Employee benefits

Changing the emphasis from the accumulation of retirement assets to a safer and smoother way of distributing those savings will help make employees' lives easier, and help maximize their Social Security benefits.

Commentary: Proactive case management is the first step to creating a process for disability leave management that clients can count on, says The Standard’s Sandy Johnson.

The federal government has delayed implementing proposed changes to the Affordable Care Act’s Summary of Benefits and Coverage until January 2016.

Workers and retirees know what they should be doing to prepare for retirement but when it comes to action, neither group is prepared.

Now, more than ever, the retirement plan services industry is placing a greater emphasis on in-plan guaranteed income solutions to help employees achieve better retirement outcomes.

As health evaluations move further center stage – be it via celebrities pushing for cancer screenings or companies including health assessments in wellness programs – it is becoming clear that to take full advantage of the health opportunities available, employees need to know as much as possible about their current health status.

Voluntary business is a well-known tool for brokers to increase their revenue while offering new products. But many employers are hesitant to add these products because of additional administrative burdens they can require. Enter the private health care exchange, says Carlos Ferrera, COO of Solstice Benefits and the Solstice Marketplace. With an exchange, the burden is gone, he says.

Defined contribution plans have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the retirement industry, representing $7 trillion of the $24 trillion in retirement system assets in 2014, and while private companies have been at the forefront of the change, but government entities are following suit, which means DC plans will become even more important in the years ahead.

Commentary: It’s harder for women to get ahead in business, thanks to pay inequality and other factors, says ACI Specialty Benefits’ Erin Krehbiel. But, they can do something about it.

You may have noticed that there's a new trend sweeping the financial services industry: robo-advisers. These services use algorithms to automate investing, manage individual portfolios and provide financial guidance.

Lawmakers are pushing through several pieces of legislation that encourage better health information technology, especially interoperability, which will help reduce medical errors.

UnitedHealth Group’s $12.8 billion purchase of pharmacy benefit manager Catamaran Corp. continues a trend of PBM acquisitions, and there’s more to come, industry consultants say. In the long term, that may mean lower costs and more data availability for employers.

Commentary: Three reasons Individual contracts are incompatible with ERISA plans and how to handle it, according to The Principal’s Aaron Friedman.

Commentary: While these FMLA changes don’t require any immediate action or changes to employers’ benefit plans, they could serve as a catalyst for federal officials and agencies to further extend their reach into benefits programs, says Sam Fleet.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. agreed to buy Catamaran Corp. for about $12.8 billion, bulking up its drug-benefits business to get better negotiating power in talks with pharmaceutical companies over prices.

Commentary: Retail and restaurant workers, who come into more direct contact with the average customer than any other job, are the least likely to have paid sick leave as a benefit.

As the Affordable Care Act last week celebrated its five-year anniversary, the majority of employers say they have not considered reducing hours for part-time employees as a result of the law’s mandate that employees working 30 hours a week be offered health care coverage.

There’s room to grow in the investment-only variable annuity space, and educated advisers are the key.

A federal district court granted a preliminary injunction on Thursday ordering the Department of Labor to postpone the application of a rule that would have extended Family and Medical Leave Act benefits to same-sex married couples even in states that do not recognize same-sex marriage.

Employers may want to take note of the qualifying longevity annuity contract rules that were put in place last year under the required minimum distribution rules of the Internal Revenue Code.