Practice management

Communication — customized for your listener — is one of the most critical elements of leadership. Here are some strategies to demystify the process at your brokerage.

Commentary: Research shows that three quarters of health care costs are related to the lifestyle choices of human beings. Adviser Joseph Appelbaum shares his D.C. firm’s cost-cutting success story.

In a defined contribution world, cash balance plans continue to gain popularity, study says.

Stay current with this checklist of 2015 contribution limits for retirement and health care benefit plans.

Commentary: Post-Affordable Care Act increases should be setting off fiscal alarms, says Frenkel Benefits’ Craig Hasday, who predicts more expansion to come.

Commentary: Half of HR managers don’t know how to help employees return to work from a disability, according to research from The Standard.

Advisers share why they entered the private exchange business and key players detail how to help employer clients chose the right exchange.

Commentary: To survive the ongoing thinning of the herd, columnist Nelson Griswold asks what are you planning to do differently in 2015 to remain relevant to your clients and grow your business?

Commentary: There are a lot of innovative options that have been implemented by those who are being proactive and who are changing their roles as employee benefit advisers. Columnist Jack Kwicien shares their competitive advantage.

The advent of private and public health care exchanges has expanded employers’ horizons to consider subsidizing pre-Medicare eligible retiree health benefits through the individual market.

Commentary: In sales, there’s often too much boasting and not enough doing. Sales expert John Graham shares seven steps to boost your bottom line.

President Obama late Monday signed into law NARAB II, the highly-anticipated legislation re-establishing the National Association of Registered Agents and Brokers, creating a clearinghouse that would ease the ability of brokers to sell insurance in states across the U.S.

EAPs have evolved from counseling and call centers to offering employer clients a breadth of services, including regulation compliance.

There’s little evidence that wearable fitness tracking device technology alone can change behavior and improve health for those that need it most, according to University of Pennsylvania researchers.

Commentary: While agents providing these value-added services have disrupted the market and changed the nature of the benefit sales game, they were but a precursor to the far bigger disruptor taking over huge chunks of the benefits marketplace, says columnist Mel Schlesinger.

Commentary: Not holding producers accountable does immeasurable damage to your culture and morale, says columnist Wendy Keneipp, who shares how to build a plan to keep your producers productive today.

It’s no secret that smaller businesses are stretched thin. Finding the time to actually run the organization can be extremely taxing. Using a PEO usually runs its course and it makes sense to unpeel from the arrangement—when the time is right.

The House and Senate have passed a bipartisan bill that contains legislation making it easier for benefit advisers to sell insurance across state lines.

Commentary: How to win the game by exiting the technology arms race — and saving money in the process. Tech expert Joe Markland shares 8 guiding principles.

While the advent of the Affordable Care Act has placed a spotlight on preventive care and employer wellness programs, less attention is being paid to Americans’ financial health, particularly that of women and their need to save for retirement.