Practice management

Commentary: Good faith effort, transition relief, 30-day extension and other safety nets for 6055 and 6066 tax filing.

Despite the wide range of cannabis program laws, consistent themes have begun to emerge.

Commentary: If an employer’s policy is unclear — or doesn’t exist — employees may be able to claim they are entitled to payment for their accrued but unused vacation upon termination.

Commentary: EBA columnist Nelson Griswold says benefits RFPs are universally awful and HR should abandon them. Advisers, he says, should also be wary of them.

While the HR tech platform Zenefits offers a solution that addresses certain employer pain points, it also asks employers to dump their current broker. A new tech solution promises the same benefits without asking employers to sever their current broker relationship.

Some have compared the changes in health care to the changes that occurred in the retirement industry 30 years ago when companies switched from pension plans to 401(k) plans and put the responsibility on consumers to pick investments. But George Tzinas, chief experience officer at BenefitAlign, says it is not the same.

Warnings of billions in crippling costs and TV attack ads are the latest salvos from opponents of the Labor Department's fiduciary rule after hearings closed last week. The industry's newest claim is that independent firms could get hit with a bill tallying up to $3.9 billion in startup costs alone should the rule go into effect.

Class action lawsuits claim the professional services firm breached its fiduciary duty by agreeing to the $18 billion deal.

The uninsured rate in the United States is at one of the lowest points since tracking began, and in states with state-based exchanges the uninsured rate is lower than those using the federal marketplace. But is there enough incentive for brokers to continue to play a vital role in exchange enrollment?

For a private exchange to be successful, it needs to offer a full service solution in a box, says David Holton, vice president of private exchange business development at HealthPlan Services. His Tampa, Fla.-based company’s My Consumer Link is an individual exchanges for group brokers to offer. These brokers, Holton says, don’t want to walk away from the money of the individual sales, but don’t have the time to commit to it.