Practice management

Industry: Available to third party administrators, plan service providers, employee benefit consultants, card processing companies and associations, insurance carriers, banks, industry software vendors, payroll processing companies, and other members of the flexible compensation industry.

Liberty Mutual has published a guide on the Family and Medical Leave Act written specifically for brokers and advisers. “Tracking Absence: A Leave Guide for Producers” is intended to help producers understand the complex federal law, enabling them to better help their client’ FMLA compliance efforts.

Despite concerns about the impact of rising health care costs on their businesses and employees, only one in six employers (16%) say they favor a federally funded universal health care system, according to the 2011 UBA Benefits Opinion Survey from United Benefit Advisors.

Although benefits comprise 30% to 40% of an employee’s total compensation, they’re largely hidden from view, which can serve to undermine benefits appreciation.

Here’s a roundup of recent staff changes in the employee benefits industry.

Brokers and advisers may need to play a more strategic role in helping their clients navigate an expected convergence of health care reform and absence management that will add another layer of complexity to regulatory compliance in these areas.

If there is going to be growth in the life insurance market it will be in the mass affluent market, said executives at the 2011 Life Insurance Conference on April 12.

The economy and health reform may have prompted the youngest workers at U.S. companies to take a deeper interest in workplace benefits, according to online research conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Unum.

Despite the drive to make all things digital during the 2010 open enrollment season, employers didn't turn away from good, old-fasioned face-to-face meetings. Also, complying with the first phase of the health law was a breeze.

There’s no doubt that starting a financial advisory business can be harrowing, but finding good people to eventually take over your business may be even harder, says John Brackett, a regional director with Financial Network Investment Corp.

As if the twin threats posed by the advent of health care reform and the incursion into the benefits business by payroll administration vendors are not enough, producers should prepare for a third threat: the large HR consulting firms.

Budget negotiators tabled a rider to eliminate PPACA’s medical loss ratio restrictions as part of the deal cut Friday to avoid a government shutdown.

One year into the brave new world of health care reform, there’s good news and there’s bad news, says industry insider Eric Johnson.

Many insurance executives will agree that attracting and retaining young workers is a current challenge. After conducting focus groups and studies, LIMRA research attributes some of this problem to misperceptions about the industry.

This is a time of significant change for the employee benefits industry, but rather than respond with panic, consultant Alan Katz urges brokers and advisers to prepare for whatever lays ahead by learning from the habits of successful producers.

The fall offering of the Employee Benefits Producer Training Program, scheduled for Sept. 19-30, 2011, will be held at the American Airlines Training & Conference Center in Fort Worth, Texas. It was previously scheduled to be held in Brookfield, WI.

Financial advisers are losing an average of $20,000 in fees for not pricing their fee-based businesses competitively enough, according to a new survey from Toronto-based software firm PriceMetrix Inc.

It's finally spring and what seemed like a very long, hard winter has drawn to a close. And we have reached the first anniversary of PPACA and survived that as well. Both the weather and government intervention in our business can be difficult to deal with, but all us entrepreneurial types always figure out a way to successfully deal with adversity, right? When we get lemons, we make lemonade.

To partner or not to partner. That is the question ... and it can mean a variety of different things. If you are an individual proprietor, at some point you may decide to find a partner to share some of your workload with, as well as to bring new business to the table. In many ways, this is a great idea. When you add another mind to the mix, you will typically be given new ideas, have someone to bounce your own ideas off of, receive help with paperwork and phone calls, and have backup when you are sick or out of town. These are all very positive aspects of having a business partner.

In this month's installment in our sales training series - which follows February's and March's columns on buyer motivation ("If you want to sell, do this ..." pgs. 56 and 68, respectively), we'll look at the art of painting mental pictures for your buyer - an art that can result in an AOR.