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The People Behind the Plan Are the People Who Answer Your Phone

About Us

At Expat Solutions International, you work directly with the principals who built your coverage — not a service queue, not a rotating account team. That is not a tagline. It is how we have operated since Dale Bear founded this firm in 2004.

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Where ESI Came From — and Why It Exists

ESI was built in response to a specific problem: double-digit premium inflation that was making international group health coverage unaffordable for mission-sending organizations, Christian schools, and nonprofit ministries. Before founding ESI, Dale ran a self-insured health program for Christian schools with more than 1,800 participants. That experience proved, at scale, that the right funding structure could hold costs down in ways a standard fully insured plan could not.


ESI launched in 2004 with that premise at its core. Two decades later, the firm still operates on it. Our "Unique Solutions, Unique Results" approach is built on the belief that most employer groups are paying for a plan structure that was never designed for their risk profile. We offer three: fully insured, partially self-funded, and fully self-funded international plans. Most boutique brokers offer one. The right structure for your group depends on your size, your claims history, and your risk tolerance — and we do the analysis to find it.

The Team You Work With Directly

Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

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Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

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Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

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Dale Bear

Owner, Certified Health Insurance Specialist

Dale has been in the health insurance industry since 1994. His career has been shaped almost entirely by one question: how do faith-based and mission-minded organizations get access to the same plan structures that large corporations use to control their costs? He holds the Certified Health Insurance Specialist designation and has spent the past three decades building the answer. Dale specializes in fully insured and self-funded plans for mission organizations, Christian schools and colleges, and churches — and has served these groups through ESI for more than twenty years.

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Brian Bear

Risk Analyst

Brian holds a mathematics degree and is a certified Microsoft programmer. He spent 22 years working inside sending organizations before joining ESI, which means he understands the budget realities of faith-based and nonprofit work from the inside. His role at ESI is to build the risk models that make self-funding viable and defensible. When a group is considering a partially or fully self-funded plan, Brian constructs the spreadsheet analysis that shows exactly what the group's claims exposure looks like, where the reserves need to sit, and how much risk can be shared safely. He is the reason ESI can offer self-funding as a real option rather than a theoretical one.

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Bob Tidrow

Partner

Bob joined ESI in 2017, bringing more than 20 years of employee benefits experience from the carrier side — Cigna, Aetna, and New York Life — plus 8 years at Guidestone. That background means Bob understands how carriers price risk, structure contracts, and respond to claims. He brings that institutional knowledge to bear on behalf of ESI clients rather than on behalf of a carrier. For employer groups outside the faith-based sector, Bob is often the primary point of contact, and his corporate benefits background is the bridge between ESI's nonprofit roots and the broader employer market.

The core of what ESI does is not brokerage in the traditional sense. It is risk analysis applied to plan design. Brian's models identify what a group's actual claims exposure looks like over time. That analysis informs the funding structure Dale recommends. When a group is large enough and healthy enough to self-fund — or to partially self-fund — they stop paying a carrier's profit margin on every dollar of premium and start building their own reserves instead.


This system has allowed client groups to go years without a premium increase. That outcome is not guaranteed, and every group's situation is different. But it is the result of a deliberate, repeatable process — not luck, not timing, and not a carrier promotion.


We work with A-rated carriers including Aetna, United, Cigna, and International Medical Group. You can review the carriers we partner with on our carriers page.

How We Hold Rates Down — and Why It Works

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Why Our Core Clients Trust Us With This

ESI's deepest roots are in the faith-based and nonprofit sector. Dale and Brian came out of that world — not as outside observers, but as people who worked inside mission-sending organizations and Christian schools and understood the financial pressures those organizations face. We have served missionary agencies, NGOs, churches, Christian universities, and nonprofit ministries nationwide since 2004.


That history matters because it means we understand how these organizations think about benefits, budgets, and risk. We are not generalists who added an international product line. International group health coverage for mission-minded organizations is where this firm began.


Bob's carrier background extends ESI's reach to corporate employer groups and US companies with overseas staff who need the same analytical rigor applied to a different organizational context. The same system works. The same three people answer the phone.

Frequently Asked Questions About ESI

  • Who are the people behind Expat Solutions International?

    ESI is a three-principal firm: Dale Bear, owner and Certified Health Insurance Specialist with a career in health insurance dating to 1994; Brian Bear, Risk Analyst with a mathematics background and 22 years inside sending organizations; and Bob Tidrow, partner since 2017 with more than 20 years at Cigna, Aetna, New York Life, and Guidestone. When you work with ESI, you work directly with one of them.

  • How long has ESI been doing expat insurance?

    ESI was founded in 2004 with a specific focus on international group health coverage for mission-sending organizations and faith-based employers. The firm has served these groups for more than twenty years, and international group health remains the core of what we do.

  • Is ESI a good fit for organizations outside the faith-based sector?

    Yes. While ESI's roots are in mission organizations and Christian schools, the firm's plan structures and risk modeling approach apply equally to any US employer with overseas staff. Bob Tidrow's corporate carrier background — Cigna, Aetna, New York Life, and Guidestone — makes ESI a capable partner for secular employers and multinational organizations as well.

  • What makes ESI different from a larger benefits brokerage?

    Two things: the depth of the analytical work behind each plan recommendation, and the direct access to the people doing it. Larger agencies often place groups into standard fully insured products because it is the path of least resistance. ESI evaluates all three funding structures — fully insured, partially self-funded, and fully self-funded — and recommends the one that fits the group's actual risk profile. And the principals who make that recommendation are the same people you call when you have a question.

  • What is a self-funded international health plan, and is it right for my organization?

    A self-funded plan means your organization retains a portion of the claims risk rather than paying a carrier to assume all of it. In exchange, you stop paying the carrier's profit margin and administrative load on every dollar of premium — and you build reserves that belong to your organization. Whether it is the right structure depends on your group's size, claims history, and risk tolerance. Brian Bear's risk modeling process is designed to answer exactly that question before any recommendation is made. You can learn more on our self-funded plans page.

Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

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Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

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Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

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Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

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Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

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Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

Smiling person seated behind a laptop in a softly lit indoor setting
Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

Portrait of a person in a dark striped shirt, looking at the camera in an office setting
Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

Person in a white top and black pants sitting outdoors, smiling with hands folded.
Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

Person in a white top and black pants sitting outdoors, smiling with hands folded.
Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

Person in a white top and black pants sitting outdoors, smiling with hands folded.
Guy Hawkins

President of Sales

Person in a white top and black pants sitting outdoors, smiling with hands folded.