Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Brian Heckert, the new Million Dollar Round Table president, shares the story of how he entered the industry, as well as what he hopes to accomplish and insights on other issues facing the retirement industry.

Adviser help is sorely needed to lessen employer/employee disconnect during open enrollment. Recent research from Aflac shows tools and resources that employees find useful are not always made available by their employers, further complicating an already confusing process.

The House has agreed to pass legislation that makes possible a repeal of the ACA’s controversial expansion of the definition of a small employer — a bill hailed by the benefits industry for protecting the small and mid-size businesses they feel the expansion threatens to harm.

Offering a supplemental plan for retired military employees can save employers from potential claims — and it also helps brokers add value to their clients and increase their book of business.

Long an afterthought, retirement firms and advisers are pushing their clients to add auto escalation to employer plans.

Transamerica is to become Mercer’s preferred DC recordkeeping provider, which will likely boost Transamerica’s position in the retirement space, experts say.

Questions over program effectiveness, legality and data storage have employers hesitating to implement such plans.

Narrow-network restrictions help health insurance carriers participating in public exchanges limit their exposure to adverse selection and better manage the cost of patient care, but they’re also an annoyance for health care exchange enrollees who want unencumbered access to doctors and hospitals.

A group of lawmakers has introduced legislation to roll back guidance from the Treasury Department that prohibits employers from using stand-alone health reimbursement arrangements to reimburse employees for health care-related expenses.

Aetna’s purchase of Humana confirms analyst predictions of continued consolidation as carriers vie for market share, a trend industry experts fear will limit choice and force brokers to reinvent their business approach.