Employee benefits

Worksite voluntary benefits are gaining in popularity on standard ancillary benefit offerings, but the adviser’s sales approach to each needs to be varied.

As a value-added reseller, Apprize Technology sells and services to brokers three different benefit administration platforms, what many call a private exchange— bswift, benefitsCONNECT and Infiniti HR. Gary Wert, Apprize’s president, discusses why Apprize and other resellers may have to turn away business in the fourth quarter and why some brokers aren’t building their own exchange, but rather using a reseller.

Anthem Inc. is near an agreement to buy rival Cigna Corp. for about $48 billion, two people with knowledge of the matter said. A deal would create the largest health insurer in the U.S. after almost a year of talks.

Commentary: Even though much has changed in the last 10 years, we may still describe the 403(b) market as “wild,” says The Principal’s Aaron Friedman.

Commentary: Many safe harbor IRAs don’t live up to their name and could leave sponsors with unexpected fiduciary liability.

Many believe the DOL has gone about its fiduciary rule-making in the wrong way and fear the rules, as proposed, will do more harm than good.

Commentary: Employer interest in exchanges is high, but adoption rates have lagged behind projections for 2015.

Industry trade groups and associations flooded the DOL with suggested amendments and revisions to its proposed fiduciary rule, ahead of the July 21 deadline for comments.

Commentary: Brokers are strategically positioned to encourage employers to commit to a more productive workforce.

Traditional IRA investors showed little reaction to the economic downturn in 2007.

Understanding these ACA compliance requirements and the tools necessary to track the required data can be confusing and overwhelming.

Commentary: Many of the world’s leading employers offer expert second opinions as a valued employee benefit that can save money by averting unnecessary testing and treatment, decrease absenteeism, and promote employee retention.

Employers offering high deductible plans – particularly those who have gone the full replacement route – still need to beef up their educational efforts.

Higher PBGC premiums and a volatile market are catalysts for risk management in DB plans.

Increasingly, employers are expanding wellness programs to include financial guidance. But do these programs go far enough?

Two Urban Institute reports funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that 9.4 million fewer families struggled to pay medical bills in early 2015 than just before the rollout of public exchanges and Medicaid expansion in 2013.

The consolidation of two health insurer giants has divided employers into two camps.

Women over the age of 65 are twice as likely as men to live in poverty in retirement because of lower wages, more time spent out of the workforce and lack of access to retirement savings plans.

How San Francisco-based Equity Risk Partners’ focus on private equity firms had made the small firm a big player in the niche market.

Commentary: Personal care in times of great distress not only delivers more effective care, but it also does it more efficiently, says Sam Fleet.