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Thom Mangan says we need to change the conversation with employers to underscore the value we bring them outside of carrier negotiation. Consider educating prospective clients about your key advantages and packaging (and pricing) your services accordingly with these six ideas.

Many 401(k) plan financial professionals have already capitalized on the opportunity in the 403(b) market by leveraging their 401(k) plan skills, and being able to distinguish themselves by being savvy in the dynamics that make a 403(b) plan a little different, says guest blogger Aaron Friedman of The Principal Financial.

PPACA takes us back to the future, says blogger Mark Gaunya. Rewind the tape and go back to 1978 when cafeteria plans were born, then fast forward the tape to 2013 and apply state-of-the-art technology. What do you have? An electronic cafeteria plan we now call an insurance exchange or marketplace if we want to be politically correct.

Kids are no strangers to accidents. No matter how it happens or where students are hurt on school property, schools are liable for the cost of student injuries and need to be prepared for these sometimes devastating expenses. This presents an opening for brokers, says EBA blogger Sam Fleet.

The Principal Financials’ Aaron Friedman says we are seeing 403(b) plan sponsors interested in reviewing their plan designs as they look to further clean up initial steps that were taken just a few years ago. This additional work is based on their own experience with compliance under the final regulations, as well as the administrative lessons they’ve learned.

The industry has gone through an evolution in the way it delivers services to clients, the way businesses operate and the state of the competitive market. At some point in there, value added services became all the rage. But now we have a problem, says EBA Blogger Wendy Keneipp.

In 2025, three in four working Americans will be Millennials. By helping them manage stress and anxiety in their 20s and 30s with EAPs, they’ll be more productive and better-equipped to assume leadership positions down the road.

Guest blogger Noreen Oswald is a senior at Temple University majoring in Risk Management &Insurance with a track in employee benefit management. She visited February’s Workplace Benefits Renaissance conference with a group of fellow students and EBA invited her to share her hopes for a future in the industry.

Many employer plan sponsors are expressing a high level of interest in adding Roth 401(k) in-plan conversions as an option to their 401(k) plans in 2013. The recently passed Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 made it possible for retirement plan participants to convert existing 401(k) plan balances to Roth 401(k) balances, whether or not the participant is distribution eligible.

According to the soon-to-be-released UBA Ancillary Benefits Survey, of the 8,557 employers answering questions about employee assistance programs, only 21.8% of employers offer EAPS. That percentage drops to 9.4% among small (fewer than 50 employees) businesses and 19.2% among midsize companies (fewer than 500 employees). As advisers, we shouldn’t forget to incorporate these programs into our clients’ benefits plans. Though sometimes stigmatized, these programs are important, not only to help employees with personal crises such as divorce, substance abuse and financial or legal troubles, but also when an organization is reeling from an employee death, hurricane recovery or even tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.