Benefits Think

In today’s BeAdvised, Bob Arnoff blogs about ethical concerns for brokers and advisers around the new health care reform bill. How are you preparing for the switch? What do you plan to do about the dilemma he talks about?

Think about it . . . If you had the cure for cancer, how many cancer patients would you approach each day? The answer — as many as you could. Do you have the cure for the problems employers and employees face each day? The answer is of course you do. Let’s take a moment and look at the value you create for the clients you serve: …

If I gave you 30 seconds to name your company’s 10 top-performing employees, could you do it? If not, you’re not alone — unfortunately. A new survey reveals that more than one-quarter of large organizations make virtually no attempt to identify high-potential employees.

Although I’m ever grateful for all of my benefits and the financial safety net they provide, flexibility is the benefit that has the biggest impact on my day-to-day life. It makes me a better mother, wife, colleague, overall person — I can’t say any of those things about my 401(k) plan.

It’s the Super Bowl of benefits communications as companies work feverishly to develop and distribute newsletters, booklets, websites, calculator, videos, etc. to inform employees about benefit changes and enrollment deadlines

The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was the wake-up call our industry needed. On March 23, 2010, brokers woke up to realize that our livelihood could be wiped out with a swipe of the President’s pen. However, for far too long, many of us were reluctant to face the other threats that existed on traditional business practices. …

My family has an iPad at home, but I rarely see it. My kids' Angry Birds marathons don't leave much time left for mom to use it. But if I did use our iPad more often, I’d definitely read EBN on it—now that we’ve launched a new iPad app!

Although TV shows and online games makes light of the fact that U.S. adults struggle with basic elementary school concepts, the serious reality is that the chasm between the skills U.S. workers possess and the skills required for open jobs is wide, getting wider and may be partially to blame for the nation’s high unemployment.

Recently, Mark Lacher was asked to present in a sales seminar for a client. But before he began , several people asked, “Why are you presenting to us, aren’t you in insurance?”

According to a new survey from HighRoads, across employers ranging in size from fewer than 5,000 employees to more than 100,000 employees, 71% of respondents conduct “passive” versus “active” benefits enrollment, thus enabling employees to automatically renew most of their own plans -- not the best strategy, experts say.