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Employers implementing wellness programs not only will help lower health-related costs, but their employees will be more engaged and productive while on the clock.

Nationwide Better Health, part of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, closed its doors Sept. 1 after five years in the wellness and productivity business. The company announced on May 25 that Nationwide would sell its productivity services to Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc. and wind down disease management and wellness programs.

Good news for advisers selling disability income insurance: Sales of traditional and voluntary DI are headed upward. But even more exciting is the undercurrent of optimism and excitement among major insurers and disability management experts about the future of disability benefit programs.

As I write this, the entire Benefits Group staff is just returning from the 6th Annual Employee Benefit Adviser Summit, co-located with our 24th Annual Benefits Forum and Expo. In Dallas this year, we had a gratifying turnout of nearly 1,000 benefit industry professionals from all parts of the industry, with Summit attendance boosted by participants staying over from the United Benefit Advisors conference - a most welcome addition to the educational sessions and to our industry networking opportunities.

EBA searched far and wide to find 10 "Rising Stars in Advising" who are making a name for themselves and will lead the next generation of advisers. We're delighted to introduce them.

For executives and other high net worth individuals, an emerging voluntary benefit addition is survivorship life insurance - an area benefits professionals may want to explore when crafting executive benefits packages.

Predicting an employee's future success at a company has traditionally stumped experts, and relying on metrics, such as IQ level, only tells 25% of the story. What makes up the other 75%, according to Shawn Achor, Harvard researcher and positive psychology expert, is the belief that your behavior matters, a positive social support system, and whether you view a challenge as a stress or an impetus to improve.

This article is the latest installment in EBN's BeneFIT Success series, which chronicles employers' and employees' wellness triumphs. The entire series is available at ebn.benefitnews.com, keywords "benefit success series."

Around the time they turn 50, many people unconsciously begin to ratchet up their spending. Instead, prominent retirement planning scholar Alicia Munnell thinks financial planners and employers need to wage a campaign to get their clients and employees to hit the pause button at this crucial midpoint in their lives.

At its peak in the early 1990s, there were over 2,000 recordkeepers serving retirement plans - today there are fewer than 60. In light of service-provider profit pressures from declining margins, sponsor fee sensitivity caused by litigation and Department of Labor's fee-disclosure regulations, finding the right plan vendor for the right price can be a challenge.