Advisor strategies

Regulatory changes continue to challenge health and life insurance carriers to meet new market demands and stay competitive. Benefit advisers also looking to remain relevant should watch closely carrier reaction to these key issues in 2015.

Commentary: Research shows that three quarters of health care costs are related to the lifestyle choices of human beings. Adviser Joseph Appelbaum shares his D.C. firm’s cost-cutting success story.

In a defined contribution world, cash balance plans continue to gain popularity, study says.

Advisers share why they entered the private exchange business and key players detail how to help employer clients chose the right exchange.

Commentary: To survive the ongoing thinning of the herd, columnist Nelson Griswold asks what are you planning to do differently in 2015 to remain relevant to your clients and grow your business?

Commentary: There are a lot of innovative options that have been implemented by those who are being proactive and who are changing their roles as employee benefit advisers. Columnist Jack Kwicien shares their competitive advantage.

The advent of private and public health care exchanges has expanded employers’ horizons to consider subsidizing pre-Medicare eligible retiree health benefits through the individual market.

EAPs have evolved from counseling and call centers to offering employer clients a breadth of services, including regulation compliance.

Commentary: While agents providing these value-added services have disrupted the market and changed the nature of the benefit sales game, they were but a precursor to the far bigger disruptor taking over huge chunks of the benefits marketplace, says columnist Mel Schlesinger.

Commentary: Not holding producers accountable does immeasurable damage to your culture and morale, says columnist Wendy Keneipp, who shares how to build a plan to keep your producers productive today.

Commentary: How to win the game by exiting the technology arms race — and saving money in the process. Tech expert Joe Markland shares 8 guiding principles.

Hectic work schedules and lack of communication are hurting workplace wellness programs. How can benefit advisers help?

Take a look around the benefits discussion table at many employers these days and you’ll see a wide variety of faces. With clients increasingly tying their benefits strategy to the other departments at their businesses, it’s no surprise that top brokers in the U.S. are taking a closer look at their own company structures in the process.

Commentary: Advisers provide great value to colleges and universities, a Transamerica Retirement Solutions survey shows. Brodie Wood shares four specific areas that participants say are of the most value.

Perhaps the hottest trend in benefits right now is the exchange distribution model. In EBA’s ongoing series of discussions with heads of the country’s top brokerages, these leaders share their approach to the exchange system and how they see private exchanges impacting the future of benefits.

Wizened consumers who are able to analyze their entire out-of-pocket exposure. That’s the goal of ConnectedHealth’s private exchange, says Joe Donlan, the company’s president. However, he predicts that increased consumer engagement is just part of the wave toward more employers adopting private exchanges. Donlan shares his view on where the industry is headed and how brokers fit into the exchange system.

Americans’ approval of the Affordable Care Act is at a record low yet those uninsured who purchased coverage through the exchange are overall pleased with the quality of coverage they obtained.

The IRS plans to close a major loophole in the ACA by banning employers who offer ‘skinny’ medical plans without hospitalization coverage from qualifying as minimum value plans under the health reform law.

A majority of brokers have seen some of their employer clients drop group coverage altogether in reaction to the ACA and double-digit rate increases. That trend, they say, will rise and advisers need to adjust the way they do business if they hope to survive.

Delays, limited awareness, competition and insufficient subsidies among problems outlined in a Government Accountability Office report on state and federal small group exchanges. CMS says brokers will play a key role in any future growth.