Employer Strategies

Whether being subject to an involuntary EBSA Audit, or undertaking a voluntary correction program, there are certain things a plan sponsor should be looking for (and looking out for) if they are going to have the EBSA nosing around their plans. The EBSA recently held an online seminar about things to anticipate in an EBSA investigation and here are some things that are important to remember. …

On Feb. 26, Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, released a discussion draft of the Tax Reform Act of 2014 that more completely spells out the tradeoffs for tax reform. Camp’s draft legislation reduces and simplifies the current income tax rate structure, but may modify or eliminate provisions relating to employee benefit plans.

Looking toward the end of 2014 open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s health exchanges, Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, said Thursday at an AHIP conference that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is expecting a “fairly significant spike in enrollments."

In two employer-focused sessions at AHIP’s annual policy conference in Washington this week, the excise tax in the ACA — known as the Cadillac tax — dominated the list of future concerns for plan sponsors.

Are your clients prepared for a 401(k) plan audit? When the Employee Benefits Security Administration knocks on the door and starts requesting plan documents, financial records, account statements, contracts and more, it can be overwhelming. The best offense is a good defense, so be prepared. Take a glimpse into a recent audit and the laundry list of documents requested.

As consumer-directed health plans proliferate in response to market forces, their success will be contingent upon a workforce that is comfortable with using health savings accounts to pay and save for qualified medical expenses.

Despite a reported 4.4% increase in employer health care costs in 2014, the majority of large U.S. employers say they are more inclined to maintain benefits to active employees, but will modify plans and continue to shift over costs to their employees.

With the Affordable Care Act looming large, employers turn to benefit outsourcing to keep their plans compliant.

An organization that could impact the work lives of agents and brokers who are licensed in multiple states was supposed to be included in the flood insurance bill that passed the U.S. House Tuesday evening, but the language for it was left out. What happened, and are brokers invested in this idea anyway?

A new study from PricewaterhouseCoopers finds consumers are a lot less focused on the price of their plan than insurance executives believe them to be.