Practice management

Nelson Griswold on how brokers can survive the PPACA health reform tsunami.

How the downside of technology affects brokers, insurance

As I coach producers, I see one common theme that really seems to hold them back: a lack of planning and accountability. It's a shame, and completely unnecessary. For whatever reason, producers within agencies seem to be off-limits when it comes to setting expectations and monitoring (the right) results. I always hear, "As a producer, I have the ultimate accountability because I am paid on commissions."

Adviser representatives were encouraged by recognition of their role in employee benefits delivery as exclusion of commissions from medical loss ratio calculations moved forward last week. The Bill’s passage further shows that Congress what brokers do for a living, says the CEO of NAHU.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday passed a bill that would exclude compensation paid for licensed independent insurance producers from the premium portion of the medical loss ratio calculation.

U.S. budget experts raised their forecast on Wednesday of how many Americans will probably have to pay a penalty in 2016 for not buying health insurance to 6 million from 4 million.

Consumer-driven health plans have bypassed health maintenance organizations to become the second most common plan design offered by U.S. employers, according to an Aon Hewitt survey.

Thirty-nine percent of U.S. adults do not have life insurance, according to survey results released by InsuranceQuotes.com. And many of the 2,000 Americans surveyed who do have life insurance appear to be underinsured and not as knowledgeable as they should be about their policies.

I had the great opportunity to attend, and speak at, the recent Employee Benefit Adviser Summit in Phoenix. For those of you who may not be familiar with this event, you really are missing out on a great opportunity. Not only do they bring together the agency/brokerage/consulting side of the industry, there is also a conference track for HR professionals.

The American Institute of CPAs has sent a letter to members of the House Financial Services Committee supporting a bill aimed at narrowing the definition of “municipal advisor,” without weakening investor protections.

Americans are becoming more optimistic about the direction of the country, giving a boost to President Barack Obama in the final stretch of the race for the White House, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday.

It often seems to me that many brokers are on auto-pilot these days. The dynamic of many firms is to acquire a client, review their benefits, offer alternatives, collect their commission, and offer some predictable services. I don’t believe this cookie-cutter modus operandi will be a successful approach in our ever-changing world of unknowns. My company, Selden Beattie, has never conducted its business on auto-pilot and remains successful as a result. That’s the magic of…

When asked who plans to be doing the same job, in the same way, three years from now, not one broker raised a hand Tuesday during a session on growth and profitability at the 7th Annual Employee Benefit Adviser Summit.

The employee benefit and health care industry is going through a transformation. Brokers who don’t believe it, Rob Lieblein, partner and executive vice president at MarshBerry, are going to struggle down the road.

There are seismic shifts happening in the benefits industry today, creating tremendous opportunity that will not be seen again in this lifetime, said a speaker at the Employee Benefit Adviser Summit in Phoenix Monday.

Having spent my entire career in the insurance industry, I’m not sure how much of an understanding I can claim for other industries. However, it’s hard for me to imagine an industry where the purchasing decision has historically been tied to the “relationship” as much as it is in ours. …

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who has called for scrapping President Barack Obama's 2010 U.S. health care law, said in remarks aired on Sunday that he likes key parts of "Obamacare" despite his party's loathing of it and wants to retain them.

From providing excellence in customer service to creating groundbreaking technology, the 2012 Health, Retirement and overall Employee Benefit Advisers of the Year are forward-thinking innovators who rose above an outstanding field of applicants to claim EBA’s top honors.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company has entered into a definitive agreement with The Hartford to purchase its Retirement Plans business for $400 million, subject to adjustment at closing.

More than a quarter (26.3%) of Texans do not own health insurance, giving Texas the lowest rate of health insureds in the nation, according to 2010 data released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau; Massachusetts, Hawaii and the District of Columbia represented the states with the highest rates of health insureds, respectively.