Subject Root Tag

The Internal Revenue Service has threatened employers with Affordable Care Act penalties of $36,500 per employee, per year, nondeductible. Makes those $2,000 and $3,000 penalties look like small potatoes, right?

Commentary: Break through the mold of using the usual benefit adviser website model. Blogger Wendy Keneipp walks you through the mistakes and fixes for a better sell on the World Wide Web.

While the uniform definition of marriage and clarification that, for all federal purposes, the terms spouse, husband and wife will be defined on a gender-neutral basis, questions have remained with regard to the effects of the post-Windsor guidance on qualified retirement plans and other employee benefit programs.

After the exchange board moved this week to switch their state-run marketplace to the Feds’ model, brokers were cautiously optimistic about the next step because the last open enrollment experience was a “nightmare” and “fiasco.”

While pension cash outs for former employees are sometimes attractive to employers, several common concerns otherwise deter them from the option.

Even against the backdrop of a stronger economy, modern families are still feeling the pinch of financial security, pointing toward the need to tailor products to the needs of specific family structures that are considerably different than the traditional nuclear family.

Public sector employers in Oklahoma are one step closer to creating a defined contribution retirement plan for workers with the passage of House Bill 2630, also known as the Retirement Freedom Act. The bill was approved this week by a majority in the state’s House of Representatives.

A recent revenue ruling from the Treasury Department and the IRS eases the administrative burden for 401(k) plan sponsors wanting to accept rollovers from other employers’ plans, but the fiduciary risk posed by inactive accounts still remains.

In follow-up to two broker-friendly bills introduced in late March, a group of five U.S. Democratic senators are asking the agency again for changes that will help ACA-certified agents better enroll consumers.

UBA’s chief executive officer Thomas Mangan has left his position with the industry group to serve as president of employee benefits for the Market Financial Group.

The potential for passage of this agent and broker licensing bureau bill in Congress is within reach, leaders from this trade association say.

The Society for Human Resource Management’s new HR certification program is the best way to advance the profession, the organization says, despite concerns from the HR Certification Institute.

Three of the top five employee-reward issues employers faced in 2008 remain consistent with current challenges, a recent Mercer survey reveals.

The life insurance and annuities market continues to grow, but advisers hoping to capitalize on that will first need to meet the challenges of a diversifying U.S. population.

While certain health and wellness campaigns lend themselves to gender-specific messaging – mammograms or prostate cancer, for example – positioning health and benefits communication to male and female employees differently isn’t commonplace.

Even though more than one-in-four Americans have received treatment or therapy from a mental health professional, few people know that health insurers are required to provide coverage for mental health, behavioral health and substance-use disorders that is comparable to coverage for physical health.

Mirroring a recent HHS initiative, some state-run marketplaces such as Covered California have extended a special enrollment period for COBRA-eligible individuals, allowing them to enroll in a marketplace exchange plan through July.

Commentary: Blogger Vinnie Daboul had a crisis three years ago — what did he have to show for decades of work in the benefits industry? Here's how he worked through it and how he's feeling today.

The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry is sounding the alarm that many children aren’t getting the dental care they need — even though the ACA includes pediatric dental care on its essential health benefits roster for small-group plans.

Individuals could pay more than twice as much for prescription drugs with certain exchange plans, as employers that provide health coverage gain another asset to leverage.