Practice management

Speaking at EBA’s Workplace Benefits Mania in Chicago, John Penko points to the fact that in 2010, 51% of earnings in this country came from wages — the lowest percentage since the government started keeping records in 1929, and 18% came from government entitlement programs. Numbers that will continue to rise until they hit a tipping point.

A Ward Group survey reveals guarded optimism amidst instability and market uncertainties.

There is a need for an “extreme makeover” in the house of benefits with a delivery system built on partnership, collaboration, accountability and engagement — rather than competitiveness, says Larry Boress of the Midwest Business Group on Health.

A Fidelity Investments survey released on July 28 found that a majority of Americans do not understand how their pensions work.

State officials developing health insurance purchasing exchanges have voiced growing appreciation for the roles that can be played by benefit advisers.

If we could peek inside the medicine cabinets of the nation's employee benefits advisers focused on small- and mid-sized businesses I suspect we'd discover a disproportionate quantity of sleep aids. Those who haven't experienced a few restless nights must be oblivious to the powerful forces at play in our industry.

We're headlong into the heat of summer and many of you will be taking some well-deserved vacation time. I've found that's often when you do your most creative thinking since you are in a relaxed state of mind. Released from the pressures of day-to-day responsibilities, our thought processes are often more free-form, and new methods for addressing critical issues often emerge. Given all the pressure and additional workload created by health care reform, you probably just want to forget about business for a while.

The hardest part of starting any business is getting clients. Whether you own a restaurant, are an attorney, an author, or an insurance broker, clients are your most valuable asset. The energy required to develop a client base at the start can seem overwhelming. However, if you treat each new client like the very first, your time spent prospecting will decrease as your business grows. It is better to have 50 clients who each feel like they are your one and only than it is to have 100 clients who think you're mediocre. Those clients will eventually go elsewhere, lured away by even the smallest dangling carrot.

If you are not working on self-funded medical plans, or are unfamiliar with the concept, now is the time to get up to speed. Last month's EBA was full of great tools and ideas, but most of them will only work well with self-funded plans. You need access to the guts of a medical plan and its data - you don't get all of that with fully-insured plans.

To sell is to close. It is the penultimate conclusion. Selling is of no value unless one can close the sale in a timely manner.

To be successful in the sale of voluntary insurance products the agent will have to be transformed into a member of the business owner's employee benefit advisory team.

Hundreds of National Association of Health Underwriters members attending the organization's 81st annual convention June 26-29 were treated to a round of "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey as the convention kicked off in San Antonio - setting the stage for the positive outlook promoted by NAHU throughout the event.

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.

Waitress Edna and blogger Mike Loncono’s father, a car salesman, had one thing in common — they were plugged in at any task level or job description. Are you?

Financial planners become successful through a fierce commitment to building their practices. But too few principals proactively plan for when — and how — they will one move on. In failing to do so, they run the risk of leaving their firms on someone else’s terms, says Scott Slater, managing director, business consulting, for Schwab Advisor Services. “And that’s somewhat ironic,” he says, “because they are planners.”

Americans are slowly shifting toward buying insurance direct rather than meeting with an insurance professional face-to-face. More than one in four adults prefer to purchase life insurance online, over the phone or through the mail, according to a New LIFE and LIMRA study released Wednesday.

The majority of Generation X and Y policy owners and almost half of Boomer policy owners who have visited their life company’s website sought online services from their insurers, according to LIMRA. “With Internet usage growing almost 150% in the last decade, it is vital that companies understand who their online audience is and what their expectations are and develop a website that offers the important services that these customers say they want,” says Mary Art, LIMRA research director, technology in marketing and distribution research.

Advisers are more confident than they have been since January, but they still report being concerned over the disconnect in the marketplace, according to The Advisor Confidence Index, a benchmark that gauges adviser views on the U.S. economy and stock market.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is nearly ready to issue a proposed rule requiring health insurers to develop standardized, consumer-friendly summaries of benefits and coverage under their health plan packages.

Louisiana Sen. Mary L. Landrieu urges Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to remove agent compensation from the medical loss ratio rule.