EBA’s annual Workplace Benefits Summit, held last week in Boca Raton, Fla., included a celebration of our Advisers of the Year, strategy and marketing tips from benefit professionals, and the presentation of our inaugural Most Influential Women in Benefit Advising awards.

Private health care exchanges bring with them major implications for employer-sponsored benefits, including a shift to defined contribution health care and increased access to data.

The more things appear to change, the more they appear to stay the same. That’s what a consumer health advocacy group in Florida is saying about double-digit health insurance premium increases that it says have been predating, and now post-dating, the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Commentary: When talking to non-profit HR executives, the common reasons The Principal’s Aaron Friedman hears for low adoption include perceived cost and the idea that they don’t feel like they can tell people what to do. These reasons don’t hold water, he says.

Commentary: October is National Depression Awareness Month. Jeff Guardalabene, a mental health case manager with Standard Insurance Company, offers these tips on how to help your employer clients navigate this important but often uncharted territory.

Commentary: To get beyond the barriers that keep us from engaging customers and avoid always asking the “who can I talk to today?” question, what’s needed is a pipeline mentality, says sales expert John Graham.

How offering employers solutions to employee engagement can earn you an agent of record letter.

Employers and employees have different perspectives when it comes to discussing benefits, and benefit advisers can help close that gap.

Health care reform has changed the role of the adviser from insurance broker to that of a trusted adviser, counselor and compliance guru. Advisers hoping to thrive in this new environment will embrace the change less as a burden and more as an opportunity.

Can a cafeteria plan prevent an employee from heading to the exchange? New IRS direction clarifies mid-year changes for your client’s cafeteria plan participants.

Complicated and tedious ACA reporting requirements are forcing benefit advisers who want to stay relevant to adapt to a more automated way of doing business.

With the ACA’s employer mandate on the horizon, many employers with part-time and variable hour employees are also re-evaluating their benefit offerings for part-time employees.

A panel of some of EBA’s Most Influential Women in Benefit Advising discuss how women are claiming a role in the benefits industry.

With consumers shopping online for nearly everything nowadays, benefit advisers should be rethinking their approach to selling insurance.

All comprehensive wellness platforms should consist of four core programs — wellness, disease management, EAP and work life components — says Yale Mallinger of wellness company HMC-HealthWorks, but it’s what makes up those components that counts.

Her breadth and depth of experience make Theresa White a good choice to be Aflac's first female and African-American president of Aflac U.S., say industry experts.

Targeting employee needs and purchasing preferences can boost engagement and enrollment with voluntary benefits. The way to personalize that message, experts say, is through the use of data analytics.

Health care reform has presented employers plenty of new challenges to grapple with when it comes to offering health care coverage, and, many say, has expanded the critical role of benefit advisers who heed the call.

Communication will be a critical component of benefits administration in the future, according to Aflac’s Teresa White, who outlines benefit and HR trends for the upcoming year.

Commentary: Health insurance companies, health care professionals, politicians, academics and public health advocates all have opinions about what health care reform in America should look like.