Practice and client management

My practice as an ERISA attorney is devoted to working with financial advisers to help their retirement plan clients reduce their administrative cost, minimize their fiduciary liability, and maximize retirement savings at a flat fee.

For Jeff Rose, founder and chief executive officer of Alliance Wealth Management in Carbondale, Ill., one of the best ways to communicate with existing clients and to attract new ones is through his blog.

Almost 80% of employers anticipate that there will be an increased demand for access to savings and investment advice about their 401(k) plans, according to a new survey from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

One of the more contentious issues of last year's health care reform debate, whether health insurance companies should be allowed to sell policies across state lines, was the focus of a hearing by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Health Subcommittee last month.

Offset the impact of health care reform on your bottom line by adapting well to the new environment.

Thorough knowledge of this HR necessity will set you apart as a benefits administration partner for your clients.

We talk for a living. We should be experts at talking to prospects, but not everyone is an expert. Let's devote this column to discussing how we can improve our grammatical skills to improve our ability to present and close more sales.

Run a website primed for sales by putting yourself in the mindset of customers and prospects.

Congress has created powerful tax incentives for business owners to use ESOPs as an ownership succession strategy. There's never been a better time to help your clients take advantage of them.

More brokers are taking advantage of the big change taking place in the vision care space: the connection between vision care and wellness programs.

By incorporating employee health clinics into the business structure of their clients, Matt McQuide and Rick Gantt are able to bring down health care costs while changing the way employers think about health care delivery. Not to mention keep themselves firmly entrenched as the BOR in the process.

The New Jersey Assembly on June 23 approved a bill that will require 750,000 government employees and retirees to contribute substantially more for their health insurance and pensions.

Two out of three workers would purchase additional health insurance benefits to make sure they are protected, according to a report from Aflac. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they would acquire voluntary insurance.

Hundreds of facts and statistics have been compiled from numerous industry reports to produce the first Long-Term Care Insurance Almanac and Book of Facts. The guide, produced by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, will help financial and insurance professionals address the increasing number of questions raised by prospective clients.

Stop working harder at sales. Instead, turn on your computer. When the dots are properly connected, data can open a whole new world of selling for you - a smarter way. Once you get over the paper tiger of scary data, you'll discover a new method of locating and working prospects that you never dreamed of before. You'll make more money with this technique.

One of my hobbies is searching the Internet for sales and marketing ideas. In this quest I look at virtually every industry imaginable.

Adam McDonough wants to make one thing clear: "Our title is the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation, it's not the Property & Casualty Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation," says the head of IICF's Western Division development committee. Around for more than 15 years, the nonprofit organization has a solid representation among P&C firms that volunteer their time and give away about $1 million a year to charitable efforts. McDonough, president and CEO of Lockton, San Francisco, spoke with EBA about IICF's outreach to bring more life and health agents into the fold.

One skill that epitomizes the successful benefit adviser is selling. From the dollar-and-cents results to the art of persuasion, benefit advisers understand the sales process. So why not use that skill to assist human resource professionals in selling their C-suite on a corporate wellness program?

Our industry is in a state of massive flux. With regulatory and economic challenges constantly bearing down, agency leaders and advisers are anxiously searching for solutions to current problems as well as those that are swiftly approaching.

Last week American General Benefit Solutions (Benefit Solutions), a business unit of American General Life Companies, unveiled a series of informative video presentations for its most popular plans to help agents promote its extensive line of employer-funded and employee-paid insurance products.