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Commentary: From implementing automatic enrollment to eliminating participant loans, here are five actions plan sponsors can take this year to improve their 401(k) plans.

Microsoft is changing the employer-match formula in its 401(k) plan this month, a decision that was based largely on a desire to equalize its healthcare and retirement benefits, says Sonja Kellen, director of global retirement benefits for the company.

Defined benefit plan sponsors continued to de-risk their plans in 2015 with lump-sum payouts and group annuity purchases. It was the second most active recent year for annuity purchases, finds new research from consulting firm Willis Towers Watson.

The ACA allows states, beginning in January 2017, to ask the federal government to waive almost every major coverage requirement of the health care reform law, including the employer mandate. Employers and other benefit industry stakeholders hoping to be relieved from ACA requirements may consider state waivers the elixir they’ve been waiting for, but are they?

The Private Benefit Exchange Index inched up, showing an increase for the seventh straight month.

Commentary: How do you start or build an employee benefit agency with no marketing budget? Use social media.

Commentary: One’s ability to select an appropriate health plan is paramount to meeting their specific needs, yet four in 10 uninsured people do not know basic health insurance terms.

New reporting requirements are forcing public agencies to deal with a massive amount of liability, largely due to unfunded retiree health benefits. One California city helped solve the problem with a private exchange. The format is gaining popularity with plan sponsors for their early and post-65 retirees.

Commentary: Since 2010, the ACA has avoided 50 repeal votes in Congress and two lawsuits in the Supreme Court. Until October, no structural changes were considered — then magically, compromise appears. What does it mean?

A Q&A with Dallas Salisbury, who recently retired from his position with the Employee Benefits Research Institute, an organization he was instrumental in helping get off the ground in 1978.