Lisa V. Gillespie

Lisa V. Gillespie

Writer

Lisa V. Gillespie is a freelance writer in Washington, DC.

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Arranging and financing long-term care is an issue everyone will face yet no one wants to talk about. However, following the Health Department's move to table the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, planning for long-term care is becoming part of the national conversation – and that presents opportunities and challenges for employers.

Absence management just got a little easier with recommendations

New recommendations were released last week on how to better control returning employees to work following disability leaves and absence management. The Disability Management Employers Coalition and Liberty Mutual's best practices result from a series of live and virtual conferences featuring human resource and benefits professionals, representing employers of all sizes and from a range of industries.

Volatility continues to drive pension plan decision making

Many corporate pension plan sponsors face a significant increase in pension contributions and expense in 2012, adversely affecting competitiveness, investment and job growth and possibly creating a further drag on corporate earnings and cash flow. That troubling outlook is the backdrop for the major concerns of 192 senior-level financial executives surveyed by Mercer and CFO Research Services.

Forty percent of employees don’t understand their benefit options

A new ADP survey shows a wide gap between the goals and reality of how employees understand their benefit plans. Eighty percent of human resources decision-makers believe it's important for employees to fully understand their benefit options, yet they estimate only about 60% of their own employees do – a finding with serious implications for how companies communicate one of the most important parts of their employees' total compensation.

Despite ongoing economic turmoil, companies expect to pay c-suite execs bonuses equal to or more than last year

Despite many companies in North America anticipating a decline in shareholder value in 2011, pressures about executive pay by the Occupy movement and a slow-to-recover economy, a majority of companies expect to pay executive bonuses that are as large as or larger than last year’s awards. Additionally, the majority of companies plan to fund this year’s bonuses at or above target levels, reflecting strong operating results, according to the Towers Watson survey.

Taking care of caregivers

Diane Carruba hasn't been in the same car with her husband in a very long time. She doesn't want them to die together. She doesn't know what would happen to her son. A member of the sandwich generation, Carruba is the primary caregiver to her son – who suffers from ADHD, as well as a seizure disorder that has led to a developmental disability – and also cares for her mother, who is newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease

Raising A-wear-ness

Just one generation ago, HIV/AIDS was regarded as a relentless and indiscriminate killer. In the early 1980s, when the federal government first started tracking the disease, a newly diagnosed patient had a maximum two-year life expectancy, and HIV/AIDS related illness was the second-leading cause of death in American men. Today, it's not even in the top 10.

Reforms equal smaller 401(k)s

Two recent proposals to change the existing tax treatment of 401(k) retirement plans, if enacted, are likely to result in lower account balances for many 401(k) participants, according to a new analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Small business owners: Workers financially unprepared for retirement at crisis level

Across the board, employees may have access to retirement plans, but that’s not the case for small businesses. A new small business survey by Nationwide Financial finds that 75% of small businesses agree that so many Americans are financially unprepared for retirement that it has reached crisis levels. However, only one in five of these businesses offer their employees a 401(k) or other employee self-funded retirement plan.

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