Advisers Latest

Commentary: Promote the need for life insurance coverage before enrollment season, says The Standard’s John West, who provides several talking points advisers can address with clients.

Those who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s state and federal exchanges will have more choices for coverage beginning in 2015, according to a Department of Health and Human Services report released Tuesday.

Commentary: High-limit personal umbrella coverage can be a door-opener for brokers and consultants, says Sam Fleet, president of AmWINS Group Benefits.

Patients with a consumer-driven health plan receive fewer preventive services than patients in traditional health plans, a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found. The results give advisers an opportunity to work with clients to proactively address any differences in quality between CDHPs and traditional plans.

Premiums for health plans purchased on the Affordable Care Act’s Small Business Health Options Program exchanges were slightly cheaper than plans only offered elsewhere, a recent study found, but advisers say the study misses the big picture.

Commentary: Despite perceived cost savings, most narrow networks have actually missed the opportunity to improve value — and their lack of transparency threatens to unleash a ferocious consumer backlash, says Dartmouth's Scott Wallace.

Many employers are "taking necessary steps to rein in costs," the National Business Group on Health says, but a new Mercer survey shows plenty remain on auto-pilot.

Employers are making changes to reshape their health benefit plans between now and 2017 in order to reduce costs, according to Towers Watson’s 2014 Health Care Changes Ahead Survey. In particular, employers pointed to three specific factors that will help frame employer-sponsored benefits.

  Walgreen Co.’s director of health, benefits and wellbeing knew his company, like most in the U.S., was on an unsustainable path of increasing health care costs combined with employees who didn’t focus on their wellbeing. But when the company’s senior directors started thinking about moving employee health care offerings to a private exchange, he was adamantly against it. …

New plan designs mean "real opportunity" for sales to a key demographic in the long-term care market.