Advisers Latest

Walmart’s announcement this week that it will drop health care coverage for its part-time employees reiterates that employer-sponsored health care coverage is changing, and those benefit advisers who plan to remain relevant to clients must change, too.

EBA’s annual Workplace Benefits Summit, held last week in Boca Raton, Fla., included a celebration of our Advisers of the Year, strategy and marketing tips from benefit professionals, and the presentation of our inaugural Most Influential Women in Benefit Advising awards.

Private health care exchanges bring with them major implications for employer-sponsored benefits, including a shift to defined contribution health care and increased access to data.

The more things appear to change, the more they appear to stay the same. That’s what a consumer health advocacy group in Florida is saying about double-digit health insurance premium increases that it says have been predating, and now post-dating, the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Commentary: When talking to non-profit HR executives, the common reasons The Principal’s Aaron Friedman hears for low adoption include perceived cost and the idea that they don’t feel like they can tell people what to do. These reasons don’t hold water, he says.

Commentary: October is National Depression Awareness Month. Jeff Guardalabene, a mental health case manager with Standard Insurance Company, offers these tips on how to help your employer clients navigate this important but often uncharted territory.

Commentary: To get beyond the barriers that keep us from engaging customers and avoid always asking the “who can I talk to today?” question, what’s needed is a pipeline mentality, says sales expert John Graham.

How offering employers solutions to employee engagement can earn you an agent of record letter.

Employers and employees have different perspectives when it comes to discussing benefits, and benefit advisers can help close that gap.

Health care reform has changed the role of the adviser from insurance broker to that of a trusted adviser, counselor and compliance guru. Advisers hoping to thrive in this new environment will embrace the change less as a burden and more as an opportunity.