The Lyfe Story

The Lyfe story dates to the early 1990s, when the federal government initiated major healthcare reform efforts. At the time, corporate customers of company founder Randy Ray’s lobbying business employed many seasonal and temporary workers, and wanted reform efforts to include health benefit solutions for these workers, who were increasingly important to company operations. Randy personally knew many part-time workers who were left out of employer-paid insurance plans—which weren’t designed to facilitate affordable coverage for anyone not working full time—and personally saw their struggle.

During this time, Randy met with state, federal, and business leaders to outline how the conversation on healthcare reform could be tailored to support the needs of businesses with part-time and temporary workers. Unfortunately, the healthcare reform effort failed. But Randy retained a strong passion for this issue and to find a solution for every employee, whether they worked full time or not.

Randy restarted his efforts in 2004, and having met with technology and finance experts, became convinced that a powerful solution was possible. Randy engaged the services of a highly regarded Washington, D.C. employee-benefits law firm, and asked them a seemingly-simple question: “Can more than one employer pay benefits for an individual or family?” Never asked that question before, the law firm did some preliminary legal review and reported back to Randy and his partners that the initial concept was sound. The key, it turned out, was to separate the employee funding decision from the employee spending decision, which enables multiple employers to pay benefits to an individual or family, and to pay benefits easily to part-time, seasonal, and temporary employees. This set in motion two years of business development to more fully define the Lyfe solution, work through a myriad of legal issues, devise a technology strategy to make it work efficiently, and file for U.S. patent protection.

In 2007 the parent company LyfeSystems, Inc was formed and opened an office in La Conner, Washington, just north of Seattle and ramped up efforts to reach out to business owners. In addition to LyfeSystems, two operating companies were established: LyfeBank, LLC which manages the LyfeVault financial transactions platform, and Aklins Insurance Services, LLC a licensed insurance brokerage. To ensure acceptance of this novel approach, Randy and his partners continued to meet with industry leaders in health insurance, as well as commissioners in insurance to assure that the Lyfe solution met the needs of this governing body and complied with all legal requirements. These efforts all paid off when LyfeSystems launched its groundbreaking program to the public, signing the first client in the fall of 2008.

Currently, LyfeSystems’ affiliated insurance brokerage Aklins is licensed to sell health insurance in 32 states and has been appointed by 22 insurance carriers including United Healthcare, Celtic, Aetna, Golden Rule, Asuris, Anthem, Regence, Premera, and Group Health, to name a few. Although in business for only a short time, LyfeSystems and its operating companies already boast a richly diverse client base, proving the system can work for almost any industry: restaurants, day care, ship manufacturing, aviation manufacturing, communications, wine and grape growers, agriculture, construction, printing, and medical.