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Workplace walking programs sure are taking big steps forward these days. For years now, I’ve been hearing about programs from Florida to Colorado walking toward better employee health armed only with a pedometer and a dream, but it seems that recently the programs are really hitting their stride, so to speak.

Since 2008, Mass Metal in Lawrence, Kan., has helped individuals buy, hold and sell gold and silver through its online service, SilverSaver. Now the company is offering SilverSaver as a voluntary benefit program.

For workers' compensation insurers, costs are going up as the market shrinks, according to a recent report released by the National Academy of Social Insurance, observing they are fighting to pay more for smaller slices of the pie.

This week, LIMRA reported variable annuity sales increased 19% to $80.7 billion in the six months ended June 30 compared with the same period a year earlier. Today, the Insured Retirement Institute (IRI) echoed the increase, reporting first-quarter sales at $40 billion, up 2% from $39.2 billion in the previous quarter.

There is a clear difference between hard-charging bosses and those who cross the line into bullying, creating patterns of fear, says Harvard Business Review.

Historically, the retirement industry hasn’t been required to publish all fees and expenses associated with 401(k) products. That’s about to change. The Labor Department noticed that the majority of 401(k) plan sponsors are in the dark regarding the fees they’re paying. To add insult to injury, most are under the impression that their plan is free. …

Insurers have yet another cloud option available to them, as Informatica announced several new insurance clients using their services. Although not a new offering (the company launched cloud services in 2006), it’s relatively new coming from an insurance industry known as technologically risk averse. According to a recent Gartner Group study, annual spending on cloud-related transactions may grow to almost $150 billion worldwide by 2014.

The aging of the U.S. baby boom generation may slow an already weak recovery as boomers sell stocks to pay for retirement, according to research released Monday from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank.

It’s been a little over two months since pharmacy chain Walgreens announced it would be leaving Express Scripts’ pharmacy provider network. Kermit Crawford, president of Walgreens’ pharmacy, health and wellness business, sat down with EBN recently to discuss his company’s position.

For workers' compensation insurers, costs are going up as the market shrinks, according to a recent report released by the National Academy of Social Insurance, observing they are fighting to pay more for smaller slices of the pie.