HR Companies & HR Consultants in Brattleboro, VT

The Richards Group, known as TRG and now operating as an IMA Company, is an independent insurance and financial services firm based in Brattleboro, Vermont. It has worked with clients in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts since 1867. Alongside commercial, personal and wealth management lines, the firm runs a Total Rewards practice.

This practice combines employee benefits consulting with a dedicated HR consulting team, which makes TRG relevant to employers looking for HR support and benefits advice from a single partner.

HR Consulting and Talent Services

The HR Services group is led by Managing Director Dan Lyons and includes Strategic HR Business Advisors Susan Loynd and Roxanne Vought. The team describes its approach as people-centered and curious. It works on each client's specific challenges and turns its findings into practical recommendations. Its main consulting offerings are:

• Leadership development and training: sessions designed around each organization's needs. TRG has delivered this kind of training to employers across Vermont and New Hampshire for decades.
• Executive search: a hybrid model that pairs the thoroughness of a retained search with a payment structure that is mostly contingent. Clients get confidential sourcing, access to TRG's wider network, help assessing leadership potential and cultural fit, market and salary insight, and support during offer negotiations.

Benefits Strategy and Employee Communication

TRG's Total Rewards Consultants work with organizations of every size. They help employers align their compensation, benefits and retirement planning with business goals. Their work includes:

• Managing plan renewals
• Compliance review covering the ACA and HIPAA
• Risk management
• Employee engagement
• Wellness program guidance
• Technology for benefits administration and payroll

For communicating with employees, the firm builds custom Total Rewards Center websites and tailored benefit guides. It also delivers enrollment presentations live, virtually or as recordings, provides on-site help at enrollment meetings, and offers benchmarking. TRG also maintains a vetted network of strategic partners covering:

• Health, dental, vision, life and disability coverage
• Stop loss and benefit captives
• Pharmacy benefit management
• Section 125 and HSA plans
• ACA reporting
• Third-party administration
• International, voluntary and executive benefits

Each partner relationship is assigned an internal liaison, and some partners offer negotiated wholesale pricing.

Background and Locations

For most of its history, TRG was a family-owned brokerage. It later entered a strategic partnership with IMA Financial Group to deepen its expertise in healthcare, education and nonprofit insurance. In early 2026 it acquired Burlington Insurance Agency in Colchester. The firm stresses its independence from carriers and says it represents client interests rather than those of insurers.

TRG has offices throughout the region:

• Vermont: Brattleboro, Bennington, Bethel, Burlington, Manchester, Middlebury, Rutland, Springfield, White River Junction and Wilmington
• New Hampshire: Concord, Keene and Portsmouth

Recent recognition includes being named Best Employee Benefits Firm in the VermontBiz 2026 Best of Business Awards. TRG was also listed among Vermont's Best Places to Work for an eleventh straight year. For buyers, its main distinction is the combination of benefits brokerage, compliance help and hands-on HR consulting within one regional firm.