Adviser help is sorely needed to lessen employer/employee disconnect during open enrollment. Recent research from Aflac shows tools and resources that employees find useful are not always made available by their employers, further complicating an already confusing process.

The House has agreed to pass legislation that makes possible a repeal of the ACA’s controversial expansion of the definition of a small employer — a bill hailed by the benefits industry for protecting the small and mid-size businesses they feel the expansion threatens to harm.

Commentary: it is particularly curious that the DOL’s proposed fiduciary regulation seems to introduce prohibitions that will likely prevent future modernization of such plans, says The Principal’s Aaron Friedman.

Offering a supplemental plan for retired military employees can save employers from potential claims — and it also helps brokers add value to their clients and increase their book of business.

Long an afterthought, retirement firms and advisers are pushing their clients to add auto escalation to employer plans.

Transamerica is to become Mercer’s preferred DC recordkeeping provider, which will likely boost Transamerica’s position in the retirement space, experts say.

Commentary: Continue to provide value-added personal service to your clients with these practical tips for marketing benefit programs, says ThinkHR's Laura Kerekes.

Commentary: Brokers don't achieve high organic growth by accident. Successful agencies and brokers have their eyes up — they consistently look ahead, and this foresight drives thoughtful planning that leads to an effective execution strategy, says Zywave's Dave O'Brien.

Questions over program effectiveness, legality and data storage have employers hesitating to implement such plans.

Commentary: HHS is starting to roll out the second phase of HIPAA audits, and now is the time for employers to assess compliance with HIPAA’s security rule. If your organization is selected for a Phase II Audit, are you ready?

The IRS has posted a webpage, dubbed the ACA Information Center for Applicable Large Employers, which features information and resources for employers on how the health care law may affect them.

Health insurance carriers have not poached healthier customers from the exchanges for plans sold outside the exchanges, which some feared would lead to adverse selection in the public exchange market, concludes a recent issue brief.

Commentary: Being facilitative and consultative will help you to engage the client in a discussion — not a sales pitch — and it will enable you to make more informed recommendations that are responsive to the client’s values and needs.

Commentary: A new opportunity has emerged, and we have entered another inflection point in an era of change. What each of us does next could very well determine our long-term destiny, says Digital’s Mike Sullivan.

The ruling is not likely to affect demand for individual fixed indemnity products, which have been on the decline, nor to have impact on overall health insurance market, experts say.

Zenefits announced today it is offering small and mid-sized employers an ACA compliance tool for free. Some industry experts say the offering raises the bar again for competing benefit brokers, but others claim it is too little, too late.

Commentary: Although in their infancy, private exchanges have not yet met predicted adoption rates. Wells Fargo’s Dan Gowen shares why this may be the case.

Commentary: There’s a fine line between permissible and impermissible comments — and employers shouldn’t make any requests that could discourage employees from exercising FMLA leave.

U.S. Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) introduced legislation Thursday seeking to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s excise tax on high-cost group plans.

Commentary: Benefit firms hoping for agency growth must manage their producers or suffer the consequences of relinquishing control of the firm’s future, says EBA columnist Nelson Griswold.