Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

A bill introduced Oct. 5 by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) would waive the 10% early withdrawal penalty on 401(k) hardship withdrawals up to $50,000 to prevent home foreclosure.

The White House is counting long-term care premiums collected under the CLASS Act as $80 billion in deficit reductions over the next decade. However, AP reports, CLASS has yet to be funded while the administration tries to figure out how to keep the program solvent — while still claiming the savings.

According to Walgreens, last flu season resulted in 100 million lost work days and nearly $7 billion in lost wages. In addition, Walgreens projects that nearly 2 million business trips were cancelled last flu season.

I know of someone who is surviving the unthinkable, the impossible. Perhaps an indication that I've been in this business too long, her loss made me wonder about bereavement policy.

I love hearing about random national holidays—like National Banana Day and National Hug Day. The latest I heard about actually occurs today (Oct. 4): Get out your party hats for National Improve Your Office Day!

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.

According to a new CareerBuilder survey, some of my fellow teleworkers are giving in to their darker angels. The survey finds that teleworkers confessed to their top distractions when working from home.

A genie tells you that she’ll grant you one wish for your employee benefits programs. It will take effect immediately, and will cost you nothing in time, talent, money or morale. What would you wish for?

Us EBNers are heading down to Big D this weekend for the 24th annual Benefits Forum & Expo (Sept. 25-27 at the Hyatt Regency Dallas). We’ve heard everything’s bigger in Texas, so we’re ready to wow all of our guests a truly Texas-sized agenda, featuring more content than before to help you rein in your most pressing benefits cost, compliance and communication problems.

So, what are they, you ask? Not so fast. Tweet your best benefits communication pearls to EBN Associate Editor Lisa Gillespie (@EBN_LVGillespie). Her favorite will win a copy of “You Can’t Not Communicate 2: More Proven Solutions that Power the Fortune 100,” by David Grossman.