Employers need to be aware of the significant paradigm shift in how generations of workers prefer to digest their benefits information. Young employees entering the workplace "are people who grew up playing Sims," says Sybll Romley, a Colorado-based independent consultant and HRIS professional. "They want that interactive real-life example, and they want it to be more like a game."

Are you wrestling with the need to increase revenues despite compensation compression? (Think commission reductions.) A number of benefits advisers are actively pursuing strategies to migrate a portion or all of their revenues to a fee-based consultancy model. What are you contemplating? Perhaps a strategic alliance is a solution that you can embrace and deploy in your local marketplace. Many advisers are realizing that in order to move up-market (larger size accounts), they need more staff, different skill sets, access to other product solutions and services, and different market perception about their "small" practice.

When it comes to voluntary auto and home insurance, brokers can't be afraid of the unknown, says Liberty Mutual's Mark Parabicoli.

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king condemned by the gods in the afterlife to pushing a huge boulder to the top of a steep hill, only to have it slip from his grasp each time and roll back to the bottom, a frustrating and unproductive task to be repeated over and over.

Health reform is in such a chaotic state and will continue to be so even after the Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of PPACA - and the November election. This is where scenario planning can help. At the April conference for the Institute for HealthCare Consumerism, I listened to a panel on alternative planning scenarios in regard to health reform using scenario planning. Let's see how it works.

Health care and the Supreme Court are expected to take center stage on Thursday. The announcement will telegraph the futures of many, regardless of what the high court says. Whatever choice the court makes has consequences that will change your direction and that of our industry for a long time to come, says EBA contributor Craig Davidson.

From the agent's point of view, critical illness insurance can help open the door to new clients as well as to differentiate from other agents. Most important of all, it can significantly increase the agent's revenue.

It is nearly impossible for an adviser to effectively help an employer manage their DC plan without doing what it takes to make them a functional fiduciary. Realizing that many advisers, or those that were traditionally called brokers, could not become named fiduciaries, others that could do so used it as a weapon in head-to-head competition.

Despite recent tax reform proposals, experts testified at a House committee hearing April 26 that cutting incentives for retirement plans would be detrimental to savings.

With employers seeking to show the value of all their benefits in this ever-increasing competitive job market, Benefitfocus, a benefits technology company, recently debuted an online marketplace for employees to shop for benefits, voluntary products and more.

What do Babe Ruth and Humphrey Bogart have in common? They developed oral cancer - a deadly disease that will be diagnosed in more than 40,000 Americans this year, according to the Oral Cancer Foundation.

Identifying the health risk factors for your clients' employee population is the fabric of your wellness bag of tricks. An effective program connects a total wellness solution to those specific risks. The trick is finding the right motivator for changing unhealthy behavior.

With health care reform's medical loss ratio rebate reporting starting this month, there is still much uncertainty among employers about how the rebates will work, leading to an opportunity for brokers to fill that all-important trusted adviser role.

Anyone doubting the sustainability and projected growth of mobile technology should take heed of these statistics from technology and communication leaders Qualcomm Life and Virgin HealthMiles.

As health care consulting and cost analysis become more and more complicated, brokers can help clients reduce costs by using data mining - a field that is constantly evolving with new technology and tools.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I met with a financial planner for the first time. Setting up the appointment was my idea - I suppose three and a half years of constant exposure to press releases entailing Americans' alarming lack of retirement preparedness will do that to a person.

April 3, 2012 5:30 a.m. As I stagger to the Keurig, I notice the flashing words, "NOT READY." I emphatically agree with the machine and tell us both to suck it up. As I savor the first cup of coffee, I grab my iPhone and read those ever-so-important emails that happen between 10:00 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. I truly believe a lot of people suffer from insomnia. I also believe that people think about insurance as a last-ditch effort to combat it.

When thinking about their retirement and savings needs, women investors want to know they are working with someone who understands and listens to them - they want to talk to a woman.

I've written previously about wellness and health management, but since it's a topic that comes up in virtually every client planning meeting I have these days, it seems worth revisiting. The biggest challenge facing HR professionals looking to devote resources to wellness initiatives at their workplaces is responding to the question, "What's the ROI?"

By now everyone knows about Facebook’s IPO, and you’ve heard tales of its 900 million registered users.