Employer Strategies

Roth workplace accounts, which have grown more popular in recent years, are about to get a shot in the arm from Uncle Sam. This week the federal government started rolling out a Roth option to 3.3 million employees who participate in its main retirement program.

Nearly half of soon-to-be-retired, high-net-worth Americans say they are terrified of what health care costs may do to their retirement plans, according to a new survey.

A majority of employees (90%) recognize the importance of group disability insurance and believe their employer should offer it, according to a recent Unum survey — but most (52%) do not understand this coverage. Not only does this present an opportunity for brokers to build their trusted adviser status with employers, it also has great potential to lead to more sales of the product. Because, despite their lack of knowledge about employer-provided disability insurance, 88% of employees surveyed think is it is personally important to be covered.

Investment products are "overly complex," and investors are feeling "overwhelmed" by the slew investment choices available to them, according to the MFS Investing Sentiment Survey.

In a presidential election cycle where job creation is a key issue, 15% of National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors members surveyed recently say President Barack Obama’s health care reform law’s medical loss ratio provision has decreased their commissions enough to cause them to need to lay-off or reduce the hours of support staff in their offices — affecting an average of two employees per agency.

An effective dialysis management program optimizes the way kidney dialysis is paid for and how treatment is provided. Read as Sam Fleet explains in today's BeAdvised how insurance brokers can help companies capture these savings by bringing them together with innovative benefit managers.

Financial advisers sometimes puzzle over how to effectively reach and serve black and Hispanic clients. A Vanguard study released recently suggests they can start by drilling home a simple message: emergency savings accounts are a must.

U.S. hospitals are ripping out wall-mounted toilets and replacing them with floor models to better support obese patients. The Federal Transit Administration wants buses to be tested for the impact of heavier riders on steering and braking. Cars are burning nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than if passengers weighed what they did in 1960.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued its long-anticipated Enforcement Guidance on employer use of arrest and conviction records in making employment decisions. The guidance, released on April 25, 2012, is grounded on the premise that any employment practice that has a disparate impact upon a Title VII protected group is unlawful unless the practice is job related and consistent with business necessity. …

In kasina’s yet-to-be released 2nd annual study, findings indicate that about 87% of asset managers and insurers use LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, but very few are experiencing increased sales.