Employee benefits

Volatility has returned to the equity markets with a vengeance. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fluctuated by hundreds of points on many recent trading days. During these times your 401(k) plan participants can become very nervous.

Although the ACA’s excise tax doesn’t go into effect until 2018, employers are already fearful — benefit advisers should be offering ideas and solutions to calm their fears.

For employers fighting to maintain grandfathered status, consultants and benefit managers predict the Affordable Care Act’s ongoing implementation will mean the end of these health plan structures in the near future.

A large majority of workers prefer signing up for benefits online, a PlanSource survey finds.

With companies granting over $110 billion in equity each year to employees, the stakes are very high for employers to demonstrate a strong return on investment from their equity compensation plans. And yet, there appears to be a disconnect in how these companies and their employees perceive equity awards.

Benefits firm WorkforceTactix and tech company Digital Health Innovations are using data analytics and an innovative health app to predict and prevent clients’ high-cost claims, increase transparency and rein in health care costs.

Companies are waking up to the fact that supporting the emotional, physical and cognitive health of their employees makes sense — and affects their bottom line.

Employee purchases have increased $18 billion in the past decade, Unum study finds

Commentary: Blogger Kevin Hilst shares tips for benefit advisers and professionals on how to make sure a vision RFP zeroes in on what distinguishes a great product from a commodity.

Several tech companies this week announced they would be adding egg freezing benefits to their health plan. While that may sound like a nice perk to some, making this and other benefit plan changes comes with risks that your employer clients, with your help, should consider.

On the heels of news about Aon Hewitt’s estimated more than 1.2 million HIX enrollees exceeding its expectations for 2015, Bright Choices Exchange operator Liazon is crowing about its own expansion plans.

The new CEO of the federal health insurance marketplace, Kevin Counihan, knows there is room for improvement, but says new processes have Healthcare.gov ready for 2015 open enrollment.

What's keeping female employees from getting more deeply involved in their own retirement savings? Better plan design and more personalized communications can help offset women's reluctance - or perceived financial inability - to help make savings plans.

A fix is in the works to ensure agents and brokers can identify themselves and therefore receive commissions for their work on the federally-facilitated marketplace, an agency official at The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight said Tuesday.

Initial numbers for 2015 open enrollment put participation in Mercer’s Marketplace exchange at nearly five times the size of 2014 rates. The consulting firm also added 40 additional clients to the exchange who were not previously with Mercer.

Using an electronic, cloud-based system to help with your open enrollment can allow employees to take the extra time to make sure they're getting the most out of your voluntary offerings.

A third of Americans have no retirement savings and those who do aren’t saving enough — automatic escalation can help.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 has helped to reduce costs and limit liabilities for multiemployer plans. But the landmark legislation will sunset at the end of the year, which has many stakeholders and consultants predicting future retirement uncertainty for the more than 10 million participants in multiemployer plans across the nation.

A benefits manager may assume that health care coverage and insurance needs are easily covered as employees head off to international worksites, but preparing for accidents - or the complexity of global insurance rules - requires some extra forethought.

A couple weeks into the post-Bill Gross PIMCO era, plan sponsors may be interested in learning what other plan sponsors are doing with their PIMCO funds in their retirement plans.