OneDigital

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following story appeared in the Sept. 18 issue of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. “Then & Now” is a profile of a past member of the Business Journal’s  Forty Under 40 class.

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Raymond Raphael Jr. helps companies large and small navigate the complex world of employee benefits.

And that world is persistently changing. Employers have to stay updated on regulation shifts, rising costs and changing labor trends, to say nothing of the evolution of health insurance.

It’s a world, though, that Raphael has always found appealing. With a calming demeanor, he consults with business owners, CFOs and HR directors to help them solve at least one of the many issues they have to deal with.

After payroll, employee benefits are essentially the most expensive thing a business owner invests in.

“And it is an investment,” Raphael says. “In order to attract and retain employees, particularly in the Northwest Arkansas market where you’ve got low unemployment [and] it’s very competitive, you have to offer good benefits and be attractive. And that has always been attractive to me — the creative side when it comes to the design, implementation and negotiation of benefit plans.”

Raphael, who will turn 49 on Sept. 23, is navigating a changing business environment of his own these days. He started working for a new employer in July, when Georgia-based OneDigital Health and Benefits, the nation’s largest employee benefits-only company, acquired the employee benefits business of Legacy Capital Group, with three locations in Little Rock, Johnson and Fort Smith.

Raphael, who lives in Rogers, was the head of Legacy’s employee benefits division. He’s now head of OneDigital’s operations in Arkansas. With a staff of 20, OneDigital provides consulting and other services relating to employee benefit plans to between 315 and 330 group clients in the state. The smallest has two employees. The largest has about 5,400.

“Joining OneDigital will provide us access to in-house technology and labor resources from a national employee benefits-only firm, all while enhancing our ability to continue to grow our employee benefits business and services for our clients,” Raphael said. “I feel confident that our decision to become part of a national company with the same values and culture that we have built over time in our local agency will only enhance our local team within the national organization.”

In 2003, when Raphael was recognized by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal as a Forty Under 40 honoree, he was in his sixth year as a benefit analyst for BeneTec Inc., an employee benefits brokerage firm in Rogers. He earned a finance degree (1991) and MBA (1992) from the University of Central Arkansas, then spent the next five years working in the financial services sector in Northwest Arkansas.

He was recruited to start Legacy Capital’s office in Northwest Arkansas in February 2004, and made his first hire six months later. Dictated by growth, the Northwest Arkansas office moved to different locales through the years before taking up residence at its current address, on the second floor of the Chambers Bank building in Johnson, a decade ago.

About half of OneDigital’s 20 Arkansas employees work in the Northwest Arkansas office.

“Maintaining the staff and as much local decision-making authority as possible was important to me, as far as the acquisition goes,” Raphael said. “OneDigital wasn’t the only company that expressed an interest in acquiring our practice, and I did my due diligence. A lot of [potential] acquiring firms will try to squeeze margins by reducing staff. That is a nonstarter for me.”

Raphael said the company’s goal is 15% revenue growth each year, through a combination of acquisitions, new clients and new business from existing clients.

He said the Tulsa, Okla., market, where Legacy Capital has longstanding holdover clients before the acquisition, could be a desirable market for future growth.

Away from work, Raphael — a 1986 graduate of Little Rock Catholic High School — is an ardent supporter of the development of Northwest Arkansas’ first Catholic high school. Ozark Catholic Academy is scheduled to open for the 2018-2019 school year in the Father Bandini Parish Education Center at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Tontitown.

Raphael is nearing 25 years of marriage and has four children, three of whom are in college. The oldest will graduate from pharmacy school in 2019, the same year his twins (a boy and a girl) are scheduled to earn undergraduate degrees. The youngest attends Rogers High School.