Employee benefits

Commentary: Step up your game or your clients may choose to become your competitors, says the head of Pittsburgh Business Group on Health

The distribution model for employee benefits is changing, and adapting to the rapidly developing landscape presents new questions and challenges for all players.

Good recordkeeping is important to avoid paying for benefits for ineligible recipients.

The information compromised includes names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, street and e-mail addresses and employee data, including income, Anthem said.

As traditional defined benefit plans go the way of the dinosaur and 401(k) plans take their place, plan sponsors should keep an eye on the next 15 years as the first generation of workers who will rely most on their 401(k)s to fund their retirements begin to turn 65.

Benefit Advisors Network partners with exchange firm to help clients get coverage for benefit-ineligible employees.

Significant numbers of Americans, and therefore employees, are stressing about their financial situation at a level deemed “too high” by the American Psychological Association.

It may still be too soon to tell how widespread wearable fitness trackers will become in corporate wellness programs but for Phoenix Companies, a life insurance and annuity company based in Hartford, Conn., wearable wellness is anything but a fad.

Time Inc. joins the ranks of big-name companies using a private exchange for active employees. The company has selected Towers Watson’s OneExchange to deliver medical, prescription drug, dental and vision benefits to its full-time active employees and their dependents for the 2015 year.

The addition of a Roth in-plan conversion feature to a company's 401(k) plan may be viewed by executives as an important tax planning tool.

An emerging company policy known as “unlimited vacation” or “unlimited PTO” (paid time-off) is gaining headlines again. What is unlimited vacation? Why are companies implementing it? And what are its pros and cons?

Commentary: Bundled MEC plans insure workers while helping employers avoid new penalties, says Sam Fleet.

A bipartisan legislative proposal to spur greater sponsorship of retirement plans by smaller employers and higher deferral levels by plan participants has been proposed once again in Washington.

An atypical market culture has left benefit firms vulnerable to the destructive powers of inertia, says Joe Markland, and advisers must change their mindset to survive.

President Barack Obama’s $3.99 trillion fiscal 2016 budget proposal echoes and expands on much of what he presented during his State of the Union address last month, from expanding sick leave to enhancing training and providing some free access to community colleges.

The introduction of new legislation to repeal the ACA’s employer mandate seeks to relieve employers of health care reform requirements Republicans say threaten job creation and growth. While many in the benefits industry applaud an effort widely considered futile, the employer mandate is only one of several ACA concerns employers say they have prioritized.

If you are responsible for overseeing your company's retirement plan, then you know that a key measurement of success is employee participation rates. Of course your plan's participation helps employees save as much as they can for retirement, but it also ties directly to passing nondiscrimination tests.

Both groups place a high importance on life insurance and are most receptive to it, LIMRA finds.

As calls for the EEOC to issue guidance on wellness programs continue, employees are on board with their employers’ involvement in health and wellness programs.

The University of Washington danced its way into the Guinness Book of World Records this week, also marking a year since the inception of the university’s revolutionary employee engagement program.