Employer Strategies

Worries persist that working Americans aren’t saving enough to afford a life of leisure, but maybe retirement isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

Public pension funds are expected to report poor annual returns in the coming weeks, results that are likely to increase calls for more realistic retirement promises for teachers, police officers and other public workers.

Can training really make corporate cultures dominated by white men more inclusive?

As Americans struggle in the recession’s aftermath to prepare for retirement, those who have taken the time to put together a financial plan feel more confident and report more success managing money, savings and investments than those who have not.

Although most multinationals anticipate major global mobility challenges over the next two to three years, a new survey from Towers Watson and Worldwide ERC found that nearly half of them expect to increase traditional international assignments over the same period.

Active management of crediting rates on spread-based business, improved fee income driven by growth in assets, ongoing expense management, favorable investment results and selected acquisitions are all driving modest earnings improvement in 2012 for U.S. life insurers, according to Fitch Ratings.

Prudential Group will discontinue sales of new group long-term care insurance policies effective Aug. 1, 2012, except in Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana and South Dakota, where it will continue for a period as required by state law. In March, the carrier announced that it would discontinue the sale of individual LTC products to focus solely on its group line.

As California goes, so goes the nation, according to an old axiom. But will optimism about relief from pending health insurance rate hikes for tens of thousands of small businesses in the Golden State spill into other states or be buoyed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)?

Federal health care reform legislation and the desire of employers to limit their health insurance costs are likely to fuel interest in “defined contribution” (DC) health benefits and private health insurance exchanges, according to a new report by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

Employers must be prepared to field employee questions and take appropriate action in the event that health insurance carriers fail to comply with the Medical Loss Ratio threshold under PPACA and must issue “rebates” beginning next month.