Employer Strategies

With serious concerns about medical commission cuts and maintaining top-line revenues, 58% of brokers and consultants are embracing two specific initiatives EBA contributor Nelson Griswold explains in the December issue.

As high-deductible and consumer-driven health plans continue to increase in popularity, EBA spoke with Nitra LaGrander, a product manager at Evolution1, a provider of electronic payment, on-premise and cloud computing health care solutions, for tips on how plan participants who are new to these types of plans can easily access their online accounts and take charge of managing their health care dollars.

Retirement plans collectively - but unwillingly - hold billions of dollars that plan sponsors have unsuccessfully tried to distribute to former participants.

Some experts are predicting that there will be fewer advisers focused on the 401(k)/defined contribution market. With greater competition, price pressure, more onerous regulations and increased fiduciary liability, that argument is understandable. But regardless of the pressure and challenges that the DC market poses, the number of elite advisers that focus on the DC market will double in the next five years because of the size of the opportunity.

Turning the corner into 2012, 401(k) plans are regaining some of their lost glitter, but more buffing needs to be done.

Long-term care is a "problem every-body will face and no one wants to talk about." But with the shelving of the CLASS Act by Congress, planning for long-term care is becoming part of the national conversation - and that presents an opportunity for brokers.

Following the Eastbridge Consulting Group report earlier this year that showed a decrease in voluntary benefits sales during 2010, it has been refreshing to see that, according to recent insurance carriers' annual surveys, employees' interest remains strong.

Nearly two-thirds, 63.8%, of plan sponsors have changed the investment lineup in their 401(k) plan in the past year, up markedly from a mere 20% in 2008, according to the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America.

Eighteen months after passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, group medical benefits costs are on the rise once again, according to The November Employee Benefits Market Survey conducted by The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers.

New recommendations outline ways employers can improve design, communication and delivery of employee benefits and wellness incentives.