Practice and client management

Early health plan rate filings for 2015 signal premium rate hikes that could force individuals to consider switching plans. Confused consumers will be looking for help from benefit brokers and agents well-versed in plan options.

How the ACA has drawn attention to vision care coverage and prompted employers to ask advisers about this voluntary benefit.

Advisers can help employers boost employee benefit enrollment with better employee education and communication.

Starbucks is helping its full- and part-time employees earn college degrees through a partnership with Arizona State University's online program beginning this fall.

Several benefit brokers share their experiences with using TV ads during open enrollment 2014.

Insurance carriers are proposing a series of solutions to make the ACA exchanges more consumer-friendly, but not all brokers and agents agree with the ideas.

Commentary: Columnist Craig Davidson explores the future of employee benefits in the kick-off to a new series about what’s to come and how to prepare for change.

Commentary: Columnist Jack Kwicien tells you to take a step back and evaluate each client from a sales management consultant approach.

Potentially a result of complaints from consumers and increased competition on the ACA exchanges, benefit brokers may be pleased to find more options on the 2015 plans.

Employers in Southeast Michigan have projected an increase in health care costs this year. Still, to retain talent, businesses say they intend to continue offering health benefits to full-time employees, despite price increases resulting from the ACA.

Employees living paycheck to paycheck need solutions from their employers to meet financial emergencies, yet most employers aren’t aware financial wellness programs and lending solutions exist or that they’re credible.

Commentary: As part of columnist Mel Schlesinger’s sales system that cannot fail series, he discusses how to have a sales value proposition that is different from competitors and opens doors at all times of the year.

Commentary: Blogger John Graham helps benefit brokers and advisers unlearn some of the worst sayings business people tend to tell themselves.

Benefit brokers should be turning their sights to the capabilities of health care data to improve employer clients’ employees’ health. There are doctors asking for even more potential from computer algorithms to interpret such data and could provide a glimpse into the future.

Despite all the technical glitches with Healthcare.gov and state-run exchanges during open enrollment, a large majority of Americans researching health plan options relied on websites for information, but supplemented their research with other outlets for answers, including brokers and advisers.

While one of the most talked about rising employee benefits, brokers vary in their approach to offering this trend because of the realities of use, cost and profit.

Advisers looking to protect themselves and their clients from professional negligence or malpractice suits need to enter into an engagement letter, according to an ERISA attorney.

Although most employers review retirement plan costs annually, many are not assessing fees evenly across all asset classes — and that’s where benefit advisers come in.

Commentary: Blogger Rob Lieblein offers insight as to why private exchanges really are the future of benefits and where benefit brokers and advisers should be in the process of hopping on the exchange train.

Commentary: Why your clients should consider allowing work from home as a part of disability recovery for certain employees.