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Sometimes the Service is explicit about its enforcement priorities. Other times officials drop hints in public speeches. And sometimes they just keep quiet in hopes plan sponsors will not let their guard down thinking they are out of the danger zone.

“As an emerging market, DIAs have experienced significant growth in 2012,” says Joe Montminy, assistant vice president and director of LIMRA annuity research.

Investors with $150,000 to $249,000 in income are especially receptive to learning about annuities, according to a recent Nationwide Financial survey.

Lawmakers, nonprofit groups address gathering of benefit advisers to discuss brokers’ role in health care reform.

The American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries issued a statement this week objecting to a new Brookings Institution report that recommends curtailing retirement benefits for top earners.

According to the soon-to-be-released UBA Ancillary Benefits Survey, of the 8,557 employers answering questions about employee assistance programs, only 21.8% of employers offer EAPS. That percentage drops to 9.4% among small (fewer than 50 employees) businesses and 19.2% among midsize companies (fewer than 500 employees). As advisers, we shouldn’t forget to incorporate these programs into our clients’ benefits plans. Though sometimes stigmatized, these programs are important, not only to help employees with personal crises such as divorce, substance abuse and financial or legal troubles, but also when an organization is reeling from an employee death, hurricane recovery or even tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Early bird gets the worm. That’s an applicable motto for the National Association of Health Underwriters Capitol Conference attendees, who packed into a hotel on Capitol Hill early Tuesday morning for an overflowing session of speakers, from a senator to a president of a health insurance enrollment non-profit to Mercer and Wellpoint representatives.

The misdiagnoses occurred most often during the doctor’s examination, including trouble getting a complete history from the patient, performing the physical exam and ordering tests, according to research published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The answer to that question is still fuzzy. That’s because while the Department of Health and Human Services has confirmed to Employee Benefit News that health reimbursement arrangements and health savings accounts will be offered on the public exchanges, the organization still hasn’t released the details and regulations surrounding these accounts.

“Over the past few years it’s [been] closing the plan, freezing the plan -- now, we’re actually seeing them trying to shed the liability,” Fidelity’s Laurie E. Vance said in Washington.