Employee benefits

The prevalence of automatic enrollment features and qualified default investment alternatives in employer defined contribution plans have led to a huge increase in the use of target-date funds.

Reducing health care costs is still the No. 1 reason U.S. employers implement wellness programs.

Three legal organizations allege in a new Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge against Walmart that the retail giant did not go far enough to offer reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers with temporary disabilities. The National Women’s Law Center, A Better Balance and Mehri & Skalet, PLLC highlight in a Dec. 17 statement that the charge is on behalf of Candis Riggins, a former Walmart employee, whose job tasks caused her to become ill when she was…

President Obama has signed multiemployer pension plan reform into law, which some professionals are touting as the most comprehensive legislation affecting multiemployer pension plans since 1980. What does reform mean for you and your clients?

Even though each situation is unique, there are a number of best practices for helping employees through reasonable accommodations.

The obituary for traditional wellness programs has been widely published, though perhaps not universally acknowledged. What, indeed, went wrong?

Signed by President Barack Obama this week, the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 welcomes substantial changes to the multiemployer pension system that is meant to fortify the retirement future of nearly 10 million workers.

How one brokerage’s dedication to community service strengthens its business and ties to its clients, changes lives, and honors the legacy of its people-focused founder

Lockheed Martin, the global security and aerospace company, is in settlement talks with former employees that alleged the company imposed excessive 401(k) plan fees.

It’s been a year of massive growth for private exchanges, with estimates of more than three million people receiving employer health benefits through them by mid-2014, according to business management consultancy Accenture. Yet, 2015 is expected to see even more growth and acquisitions.

With an increasingly stabilized economy and the recent succession of promising jobs reports, many employers are hiring at quantities not seen since pre-recession days.

Without a well-conceived distribution strategy and enough methods of distribution, your carriers will find themselves with a dwindling customer base and shrinking revenues. So where does that leave you and your business? This is something brokers seriously need to consider, says columnist Jack Kwicien.

The DOL for 2015 has appointed five new members to its ERISA advisory council tasked with investigating and advising the Obama administration on subjects affecting employee benefit plans.

Employers are shifting toward one platform to manage their benefits and HR, but communicating plans to employees is more difficult due to the ACA.

New Year’s resolutions aren’t just for dieters and exercisers. The start of a new year is an ideal time for retirement plan sponsor to assess the effectiveness of their plan. Virtually all plan sponsors have areas that are ripe for improvement.

The National Labor Relations Board held recently that employers must allow use of company emails for union organizing purposes during non-work periods, a decision that many employment and labor advisers say will be a nuisance for workplace communication policies.

Workplace Benefits Renaissance 2015

2014 brought increased emphasis on retirement plans as employers are offering more engaging tools and creating a more holistic view of benefit offerings.

Reflecting on the challenging and exciting changes to employee retirement plans in 2014 - from the myRA to fee disclosure rules - plan sponsors and advisers certainly had their hands full.

Commentary: More than 90% of today's professional workforce are finding trouble balancing home and work, resulting in the need to complete personal tasks on the employers’ dime. ACI Specialty Benefits' Erin Krehbiel shares her firsthand tips on how to get it all done without impacting company time.