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Commentary: You only get one chance to make a first impression. Columnist Mel Schlesinger shares his tips on how to make that first appointment with a prospective client a successful one.

A couple weeks into the post-Bill Gross PIMCO era, plan sponsors may be interested in learning what other plan sponsors are doing with their PIMCO funds in their retirement plans.

The quality of Form 5500 reporting depends entirely on whether benefit managers and plan fiduciaries select qualified auditors and service providers, says Ian Dingwall, chief accountant for the DOL's Employee Benefits Security Administration, speaking this week during the International Foundation for Employee Benefit Plans' annual conference in Boston.

A new broker-friendly private exchange is launching that will allow employees at companies with less than 50 lives to buy health insurance using pre-tax dollars.

Earlier this week, Walmart announced it was dropping health care coverage for employees who work fewer than 30 hours a week, a move the company estimates will affect about 2% of its workforce. Here’s a wrap-up of our analysis, plus a look at the ways other large companies are handling rising health care costs.

The number of employees with long-term disability plans has dropped and employees paying more for coverage, despite the fact that that 1 in 8 will need it during their career.

At Alliance Resource Partners, 4% of the workforce is responsible for roughly 45% of the company's annual health care spend. The coal mining company is implementing new initiatives to better reach workers at remote mine sites.

Under the ACA, control group status could make your small-group client an applicable large employer subject to the employer mandate. It’s time to revisit control group rules.

Commentary: Have you heard of Medicare observation status? Columnist Craig J. Davidson says it is creating a payment nightmare for older plan participants with Medicare Part A as the primary payer. Educate your groups with Medicare beneficiaries, Davidson says, because the rule has real consequences.

Commentary: Good salespeople understand the impact of an effective opening statement. The Standard’s Doug Waters provides five examples of conversation starters to transition to IDI from another product.

The features and services that you think workers will appreciate and use may be completely different than what employees actually desire, so communication is key - maybe even in the form of a company survey. Easy access is also key to better utilization.

Wearable wellness is here to stay, yet precisely how the devices will affect employer programs remains to be seen.

With an endorsement from the Affordable Care Act, outcomes-based wellness programs are gaining popularity. In the process, the way employers incentivize participation is changing in step with evolving user-friendly technologies.

Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesperson, tells EBN that the company's decision to end health coverage for a small portion of its workforce will enable these employees to "decide for themselves what makes the most sense for them."

Aon Hewitt expects more than 1.2 million employees, retirees and their families to choose health benefits through the company’s exchanges — revising their earlier estimates upward.

Walmart’s announcement this week that it will drop health care coverage for its part-time employees reiterates that employer-sponsored health care coverage is changing, and those benefit advisers who plan to remain relevant to clients must change, too.

EBA’s annual Workplace Benefits Summit, held last week in Boca Raton, Fla., included a celebration of our Advisers of the Year, strategy and marketing tips from benefit professionals, and the presentation of our inaugural Most Influential Women in Benefit Advising awards.

Benefits managers looking to overcome the reality that 90% of employees simply keep the same benefits during open enrollment need to employ a new, more personal communications strategy.

Walmart Stores Inc.’s move to eliminate health insurance for about 30,000 part-time workers underscores the mixed benefits of Obamacare for companies and their employees.

Private health care exchanges bring with them major implications for employer-sponsored benefits, including a shift to defined contribution health care and increased access to data.