Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

The DOL’s proposed fiduciary rule would likely push some commission-based brokers out of the retirement market altogether, NAIFA’s JuIi McNeely testified during the second day of DOL hearings on the proposed rule.

Complete, ongoing coverage on the Labor Department's hearings on its proposal to impose fiduciary requirements on retirement advisors from SoureMedia's Financial Planning, On Wall Street, Employee Benefit Advisor and Employee Benefit News.

Of the many industry critiques of the Department of Labor's fiduciary proposal, one of the most oft-repeated is the assertion that new regulations would cut off access to advice for low- and middle income investors — precisely the segment of consumers the initiative aims to protect.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has awarded consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton a $202 million contract to be the marketplace system integrator, or general contractor, which includes the federally-facilitated health insurance marketplace, parts of the state-run marketplaces and more.

Despite potential savings offered, voluntary programs that provide discounts on products, services and tickets to employees are rarely used and seeing almost no growth year-over-year.

Independent insurance brokers recorded a median organic growth of nearly 6% for the second quarter of 2015, continuing a growth trend that’s been steady for the past few years.

In its first day of hearings about the proposed fiduciary rule, the DOL has heard testimony from advisers, legal experts and other industry representatives — many seeking revisions to minimize the ‘burden’ of the rule’s future implementation.

Concerns about over-regulation and accusations of industry cynicism led the opening of the Labor Department's hearings on its proposal to impose fiduciary requirements on retirement advisers — the latest phase of its contentious process to craft new rules on consumer protections.

Connecticut’s AccessHealthCT is poised to become the nation’s first state-run marketplace that will be financially self-sustaining in 2016 when federal grants end for these online marketplaces as stipulated under the Affordable Care Act.

While Montana has one of the nation’s lowest head counts, it ranked a close second behind New Hampshire in terms of the highest rate of 2015 public exchange re-enrollment among 34 states that direct their residents to Healthcare.gov.