Practice and client management

Industry groups hope the broker licensing bill will be attached to another insurance law that should go through Congress soon, but lawmakers aren’t confirming anything right now.

Benefit insiders predict a steep decline in small business group health insurance sales in the coming years, which could prove harmful for many independent brokers and agents.

Commentary: An additional option is available for certain consumers to continue to enroll in the ACA marketplaces, guest blogger Laura Kerekes explains.

With lack of information and resources deterring most of the uninsured who did not enroll for coverage on the exchanges in 2014, advisers are poised to play a pivotal role in 2015.

“Poor money management” has become the number one reason for consumers to seek financial counseling, overtaking “reduced income” for the first time in five years.

Variable hour and other part-time employee determinations are tough. Here’s how to advise your employer clients on what to do and what not to do.

Commentary: Break through the mold of using the usual benefit adviser website model. Blogger Wendy Keneipp walks you through the mistakes and fixes for a better sell on the World Wide Web.

After the exchange board moved this week to switch their state-run marketplace to the Feds’ model, brokers were cautiously optimistic about the next step because the last open enrollment experience was a “nightmare” and “fiasco.”

While pension cash outs for former employees are sometimes attractive to employers, several common concerns otherwise deter them from the option.

Even against the backdrop of a stronger economy, modern families are still feeling the pinch of financial security, pointing toward the need to tailor products to the needs of specific family structures that are considerably different than the traditional nuclear family.

In follow-up to two broker-friendly bills introduced in late March, a group of five U.S. Democratic senators are asking the agency again for changes that will help ACA-certified agents better enroll consumers.

The potential for passage of this agent and broker licensing bureau bill in Congress is within reach, leaders from this trade association say.

Three of the top five employee-reward issues employers faced in 2008 remain consistent with current challenges, a recent Mercer survey reveals.

The life insurance and annuities market continues to grow, but advisers hoping to capitalize on that will first need to meet the challenges of a diversifying U.S. population.

Commentary: Blogger Vinnie Daboul had a crisis three years ago — what did he have to show for decades of work in the benefits industry? Here's how he worked through it and how he's feeling today.

Mirroring a recent HHS initiative, some state-run marketplaces such as Covered California have extended a special enrollment period for COBRA-eligible individuals, allowing them to enroll in a marketplace exchange plan through July.

Den Bishop had a vision for a new wellness solution, one that focused on the true cost enemy — disease. That vision became ACAP Health.

Washington, Virginia and Indiana have new carriers signed on for next year, evidence that competition is growing stiffer in the government-run marketplaces.

Everyone understands that advertising helps sell products and that was the top way to sell health plans through the public exchanges. But looking back on the first open enrollment, which advertising techniques worked and what lessons were learned to raise the number of enrollees further for 2015?

Supplemental benefit SurgeryPlus is a new product offering for advisers, especially those who work with self-funded clients.