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More workers are delaying retirement, according to The Conference Board.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday defeated a Republican plan to scale back health benefits for future retirees and forced their opponents to take a stand on the unpopular proposal.

Compared to the rest of the world, Americans generally receive a pitifully low amount of paid vacation. Americans seem to want to live a life of work, based on our lack of paid vacation laws as well as the number of vacation time off the average American employee gets.

Data collected by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners suggest that average consumer rebates would have been more than 60% lower if agent and broker commissions were excluded from medical loss ratio calculations in 2010.

Here’s a roundup of recent staff changes in the industry.

Cash balance plans are becoming increasingly popular with small businesses as well as Fortune 500 companies, says Dan Kravitz, president and CEO of Kravitz, Inc., an independent firm of retirement consultants headquartered in Southern California.

In order for states to self-fund their exchanges, beginning in 2015, they may tack a surcharge fee onto the income stream of agents and brokers, says Charles “Chip” Kerby III, owner and attorney of Washington-based Liberte Group, LLC.

New research from Aon Hewitt reveals that slightly more than three-quarters (75.8%) of eligible employees participated in their company’s defined contribution retirement plan last year, up from 73.7% in 2009 and 67.2% in 2005, driven largely by auto-enrollment. Great news? Maybe, maybe not.

A white paper from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners affirms the need for a key role for producers in the coming state health insurance exchanges and the appropriateness of compensating them in several ways for their services.

Continuing a comeback after a difficult 2010, annuity sales through banks topped $4 billion in March to reach their highest level since exactly two years earlier, according to research firm Kehrer-LIMRA.