Lisa V. Gillespie

Overall U.S. investor optimism has surged back up to the February 2011 level with a significant jump from September, according to a survey from Wells Fargo and Gallup. Seventy-two percent say they are either better off (40%) or no worse off (32%) than they were nearly four years ago, before the last presidential election, while 27% say they are worse off financially.

Although the rate of health care cost increases is expected to remain stable in 2012, employers are taking more aggressive steps to manage their rising costs and improve employee health, according to findings from the 2012 Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care. The survey was completed by 512 employers who work at companies with at least 1,000 employees and collectively employ 9.1 million full-time employees, and represent more than $87 billion in annual health care spending.

While employers continue to make sizable cash contributions to their pension plans, declining interest rates and, to a lesser extent, weak asset returns, reduced the average funded status of Fortune 1000 pension plans by four percentage points during 2011, according to a new analysis by Towers Watson.

Much has been left up in the air around the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with several mandates not yet fully realized because of delays in rules and the possibility of the Supreme Court ruling parts of the law as unconstitutional.

On Tuesday, HR/benefits practitioners got some free legal advice regarding their specific obligations under new Department of Labor 401(k) fee disclosure rules, which go into effect next month.

Two years ago, eyewear framemaker Aspex filed suit against vision benefits titan Vision Service Plan under anti-trust and unfair competition claims that VSP had stolen Aspex’s patented technology and business. The initial claim and a subsequent appeal both were dismissed in courts.

While there is still much discussion about whether and how incentives really work for engaging employees in wellness programs, most companies still plan on increasing the dollar value of the incentives they offer. That’s according to a survey of 139 employers from Fidelity and the National Business Group on Health released last week to analyze the growth of health-improvement programs in the workplace, which usually entail condition-management services (e.g., managing insulin treatments), lifestyle-management services (e.g., weight-loss advice) and health-risk management services (e.g., onsite flu shots).

Sponsors of the largest U.S. defined benefit pension plans are deepening their risk-management focus on plan liabilities and are increasingly viewing plan assets in the context of liabilities, according to a new study from MetLife released Wednesday. Amid ongoing economic and regulatory uncertainty, the top two risk factors identified as most important to plan sponsors today continue to be liability-related: underfunding of liabilities and asset and liability mismatch. These two risks are followed in the importance rankings by asset allocation and meeting return goals, two investment-oriented risks.

Over the past 60 years, women have entered the education system and the workforce in greater numbers than ever before, and it would seem that because of this work, they'd be on equal footing with men when it comes time to retire.

In 1998, Aspex Eyewear, an eyewear designer that also develops frame technology, was in talks with Altair Eyewear, Inc., another frame designer, about potentially licensing a clip-on technology. Aspex alleges Altair sent the frames to China to make copies and then came out with a very similar clip-on frame. On August 5, 2002, Aspex filed suit for patent infringement.

Katie Griffith is in many ways the walking example of statistics of a working mom today. She is 32, pregnant with her second child and has just been promoted to director in the advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

An increasing number of U.S. workers say they are willing to trade some of their pay for more secure and generous retirement and health care benefits, according to a survey released today by Towers Watson. In addition, nearly half of workers polled say they are worried about reductions in their retirement benefits over the next two years.

Average life expectancy has risen dramatically during the last century. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the number of centenarians, people who live to be 100, rose from 2,300 in 1950 to nearly 80,000 in 2010, and will exceed 600,000 by 2050. And according to the Society of Actuaries, a 65-year-old couple now has a 31% chance of at least one spouse living past the age of 95

Private pension downfalls of recent years aren’t only plaguing private companies and employees, but the federal government, prompting a group of retirement policy experts to gather in Washington, D.C. yesterday to discuss possible solutions, including re-imagining what the defined benefit plan could look like.

This summer, the Supreme Court is set to rule on the constitutionality of a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires individuals to buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Tuesday, the Supreme Court increased the time for next month’s oral arguments from 5.5 hours to six hours, allowing an extra half hour to discuss the Tax Anti-Injunction Act, a law that says courts may not halt a tax that isn’t yet being collected.

The fifth annual national survey assessing household saving revealed that — despite hopeful macroeconomic signs — an increasing number of Americans are having difficulty saving to meet goals ranging from meeting emergencies to affording retirement. Over the last three years, the number who spend less than their income and save the difference, are building home equity, have adequate emergency savings, and think they are saving enough for retirement has declined. However, the survey also revealed that having a savings plan has beneficial financial effects, even for lower-income families.

You may not be hearing it directly from your employees, but most are not happy with the customer service health plans provide. A new research report published by Temkin Group, a consulting firm, rates the customer experience of 206 large companies across 18 industries.

The manufacturing jobs once thought to be lost to China and India are slowly making a comeback in the United States, though they’re in different specialties than originally thought. Last week, employers representing the private sector, education and government came together to talk about the future of jobs in America, and the message was hopeful, but not without caveats.

Are workers really retiring anymore? A new study shows 57% of workers age 60+ say they will look for a new job after retiring from their current company, showing that retirement no longer means the end of one's career. The survey included more than 800 U.S. workers age 60 and older and more than 3,000 hiring managers and human resources professionals.

Enrollment in health savings accounts and heath reimbursement arrangements continues to grow, but contribution patterns to these account-based health plans are changing, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute.