Employee benefits

The health care system in the United States is on the threshold of changing the course of the nation and what happens now “can impact the life of every American more than any piece of policy or legislation we have seen in the recent past,” Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said Wednesday.

Employers facing benefit enrollment challenges or looking to streamline the enrollment process could benefit from the service of outsourcing the enrollment process. Choosing the appropriate benefit enrollment firm requires careful selection by the employer and its benefit adviser.

Achieving better enrollment rates for voluntary benefits depends on high-quality, relevant data.

Powers granted to shareholders to vote down pay packages for the CEO and other top executives by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act appear to be driving some change in executives’ “golden parachute” protections.

By now, some of your clients have come to you with a problem: How do I address this tax filing for IRS 6055/56? For some reason, their payroll vendor is unable to deliver or wants an arm and a leg to do the filing. You hold out hope that somehow this will blow over and get resolved. But as we get into the summer months, a greater number of your clients lacking in options will…

CMS says agent fees and commission cannot be excluded from issuer MLR reporting requirements — unless these very specific criteria are met.

Although they still amount to little more than a blip on the radar screen, income guarantee arrangements incorporated into defined contribution plans are growing rapidly in popularity.

The financial rewards of an engaged workforce can be significant for employers, and yet the correlation between higher levels of employee engagement and a company’s bottom line is not necessarily well-understood by senior executives.

The clock is ticking for various state legislatures that are pondering a change in the way their residents enroll in public health insurance exchanges ahead of the widely anticipated June ruling in King v. Burwell on whether federal subsidies will be scrapped in 34 states that rely on Healthcare.gov for signups.

Low-cost lending and credit-establishment services emerge as a new benefit to help employees make better financial decisions.

The proposals for Healthcare.gov plans are subject to a review process before the final rates are published by Nov. 1.

When the recently proposed fiduciary rules are finalized there will likely continue to be significant differences between how Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and brokers interact with their retirement plan clients from a fiduciary standpoint.

Commentary: The changes you may need to make to compete effectively in a future benefits world may be dependent on some prediction as to where you think the market is going.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but all 350 MHBT employees will join MMA under a new company name.

Many assume that a wealthy upbringing is essential for an early retirement, but recent studies show those who plan to retire early were no more likely to describe their family growing up as wealthy/affluent, or financially comfortable, than people who planned to stay in the workforce longer.

Defined contribution plan sponsors remain in regulatory limbo regarding their obligations to maintain detailed documentation surrounding employee 401(k) hardship withdrawals.

In Tibble v. Edison, the Supreme Court did not expound on what a retirement plan fiduciary's duty to monitor entails, which is a bone of contention for ERISA attorneys and 401(k) plan sponsors.

Commentary: Numbers can tell you if your internal communications are effectively engaging employees, and resulting in a stronger culture and higher benefit participation rates.

Fiduciary responsibility requires the careful selection of default retirement investments. Benefit advisers can add value with knowledgeable advice on qualified default investment alternatives, including through the use of selection tools.

Benefits decision-makers continue to struggle with the notion of financially justifying their wellness dollars, as wellness ROI is still exceptionally elusive.