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MassMutual Retirement Services’ 2011 campaign to prompt 401(k) participants to save more has succeeded in boosting deferral rates by 4.34%. It also was aimed at getting those who were not saving into the game, and helping those with portfolios to revisit their allocations.

According to recent studies employee and employer perspectives on voluntary benefits vary greatly. Read in today's BeAdvised about one possible explanation for the discrepancy.

My way of helping to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month is through today’s guest post from Deborah Sternberg, EVP at Always Care Benefits and Starmount Life Insurance Company, who articulates better than I could the important role your benefits plans play in combating breast cancer. Enjoy, and as always share your thoughts in the comments.

A significant number of advisers who serve 401(k) plans will ramp up their retirement income planning practices over the next few years, according to a new report from Principal Financial, called the “2011 Best Practices in Retirement Income Planning Study.”

After several years of relatively modest premium increases, annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage increased to $15,073 this year, up 9% from last year. On average, workers pay $4,129 and employers pay $10,944 toward those annual premiums.

Twenty-five percent of employers have little or no understanding of specialty pharmacy and 53% have only a moderate understanding of this challenging benefit according to a new survey released by the Midwest Business Group on Health.

Things have changed. Health care costs have turned benefits from HMOs to consumer driven health care. Pensions have long been a thing of the past and the process has shifted onto the consumer and onto benefit managers.

Weight management is a popular wellness trend as the country deals with the health implications of obesity in our society. Similarly, benefits communications have become more and more bloated. Brokers need to help their clients communicate their benefits suite properly.

Well, here we are at the beginning of the fourth quarter. On the one hand, it hardly seems possible that this year is almost over. On the other, many in our industry have found the beginning of this decade to be very challenging and would prefer to not relive the industry-altering events of the recent past. And when you add in the year of debate that preceded the passage of the health care reform bill, it's really been about two and a half years of difficult and disruptive dialogue and change.

Executives, business owners and other high net worth individuals are actively looking for ways to preserve their estates, not only for their family members, but also for charitable organizations.