Healthcare

While even the smallest of employers are reporting increased success in their participants’ savings rates and ongoing recruitment benefits in offering a workplace retirement plan, the fiduciary burdens of administering those 401(k) plans are starting to add up for many plan sponsors.

Are you making retirement plan decisions using a prudent process? Do you always put the interests of plan participants ahead of the company's when considering plan issues? Here are some best practices related to decision-making and documentation.

In the retirement plan arena, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 was a game changer for defined benefits plan sponsors - it altered the way in which the value of lump-sum offerings was calculated, making lump-sum payouts a more attractive solution for plan sponsors seeking ways to reduce the risks associated with their DB plans.

While benefit brokers applaud HHS efforts to hold ACA exchange navigators to licensing and certification standards, many worry federal regulation will undermine state efforts already in place.

In an effort to make workplace retirement savings more portable and to help build assets in tax-qualified retirement plans, the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service have removed a cumbersome step plan sponsors must take when accepting rollovers from other employers’ plans.

Because alternative investments, such as private equity, hedge funds and real assets, are typically accessed though a limited partnership structure, retirement plan fiduciaries are charged with more extensive due diligence as compared to monitoring daily valued mutual funds or separate accounts.

CMS has reset all Healthcare.gov user passwords in response to the Heartbleed internet security bug, causing frustration for consumers and brokers, alike.

A program for sick Americans who were previously denied insurance coverage has been further extended, with individuals now given until the end of June to purchase coverage.

Oregon’s health insurance exchange, plagued by computer flaws after federal taxpayers spent $303 million to build it, may be closed and the state’s customers shifted to the U.S. Obamacare marketplace.

Benefit advisers should be familiar with certain grace periods when employers can avoid penalties.