Employee benefits

United Continental Holdings Inc’s quarterly profit slid 37%, hit by higher fuel bills and labor costs from its messy and long merger of United and Continental airlines.

Most employees don’t think they should be required to participate in wellness programs to qualify for employer-provided health insurance, according to a new survey released by the National Business Group on Health. Moreover, they don’t think employers should charge employees more for health coverage if they don’t meet specific health goals.

Should employers be worried about workplace productivity during the Olympics?

House Democrats on Wednesday introduced legislation that would expand the role of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct oversight examinations of investment advisers, a segment of the financial services sector that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have agreed is under regulated.

Detroit’s mayor recently imposed 10% pay cuts on city workers and found other savings from benefits in a bid to save the city’s cash-strapped coffers $102 million a year.

A battle is brewing to influence public opinion over the drivers of rising prescription drug benefit costs, cost-containment strategies and the path to meaningful health care reforms.

One-third of “transition boomers,” those aged 55 to 65 and who are 10 years or fewer away from retirement, are unsure how much money they will need to cover basic living expenses in retirement, according to The Transition Boomers and Retirement Income Survey, from Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America.

Last month's Supreme Court ruling that upheld President Barack Obama's 2010 health care law could save the U.S. government some $84 billion over 11 years, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. announced on Tuesday that its employee benefit consulting operation, Gallagher Benefit Services, Inc., has launched a private insurance exchange platform.

Worries persist that working Americans aren’t saving enough to afford a life of leisure, but maybe retirement isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

Public pension funds are expected to report poor annual returns in the coming weeks, results that are likely to increase calls for more realistic retirement promises for teachers, police officers and other public workers.

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As Americans struggle in the recession’s aftermath to prepare for retirement, those who have taken the time to put together a financial plan feel more confident and report more success managing money, savings and investments than those who have not.

Although most multinationals anticipate major global mobility challenges over the next two to three years, a new survey from Towers Watson and Worldwide ERC found that nearly half of them expect to increase traditional international assignments over the same period.

Active management of crediting rates on spread-based business, improved fee income driven by growth in assets, ongoing expense management, favorable investment results and selected acquisitions are all driving modest earnings improvement in 2012 for U.S. life insurers, according to Fitch Ratings.

Prudential Group will discontinue sales of new group long-term care insurance policies effective Aug. 1, 2012, except in Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana and South Dakota, where it will continue for a period as required by state law. In March, the carrier announced that it would discontinue the sale of individual LTC products to focus solely on its group line.

As California goes, so goes the nation, according to an old axiom. But will optimism about relief from pending health insurance rate hikes for tens of thousands of small businesses in the Golden State spill into other states or be buoyed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)?

Federal health care reform legislation and the desire of employers to limit their health insurance costs are likely to fuel interest in “defined contribution” (DC) health benefits and private health insurance exchanges, according to a new report by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

Employers must be prepared to field employee questions and take appropriate action in the event that health insurance carriers fail to comply with the Medical Loss Ratio threshold under PPACA and must issue “rebates” beginning next month.

Data collected from the 13th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey makes it clear that the effects of the “Great Recession” have taken their toll on not just retirees, but the unemployed and underemployed as well.