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Over the past 60 years, women have entered the education system and the workforce in greater numbers than ever before, and it would seem that because of this work, they'd be on equal footing with men when it comes time to retire.

In 2012, many organizations that sponsor pension plans are considering the future of those plans - especially sponsors of frozen defined benefit plans. The year 2012 is arriving with fully phased-in changes to calculating lump-sum payments that will make it more cost-effective to terminate a pension plan. Many plan sponsors are reviewing those changes, and trying to understand what those changes may mean for the future of their pension plans.

Custom target-date funds are proliferating at the expense of their off-the-shelf counterparts, in part because plan sponsors want to have greater control over what's in a fund and have access to a wider array of investments to put in them.

In 1998, Aspex Eyewear, an eyewear designer that also develops frame technology, was in talks with Altair Eyewear, Inc., another frame designer, about potentially licensing a clip-on technology. Aspex alleges Altair sent the frames to China to make copies and then came out with a very similar clip-on frame. On August 5, 2002, Aspex filed suit for patent infringement.

Traditional health plans are designed around the idea of treating sickness and chronic conditions. Your employees get sick, go to the doctor, get treated, the explanation of benefits statements is sent out, and employees try desperately, and many times unsuccessfully, to understand the EOB (how much do they owe and to whom?) and then the cycle starts all over again.

Avalanches seem to happen randomly, out of the blue. But to experienced skiers and climbers, the warning signs are obvious. Similarly, people with asymptomatic preconditions can appear healthy, but the warning signs of impending chronic conditions are there if you know what to look for.

Katie Griffith is in many ways the walking example of statistics of a working mom today. She is 32, pregnant with her second child and has just been promoted to director in the advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Financial literacy among employees is "an age-old issue. It's nothing new," says Kevin Close, vice president, global compensation, benefits & HRIS, with EMC, an information technology company with about 50,000 employees worldwide. "We've always struggled with helping employees optimize the value they receive from participating in employer-based programs."

Employers likely would have better luck predicting winning lottery numbers than how the Supreme Court will rule this summer on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's individual mandate. So many benefits practitioners, like Karrie Andes, SPHR, senior benefits manager for Kansas City-based virtual meeting provider PGi, have decided simply not to try to read the legal tea leaves. Rather, Andes and her team - while keeping a close eye on the legal challenges that mounted since the law's passage two years ago, and this month's oral arguments before the Supreme Court - opted for a business-as-usual approach to make sure PGi's health plans first and foremost continued "protecting associates and dependents on our health plan and also helping competitively with attracting talent," Andes says.

I'm firmly on the record - both in this space and on EBN's blog, Employee Benefit Views - as a big advocate of telework. I've long said it's my favorite benefit and believe the corporate world would be a better place if only more employees were able to telework.