Employer Strategies

WellPoint Inc. CEO Joseph R. Swedish won high marks from investors and analysts in his first public appearance since taking over for the ousted Angela Braly.

Mercer’s private exchange now has more than 20 carriers signed on to provide benefits, including dental, vision, life and disability products. Find out what carriers were added.

Reinforcing other studies, Truven finds that more than two-thirds of the 6.5 million emergency department visits during the study period for those under the age of 65 were avoidable and could have saved employers and health plans millions.

MetLife Inc., the largest U.S. life insurer, raised its dividend 49% in the first increase since 2007, after its exit from banking limited oversight from the Federal Reserve. The company gained the most since January in New York trading.

As brokers continue to search for voluntary benefits to supplement their sales in the coming years, legal plans might just be one of them.

A program airing yesterday cited excessive fees and lack of clear guidance for the failure of the 401(k) to prepare Americans for a longer and more costly retirement.

When managing money, the large majority of Americans today are not looking for shortcuts or get-rich-quick strategies, according to Northwestern Mutual’s 2013 Planning & Progress Study.

The epilepsy drug was also tied to a three-fold increase of autism spectrum disorder, which includes Asperger syndrome and other developmental disorders, according to research published Tuesday.

In a SHRM survey, 77% of respondents currently say they use social networking for that purpose. In 2011, 56% of surveyed organizations used social networking sites to find and communicate with job applicants; back in 2008, it was 34%.

Recently a number of market observers have suggested banning actively managed mutual funds from retirement plans as a way of increasing participant balances. Their logic is that actively managed funds don't beat market averages or benchmarks often enough to justify their higher fees. Also, it is said that actively managed funds tend to be recommended by advisers who profit from their sale and therefore aren't objective.