Healthcare

Enrollment season is upon us, making it prime time for benefits carriers to unveil new and different ways to engage employees and help them make their benefits decisions.

As more of the baby boom generation retires, some U.S. companies will face a potentially significant loss of talent and institutional knowledge. Companies ahead of the curve are already looking at ways to avoid the brain drain by encouraging today’s workers over 50 to stay longer.

Despite thousands of dollars spent on marketing, one key item is missing for critical illness insurance sales. What is it and how can four simple questions help improve sales?

Mutual funds continue to be the leading investment choice among self-directed brokerage account participants.

Commentary: Extreme market volatility does not last forever. However, mistakes 401(k) plan participants make by selling out of equity funds at the wrong time can significantly damage their retirement prospects.

Brian Heckert, the new Million Dollar Round Table president, shares the story of how he entered the industry, as well as what he hopes to accomplish and insights on other issues facing the retirement industry.

Adviser help is sorely needed to lessen employer/employee disconnect during open enrollment. Recent research from Aflac shows tools and resources that employees find useful are not always made available by their employers, further complicating an already confusing process.

The House has agreed to pass legislation that makes possible a repeal of the ACA’s controversial expansion of the definition of a small employer — a bill hailed by the benefits industry for protecting the small and mid-size businesses they feel the expansion threatens to harm.

John Engler, president of Business Roundtable, called on Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to consider changes to the fiduciary proposal.

Commentary: it is particularly curious that the DOL’s proposed fiduciary regulation seems to introduce prohibitions that will likely prevent future modernization of such plans, says The Principal’s Aaron Friedman.