Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Kids are no strangers to accidents. No matter how it happens or where students are hurt on school property, schools are liable for the cost of student injuries and need to be prepared for these sometimes devastating expenses. This presents an opening for brokers, says EBA blogger Sam Fleet.

The Principal Financials’ Aaron Friedman says we are seeing 403(b) plan sponsors interested in reviewing their plan designs as they look to further clean up initial steps that were taken just a few years ago. This additional work is based on their own experience with compliance under the final regulations, as well as the administrative lessons they’ve learned.

The industry has gone through an evolution in the way it delivers services to clients, the way businesses operate and the state of the competitive market. At some point in there, value added services became all the rage. But now we have a problem, says EBA Blogger Wendy Keneipp.

In 2025, three in four working Americans will be Millennials. By helping them manage stress and anxiety in their 20s and 30s with EAPs, they’ll be more productive and better-equipped to assume leadership positions down the road.

Guest blogger Noreen Oswald is a senior at Temple University majoring in Risk Management &Insurance with a track in employee benefit management. She visited February’s Workplace Benefits Renaissance conference with a group of fellow students and EBA invited her to share her hopes for a future in the industry.

Many employer plan sponsors are expressing a high level of interest in adding Roth 401(k) in-plan conversions as an option to their 401(k) plans in 2013. The recently passed Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 made it possible for retirement plan participants to convert existing 401(k) plan balances to Roth 401(k) balances, whether or not the participant is distribution eligible.

According to the soon-to-be-released UBA Ancillary Benefits Survey, of the 8,557 employers answering questions about employee assistance programs, only 21.8% of employers offer EAPS. That percentage drops to 9.4% among small (fewer than 50 employees) businesses and 19.2% among midsize companies (fewer than 500 employees). As advisers, we shouldn’t forget to incorporate these programs into our clients’ benefits plans. Though sometimes stigmatized, these programs are important, not only to help employees with personal crises such as divorce, substance abuse and financial or legal troubles, but also when an organization is reeling from an employee death, hurricane recovery or even tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

When you take the 403(b) plan survey from the Plan Sponsor Council of America, you’ll get much more out of it than a discounted oil change.

Most of us are aware of the 5500 filing requirements for companies with 100 or more employees covered on their health and welfare plans. Might there be service differentiator and prospecting opportunities available if we have a thorough understanding of the mechanics of the 5500 process?

Most wellness initiatives are baby steps when it comes to moving the needle on employee health issues and costs. To move forward, there needs to be a shift in the way companies think about their most important asset, their employees, says EBA Blogger Sam Fleet.