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These are uncertain times for employee benefit brokers and consultants. "Obamacare" and the minions in the federal agencies are entrenching national health care with speed and design. Most recently, brokers found out that pay for the various services they provide employers will be placed on the administrative side of carriers' ledgers, making commissions subject to the law's medical loss ratio restrictions.

Boosting employees' take-home pay by providing voluntary benefits at significantly reduced premiums? That's a winner.

When the Departments of Labor and Treasury sent out an RFI on annuities as a retirement savings vehicle in 401(k) plans earlier this year, Allianz Life Financial Services was one of 800 respondents.

If there was any doubt, the October 2010 401kExchange Opportunity Indices (reporting the percentage of plans that indicate they are currently searching for or thinking of changing recordkeepers, funds or advisers) definitively show that DC plan sponsors are much more concerned about finding the right adviser than changing their funds or recordkeepers.

Recent events and trends have thrust the topic of lifetime income products for retirement plans into the limelight. Retirements among the leading edge of Baby Boomers, medical advances increasing Americans' longevity, the market swoon of 2008 and continuing volatility in the financial markets have all contributed to a consensus that today's workers need options for their defined contribution plans that mimic the retirement income benefits of a defined benefit plan.

Agent and broker organizations work behind the scenes to find the best outcome after the NAIC recommends that commissions remain administrative costs.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, not all rules are equal. Some requirements apply to all plans, but others don't apply to a particular plan if that plan qualifies for - and then maintains - "grandfather" status. The PPACA statute itself provides few specifics on how this is supposed to work, leaving it up to regulators at the Departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services to spell out the details. In response, regulators have issued two sets of guidance.

If you want employees making better health care decisions, then give employers the data they need to create effective health plan choices.

Despite more than two-thirds of employees' self-proclaimed ignorance of critical illness insurance, the benefit is on the rise. Imagine what improved product knowledge and an enthusiastic broker could bring.

The year that is drawing to a close just might be remembered by benefit professionals as the most challenging one ever. Despite signs of recovery in some sectors of the economy, as 2010 ends the country remains stuck in the worst employment downturn since the Great Depression.