Will virtual currencies supplant the dollar as the currency of choice for international transactions? Probably not any time soon. Recently the Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Internal Revenue Service issued statements designed to strongly discourage the use of virtual currencies.

Employers focused on Obamacare may be missing one of today’s most important compliance issues: benefits for same-sex married couples. Since June 2013, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Windsor that a federal statute limiting the terms “spouse” and “marriage” to couples of the opposite sex was unconstitutional, a sea-change has taken place in national attitudes about same-sex marriage.

Starbucks is helping its full- and part-time employees earn college degrees through a partnership with Arizona State University's online program beginning this fall.

Search engine giant Google will soon introduce Google Fit, a new mobile platform service to collect, aggregate and analyze data from wearable health fitness tracking products and health care apps. Google's service will enter a competitive market that got larger on June 16 when WebMD launched a program to make biometric data understandable and actionable on iPhones.

Several benefit brokers share their experiences with using TV ads during open enrollment 2014.

The IRS has launched a compliance check program to better understand how plan sponsors are complying with Roth deferral provisions in 401(k) plans. If asked to participate, failure to to respond could trigger an audit.

Insurance carriers are proposing a series of solutions to make the ACA exchanges more consumer-friendly, but not all brokers and agents agree with the ideas.

The state of Massachusetts officially repealed the employer pay-or-play regulations that were part of its landmark 2006 health care reform law. Similar to the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act, the state statute required employers of a certain size to either offer health care coverage to their employees or pay a fine.

The harsh reality for a couple retiring at age 65 this year is that they will need a small fortune just to cover their medical expenses in retirement.

Estimated enrollment is three times the number consultancy predicted last year.

Commentary: Columnist Nelson Griswold explores the value of selling this product line for benefit brokers and advisers.

Employee benefit advisers and employers will have to wait longer than anticipated for the DOL’s expanded definition of fiduciary, as the agency has delayed the issuance of its proposal until January 2015.

As more than a quarter of American workers report that they have experienced abusive conduct at work, it’s important for employers to develop an effective anti-bullying policy that respects past decisions by the National Labor Relations Board and the courts.

Although a vast majority of employers plan to continue providing health care benefits for their employees, many are taking drastic action to mitigate the health care reform law’s financial effects on their benefit strategies.

Commentary: Columnist John Ludwig says employers and their benefit advisers still have a long way to go to help workers be retirement-ready.

CMS has granted 18 states a delay in enacting employee choice on the SHOP exchange, which some advisers feel is the only incentive for employers to enroll on the exchange at all.

The emergence of public and private health insurance exchanges, as well as the ongoing shift toward placing more responsibility on workers for health plan decisions, is creating a new normal for employers and employees alike.

People managers should not underestimate the impact of coaching their people to success around individual and shared goals. It’s one of the rare benefits that accrues to the organization as much as its employees.

Potentially a result of complaints from consumers and increased competition on the ACA exchanges, benefit brokers may be pleased to find more options on the 2015 plans.

Automatic 401(k) features – including auto-enrollment, as well as plans that also automatically increase participant contributions each year – are beginning to have a significant impact on the success of employer-sponsored savings plans, and the balances of participants who’ve stayed in the game.