Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Digital Insurance announces investment in tech company GoCo it hopes will transform not only the way the firm does business with small and mid-size employers, but will also raise client expectations of the benefit industry as a whole.

Outliving retirement savings is an issue that individuals must face, and a qualified longevity annuity contract is one way to address the problem as lifespans increase.

To say that the industry's segmentation and understanding of defined contribution plan advisers is crude would be quite an understatement. At the grossest level, the industry looks at whether advisers are commissioned or fee-based and whether they serve the small-plan market or the large-plan market.

Every year brings something new in this business, but the changes you'll see this year - and the ones you'll be anticipating - could be dramatic. That's thanks to a bevy of new regulations, some final and some still in the proposal stage, from the Department of Labor.

These are busy times at the Marsh & McLennan Agency. Last month, MMA announced that it had acquired Strategic Benefit Solutions, a $4 million benefits brokerage and consulting firm based in Alpharetta, Ga., and RJF Agencies, one of the largest independent agencies in the upper Midwest. Those steps followed closely on the heels of MMA's acquisition of Pennsylvania-based Trion Group in December 2010.

One of the hottest games on Facebook is Cafe World. More than 22 million participants play to run their own virtual restaurant. In the game, a "buzz rating" indicates customers' satisfaction with the virtual restaurant. The goal: to create and maintain a high buzz rating.

Today, more and more advisers and their clients are looking to an employee assistance program as a source of health and wellness benefits.

Before we get too far into the new year, I'd like to recommend checking out two new features we've added to our website recently.

Looking for a way to promote his latest venture, a website where consumers can select an agent at the same time they buy their policy online, Alan Katz decided to start his own blog both as a hobby and in hopes that linking to it would increase the search engine optimization of the insurance website.

Beginning in 2014 all employers with at least 50 employees must buy comprehensive heath insurance for all full-time employees or pay a penalty of $2,000 dollars per employee.