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Avoiding the Affordable Care Act's excise tax, set to take effect in 2018, is front-of-mind for many benefits decision-makers.

Commentary: Yes, employers can distribute plan documents electronically, but they must follow the rules, and don’t assume intranet posting is enough — because it is not.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on April 1 announced it had settled an enforcement action over an employer’s use of a restrictive confidentiality agreement.

Young benefit advisers are spearheading many of the efforts that promise to keep the benefits profession relevant in the 21st century. EBA’s 2015 Rising Stars in Advising are not just navigating the benefits industry, they’re paving its new frontier.

Changing the emphasis from the accumulation of retirement assets to a safer and smoother way of distributing those savings will help make employees' lives easier, and help maximize their Social Security benefits.

States should not step in and establish their own exchanges if subsides are ruled illegal on the federal health care marketplace, a recent national study found, but industry experts say that is not the national consensus and point to the wording of poll questions to support the discrepancy.

While the U.S. Supreme Court ponders its decision in King v. Burwell, a senior economist at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation suggests that the time may have come to re-evaluate the tax-favored status of employer-provided health benefits coverage to offset the costs of lost subsidies, maintain budget neutrality and end a bifurcated system that favors the wealthy.

Commentary: Proactive case management is the first step to creating a process for disability leave management that clients can count on, says The Standard’s Sandy Johnson.

The federal government has delayed implementing proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act’s Summary of Benefits and Coverage until January 2016.

Workers and retirees know what they should be doing to prepare for retirement but when it comes to action, neither group is prepared.

Now, more than ever, the retirement plan services industry is placing a greater emphasis on in-plan guaranteed income solutions to help employees achieve better retirement outcomes.

As health evaluations move further center stage – be it via celebrities pushing for cancer screenings or companies including health assessments in wellness programs – it is becoming clear that to take full advantage of the health opportunities available, employees need to know as much as possible about their current health status.

Voluntary business is a well-known tool for brokers to increase their revenue while offering new products. But many employers are hesitant to add these products because of additional administrative burdens they can require. Enter the private health care exchange, says Carlos Ferrera, COO of Solstice Benefits and the Solstice Marketplace. With an exchange, the burden is gone, he says.

Sometimes what happens in Vegas doesn’t just stay on the Strip – it blows across the Sagebrush State like a wayward tumbleweed. Case in point: Nevada Health Link enrollees have been reporting mistakes on the 1095-A IRS forms to calculate their premium tax credit on the federally supported state-based HIX.

The decrease in compensation is negligible since the medical loss ratio took effect, study finds, but other industry organizations disagree.

Defined contribution plans have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the retirement industry, representing $7 trillion of the $24 trillion in retirement system assets in 2014, and while private companies have been at the forefront of the change, but government entities are following suit, which means DC plans will become even more important in the years ahead.

Commentary: It’s harder for women to get ahead in business, thanks to pay inequality and other factors, says ACI Specialty Benefits’ Erin Krehbiel. But, they can do something about it.

You may have noticed that there's a new trend sweeping the financial services industry: robo-advisers. These services use algorithms to automate investing, manage individual portfolios and provide financial guidance.

Lawmakers are pushing through several pieces of legislation that encourage better health information technology, especially interoperability, which will help reduce medical errors.

From its broker recruitment efforts to commission-based business model, common misconceptions and areas of business Zenefits will never enter, former CEO Parker Conrad got candid on the future of the fastest growing small-group brokerage in the country in a May 2015 EBA interview.