Voluntary

In case you missed it, the East Coast has had an odd month or so with an earthquake, hurricane and flooding. In trying to find money to pay for repairs and clean up, some folks might look to their retirement plan savings as a resource. Here are the nuts and bolts of "hardship distributions."

McKinsey & Co. caused quite a stir not only around the insurance world, but all the way to Washington, when it recently revealed that 30% of employers will "definitely or probably" drop their coverage when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes effect in 2014.

If you're looking to build your revenue sources and help your clients introduce or expand their health benefits, voluntary benefit discount programs might be the perfect fit.

In 2012 the rate of medical inflation will continue to rise, PricewaterhouseCoopers reports. Employers are frustrated - not so much by the high cost of the medical as by the apparently intractable upward cost trend that is making benefits plans unsustainable.

McKinsey & Co. caused quite a stir not only around the insurance world, but all the way to Washington, when it recently revealed that 30% of employers will "definitely or probably" drop their coverage when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes effect in 2014.

September marks the observance of Life Insurance Awareness Month, coordinated by the nonprofit LIFE Foundation and supported by more than 100 of the nation's leading insurance companies and industry groups, to shine a spotlight on the growing crisis of too many Americans not having adequate life insurance protection. According to the industry research group LIMRA, 30% of U.S. households have no life insurance whatsoever. Today, there are 11 million fewer American households covered by life insurance compared with six years ago. The bottom line: A majority of families either have no life insurance or not enough, leaving them one accident or terminal illness away from a financial catastrophe for their loved ones. Help educate your employees this month on the value of this important benefit. Learn more at lifehappens.org/life-insurance-awareness-month.

An online cartoon is changing the way employees think about voluntary benefits.

EBay is recruiting an unlikely group of new entrepreneurs into its selling ranks — the visually impaired. Blind citizens have staggeringly high rates of unemployment, with some 70% working-age, legally blind adults out of work, according to the National Federation of the Blind. So the online marketplace, in partnership with NFB, began recruiting test sellers in the blind community late last year. In February, it began a pilot program with…

According to a new LIMRA report, “Voluntary Worksite Benefits: Penetration and Market Potential,” almost one-third of all employers are considering offering new voluntary benefits to replace existing benefits that are paid entirely or in part by the employer. This would potentially affect between 19 million and 45 million employees over the next two years, LIMRA estimates. Interest in voluntary is particularly high among large organizations (1,000 or more employees); half of these firms show interest in transitioning their existing benefits to voluntary.

Facebook is on the move...literally. In relocating its headquarters campus, the company recently redesigned and retrofitted the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, Calif., to LEED Gold standard while also integrating attributes of its own culture into the retrofit. New open office spaces reflect Facebook's ways: flexible, comfortable and social. The company greatly values its employees' comfort in and preferences for their work spaces. It sees its built environment as a prominent contributor to their productivity.