Employee benefits

Suffocating under large loans and with little savings, the majority Gen Xers admit being bogged down with uncertainty when planning for retirement.

Employers looking for good news on patient safety got a mixed bag of recent news – especially the discouraging report that nearly half of American hospitals fall short in nursing standards.

Conflicting beneficiary designations for 401(k) plan assets can be tough to sort out when a plan participant dies.

Data suggest a strong correlation between an employee’s overall sense of confidence in the future and the benefits they participate in at work – particularly non-medical benefits such as life insurance, accident insurance and critical illness insurance.

The ACA’s mandated expansion of the definition of the small group market would limit employers’ health plan options and lead to premium increases, according to employer groups that are urging the repeal of the mandate before it takes effect in 2016.

The possibility of specialty drug pricing financially overwhelming business and union health plans is very real.

If you talk to a benefits administrator or human resources professional, odds are they’re going to tell you they’re overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the pace of change and the demands of today’s benefits landscape. It seems like just about everybody is, at best, treading water.

A new partnership will soon give independent insurance agencies access to a program designed to help brokers change their service model and increase profitability.

May 29 is 529 Day, a national observance that acknowledges the importance of the college savings tool, but 66% of Americans still don’t understand what 529 plans are.

Trust and education are some of the more favorable characteristics sought in retirement plan providers, as well as key drivers to increasing employee engagement. However, that education is lacking, as most employees have a poor understanding of retirement language.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling in the Burwell v Hobby Lobby Stores case addressed in broad terms how exceptions to the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for contraceptive benefits coverage can be granted in the private sector, it left some unresolved questions both in the for-profit and in the nonprofit world.

A win for King would have economic benefits for both individuals and employers, according to one think tank.

Commentary: The midpoint of the tax year is almost upon us, and many still have work to do to prepare for the new IRS 1094-C and 1095-C filings.

For 22 years, she has ‘worked tirelessly on our behalf with acumen that is unmatched.’

Commentary: When executed efficiently, this strategy can bring a variety of benefits, says AmWINS’s Sam Fleet.

The surge of small 401(k) account balances is the result of a perfect storm — increasing rates of adoption for automatic enrollment combined with the high frequency of job changes observed in today’s mobile workforce.

Is your PBM contract up for renewal? Here’s what you need to know.

Brokers need to change the conversations they are having with clients away from the Affordable Care Act and toward other topics, including voluntary, since little will change with the law until the next presidential inauguration, a carrier rep says.

Health care consumers in some parts of the U.S. may face higher premiums next year if some insurers struggle to cover their costs and Congress continues to require that the risk-corridors program established under the ACA be self-sustaining.

DC plan sponsors that take pains to secure competitive institutional pricing for their retirement plans’ investment services to maximize retirement savings for active employees may also have an incentive to do so for retirees.