Employee benefits

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.

As health consumerism continues to infiltrate employer-sponsored benefits, benefit advisers say that voluntary options have helped to limit out-of-pocket costs for employees and curtail overall costs for their employers.

Employers are becoming more familiar with the players in the private exchange marketplace but still feel they lack sufficient information about fees and how the exchanges are paid.

For much of the country, Monday was the last day to enroll in health insurance coverage through the federal Health Insurance Marketplace, Healthcare.gov, to have a Jan. 1, 2015 effective date. Overall enrollment ends Feb. 15, 2015. Unlike last year’s open enrollment, the system has hit few, if any, snags and is on track to hit or exceed its enrollment estimates.

When it comes to robust retirement systems around the globe, the U.S. is ranked 19 of 150 different countries, and American business – from lawmakers to employers and plan sponsors – can learn from some of those international success stories.

From the first open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act to the unveiling of Apple’s HealthWatch, the health care industry has seen some big advancements and major changes in 2014, making it a year of constant adjustment for benefit advisers.

With 2015 fast approaching, employee benefit decision makers are scrambling to ensure that they stay ahead of the curve – particularly as the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate kicks in next month.

An eight-year-old lawsuit against aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp., launched by employees who claim the company's retirement plan overcharged them and critically underperformed, hit the Illinois courtroom Dec. 15.

A plan needs to be established for replacing business owners and/or C-suite executives to ensure a smooth transition and to keep the company sustainable and thriving.

The year in wellness: Wearable devices, outcomes-based incentives and social media have helped shape wellness in the workplace in 2014.

Whether it’s the increased need of tracking employee hours due to the Affordable Care Act or just the sheer ease of accessing information on the cloud, investments in HR technology have continued to grow across all employers segments and industries.

A bipartisan, yet controversial, effort to help stabilize the retirement futures for Americans through a substantial reform of the multiemployer pension plan system passed through the House this week.

With a still-recovering economy, weakened retirement plan offerings and the uncertainly of supplemental income in retirement, many workers are opting to stay put, adding unforeseen burdens to employers.