Practice and client management

Employers are making creative changes to employee benefit offerings to stem the tide of rising health care costs, but many are taking a wait-and-see approach to private exchanges, according to presenters at MetLife’s 10th National Benefits Symposium Monday.

Months after becoming the first state to offer health care coverage to lower-income residents through a “private option” rather than Medicaid expansion under the ACA, Arkansas finally agreed to extend this closely watched political compromise.

EBA’s 10 Rising Stars in Advising are younger than age 35 and bringing much-needed talent and innovation to an industry that desperately needs it.

St. Hilaire, a broker sales representative at Colonial Life in Plano, Texas, balances new clients and cold calls while she tries to master social media.

Benefit brokers can better position themselves as a trusted adviser by helping clients maintain compliance with these ERISA requirements.

Forty-five percent of employers have implemented or plan to consider using a private exchange for their full-time active employees before 2018, according to a new employer survey conducted by the Private Exchange Evaluation Collaborative

EBA is introducing our 2014 Rising Stars in Advising throughout the month of March. Our last adviser is Erin Devine, 33, of CBG Benefits, with three tips for other young advisers in the field.

Commentary: Let’s face it, we are always selling something. Usually it’s ourselves, in one way, shape or form. So why aren’t we translating this over to the world of business sales?

EBA is introducing our 2014 Rising Stars in Advising throughout the month of March. Next up is Wes Hamby, 33, of Enrollforce, LLC, with three tips for other young advisers in the field.

The number of insurance agency mergers and acquisitions fell in 2013, with 248 reported transactions in the United States and Canada, down from a record 299 transactions in 2012, according to OPTIS Partners’ new semi-annual survey.

Rising health care costs are driving employers to audit their covered dependents to eliminate working spouses.

EBA is introducing our 2014 Rising Stars in Advising throughout the month of March. Next up is Matt Kistler, 30, of United Benefit Advisors with three tips for other young advisers in the field.

EBA is introducing our 2014 Rising Stars in Advising throughout the month of March. Next up is Chad Schneider, 33, of Aflac with three tips for other young advisers in the field.

EBA is introducing our 2014 Rising Stars in Advising throughout the month of March. Next up is Megan Cumbers, 29, of Laurus Strategies with three tips for other young advisers in the field.

Benefits and risk management consulting firm Laurus Strategies launches a private exchange consulting practice to help employers identify vendors and determine the feasibility of moving to a private exchange.

EBA is introducing our 2014 Rising Stars in Advising throughout the month of March. Next up is Robert Mitchell, 29, of Vital Benefits, Inc. with three more tips for other young advisers in the field.

EBA is introducing our 2014 Rising Stars in Advising throughout the month of March. Next up is Justin Hanratty, 32, of Hanratty & Associates, Inc., with three more tips for other young advisers in the field.

EBA is introducing our 2014 Rising Stars in Advising throughout the month of March. Next up is Matthew Glaros, 29, of Employer Benefit System, Inc., with three tips for other young advisers in the field.

Small and mid-size employers will turn to private exchanges in the very near future, predicted a speaker Friday at an America’s Health Insurance Plans conference in Washington, and that will change the game once again for small and mid-size brokerages.

Gary Cohen, the top U.S. health insurance regulator accused by congressional Republicans of misleading them before the troubled start of the Obamacare insurance website, will resign.