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Retirement planning almost always starts with one number: A guesstimate of the percentage of pre-retirement income you're expected to need after you retire. That's called the "replacement rate" and is often pegged by industry experts at around 80% of a household's earnings.

CVS has told some doctors in Florida, the nation's pill mill capital, that its retail pharmacies will no longer fill prescriptions they write for some potent and addictive drugs, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.

Companies created the most jobs in nearly a year in November, adding to cautious optimism that the country's battered labor market is working its way toward healing.

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.

Last month, a statement from McKinsey Consulting declared that "social innovators are bringing bold new approaches to the difficult problems that plague the world. The next disruptive force in social innovation will involve a new, more rigorous approach that funnels resources to where they can do the most good."

As HR/benefits outsourcing becomes a larger part of employers' overall business strategy, industry professionals' primary job no longer is putting out small fires. Rather, practitioners are blazing trails toward workforce and organizational development.

Employers that grant generous leaves for disability or maternity can run afoul of insurance contracts for medical, disability or life coverage. Here are two tips for employers to avoid leave-related lawsuits.

In 2009, the Civil Service Employees Association Employee Benefit Fund was at a crossroads. The benefit fund, which provides dental and vision benefits for more than 300,000 public employee union members and their dependents in New York State, was facing a double-digit spike in its health insurance costs and seemed resigned to renewing a policy with an insurer that was not meeting the needs of the fund's 60 employees.

Two recent proposals to change the existing tax treatment of 401(k) retirement plans, if enacted, are likely to result in lower account balances for many 401(k) participants, according to a new analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

"What we've got here is a failure to communicate." That famous line, from the 1967 movie "Cool Hand Luke," summarizes the reason that retirement plans collectively - but unwillingly - hold billions of dollars that plan sponsors have unsuccessfully tried to distribute to former participants.