Employer Strategies

Commentary: Columnist Jerry Kalish discusses the ins and outs of cafeteria plans, which may be seeing a rise in interest due to the ACA.

Founded by his father on the principle of specialty servicing in 1956, Mike Lewer’s business model is set to distinguish his brokerage team with post-ACA success for years to come.

Retirees should move beyond the long-held “4% Rule” and take into account the full range of financial opportunities and risks they could face going into the golden years.

With health care costs continuing to rise, it’s no surprise to benefit advisers that their employer clients continue to seek benefit solutions that shift some of the cost burden to their employees — and new data reveals that trend shows no signs of stopping.

Early adopters to the private exchanges say they've experienced major issues with helping workers better understand the complexities - and do-it-yourself aspects - of the new world of health care.

While employers are continuing to feel the impact from a multitude of changing laws and regulations, worries about the Affordable Care Act have begun to subside, to some degree. But the jury is out on the long-term implications of the ACA, and the ways benefits managers will live up to its stipulations in coming years.

The bill that would establish a federal clearinghouse for state-by-state broker and agent licensing has successfully passed the U.S. Senate as an amendment to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, known as TRIA. It was previously left off another insurance industry bill at this point in the process.

Commentary: In today’s ubiquitous social media environment, employers face tremendous risks when utilizing social media as part of the hiring process. Even the most stringent recruitment process can become infiltrated with discriminatory practices, whether it’s intentional or not. Human resources professionals continue to struggle with this.

Released this week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s new enforcement guidance on how employers are to accommodate their pregnant workforce is creating mixed emotions from legal experts in the employment space.

A boom in private exchanges and a changing distribution system for health care will create a new landscape for benefits managers and advisers, with more emphasis on consumer-directed health care.