Welcome to the 5th annual edition of the ABC’s of Employee Benefits. Given the tremendous amount of activity and volatility in the employee benefits space, this version can be summed up in one sentence: Surround yourself with quality, interested, and engaged help or else 2015 will be a very long and painful year.

Employers who tap into the specific generational needs of their employees and address certain desires could provide an upswing in benefit enrollment.

Having up-to-date investment policy statements is important, but are they plan documents? Do they have to be provided to participants upon request? Here’s what your employer clients need to know.

Commentary: Out-of-pocket health care costs are higher than ever. What solutions can benefit advisers offer their employer clients?

John Hancock Financial’s planned acquisition of New York Life’s Retirement Plan Services business is expected to grow its private sector retirement plan market to nearly 55,000 retirement plans and 2.5 million plan participants.

Early next year, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case that labor law and health care benefit advisers say could affect the Affordable Care Act’s strict employer mandate penalties.

Early next year, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case that labor law and health care benefit advisers say could affect the Affordable Care Act’s strict employer mandate penalties.

Borrowing from workplace wellness programs, plan sponsors may want to consider providing incentives to boost or start employees’ retirement savings.

The Obama administration says it will investigate benefit plan designs for discrimination and suspect practices that discourage people with costly medical conditions from enrolling in a plan.

Commentary: Why understanding the impact of health plan costs, employer contribution and employee demographics is vital to sponsoring benefits in 2015.

Commentary: Why understanding the impact of health plan costs, employer contribution and employee demographics is vital to sponsoring benefits in 2015.

In light of recent EEOC actions, what should employers with wellness programs that ask disability-related questions or require medical examinations do to minimize the risk of a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act?

The year in business: benefit firms shift their focus as employees bear more health care costs.

Employers need to take a fresh look at their retirement plans annually because there is still a “significant problem” with retirement readiness.

The prevalence of automatic enrollment features and qualified default investment alternatives in employer defined contribution plans have led to a huge increase in the use of target-date funds.

Reducing health care costs is still the No. 1 reason U.S. employers implement wellness programs.

Three legal organizations allege in a new Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge against Walmart that the retail giant did not go far enough to offer reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers with temporary disabilities. The National Women’s Law Center, A Better Balance and Mehri & Skalet, PLLC highlight in a Dec. 17 statement that the charge is on behalf of Candis Riggins, a former Walmart employee, whose job tasks caused her to become ill when she was…

President Obama has signed multiemployer pension plan reform into law, which some professionals are touting as the most comprehensive legislation affecting multiemployer pension plans since 1980. What does reform mean for you and your clients?

Even though each situation is unique, there are a number of best practices for helping employees through reasonable accommodations.

The obituary for traditional wellness programs has been widely published, though perhaps not universally acknowledged. What, indeed, went wrong?