Mental health focus of new workplace campaign
A new workplace campaign from Employers' Coalition and the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health aims to help employers reduce the stigma of depression and help avoid costly disability claims.
Disability insurance
Court rules a theoretical job cant stop disability benefits
Companies cannot deny an employee disability benefits based on their ability to perform a job that only exists in theory, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
Supreme Court upholds plan document statute of limitations in Heimeshoff case
In what can be viewed as a victory for plan sponsors, the Supreme Court ruled that statute of limitation periods written into plan documents are valid, as long as those periods are reasonable.
Benefits Think Helping employees beat the holiday blues
While carolers may chant joyfully about the holidays being the most wonderful time of the year, many workers find themselves singing the blues during the winter months. One in 10 people will experience depression at some time in their lives, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This not only inflicts suffering on individuals and families, it costs employers $44 billion annually in lost productivity.
Supreme Court to decide statute of limitations for ERISA disability claim
On November 18, 2010, Julie Heimeshoff filed her lawsuit against Hartford and Wal-Mart, claiming that defendants had violated ERISA by failing to provide long-term disability benefits.
Gen Xers post biggest gap in life insurance coverage
The average American registered an insurance shortfall of $320,000. The gap has widened substantially for Gen Xers since the financial crisis.
Hartford pushes personal connections for disability coverage
Consumers are likely to turn to their spouses, co-workers and parents for help with benefits decisions in part because those decisions can affect them, too, and in part because those are the people to whom they most relate.
5 common supplemental disability plan mistakes
These plans hold appeal in an unpredictable economy but must be well-designed to avoid employee dissatisfaction.
Drugs easier topic than life insurance in parent-child chats
About 30% of U.S. households lack life insurance, according to industry group Limra.
Five biggest mistakes when designing a supplemental disability plan
Supplemental disability income plans are so mainstream today they're thought of as plain vanilla. Thats all well and good until the other shoe falls. And it often does. When employers experience problems with existing voluntary disability plans, most of these issues can be traced back to when the plan was originally designed.
Most advisers see life insurance as a dead end
During the last three years, 44% of those questioned say that 10% or fewer of their current clients had asked about possible life insurance strategies.
Ripe for the picking
As more companies embrace consumer-driven health care models and prepare for the full implementation of health care reform, employees need voluntary benefits more than ever. This chart pack includes the latest data on voluntary benefits from the Aflac WorkForces Report and UBAs Ancillary Products Survey.
BMW drives employees to comprehensive onsite clinic
As more companies embrace consumer-driven health care models and prepare for the full implementation of health care reform, employees need voluntary benefits more than ever. This chart pack includes the latest data on voluntary benefits from the Aflac WorkForces Report and UBAs Ancillary Products Survey.
Mind the gap
Private disability insurance gets employees back to work more consistently than public programs yet the industry still struggles to get employees enrolled in the benefit.
Fewer workers feel financially secure
More than a third of Americans say they dont feel financially secure, according to a survey from Unum. Moreover, the number of those who feel not at all secure is up from the last year. Women, meanwhile, feel more financially insecure than men.
CDA reports gap in disability risk assessments
In an advance copy of Disability Divide: Employer Study provided to EBN, only 26% of HR professionals surveyed believe employees feel its very important to prepare for a disability; the same amount thinks employees are in fact properly prepared to withstand a disabling event.
Companies launch 401(k) disability insurance
Two new insurance products aim to raise employee awareness about retirement planning and disability.
Banks selling more life insurance
In 2012, banks sold $1.6 billion in life insurance premium, the second-highest annual production level in the history of the bank channel. The banks record year was 2010, when the channel sold $1.8 billion in life insurance.
New tools, calculators help employers measure effectiveness of absence management programs
Disability insurance experts with Guardian Life Insurance Company have developed an index for measuring and predicting the success of companies absence management programs in conjunction with their short-term and long-term disability programs.
Survey finds majority of employees want customizable benefits
Women and younger workers are particularly likely to favor customizable voluntary benefits, according to a TNS Omnibus survey.