Voluntary benefits

More employers are offering products like roadside assistance and telemedicine to their employees, as well as new voluntary offerings not seen before.

Voluntary benefits have experienced significant growth in recent years, a trend that brokers and carriers are hoping continues in the coming year.

In anticipation of the 2015 tax season, TurboTax is enabling imports of the 1095-A forms, one of the many new tax forms associated with the Affordable Care Act.

What health, retirement, technology, voluntary, and wellness issues will benefit professionals be wrestling with next year? The editors of Employee Benefit Adviser and Employee Benefit News have put together a web seminar series with top benefit experts to offer insights on the biggest 2015 trends.

Tailoring a voluntary benefits plan to better suit the very different needs of workers with entirely different generational goals and objectives can be challenging, but the payoff is better participation.

On the whole, benefits professionals do feel a high level of satisfaction with the majority of technology they use, but shortcomings in end-user experience remain a frustration.

EBN’s inaugural technology survey indicates that 41% of respondents plan to increase their spending on technology next year, with 45% having already increased their spending from 2013 to 2014. Much of that spending is directed toward new employee portals and front-end systems to better integrate and utilize various benefits functionalities (health, retirement, voluntary benefits and more).

Commentary: The more companies we come in contact with, the more we hear this statement and the more we realize how much employers are relying on their broker, says Beverly Beattie.

Advisers need to know what employees want, what the competition is doing and be current on tax law before setting up an executive benefit plan.

Despite the past two decades of employer efforts to improve gender diversity and equality in the workplace, women remain underrepresented at most levels in the workforce and are not progressing in their careers.

With many employers moving to an online self-service model for benefits – and with the rapid changes in the health care industry – now more than ever, employees need an active guide to help them with their benefit selections and enrollment.

Commentary: The average working American is part of a financially fragile workforce and many are reacting to higher health insurance contributions that could spell long-term trouble, says voluntary specialist Tinker Kelly.

For the third time in recent months, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has launched legal action against a private employer, claiming discrimination on the part of the company’s wellness program.

Commentary: Why group benefit brokers are behind the curve when it comes to voluntary benefit sales — and how to fix it.

Employee purchases have increased $18 billion in the past decade, Unum study finds

Commentary: Blogger Kevin Hilst shares tips for benefit advisers and professionals on how to make sure a vision RFP zeroes in on what distinguishes a great product from a commodity.

On the heels of news about Aon Hewitt’s estimated more than 1.2 million HIX enrollees exceeding its expectations for 2015, Bright Choices Exchange operator Liazon is crowing about its own expansion plans.

Using an electronic, cloud-based system to help with your open enrollment can allow employees to take the extra time to make sure they're getting the most out of your voluntary offerings.

A benefits manager may assume that health care coverage and insurance needs are easily covered as employees head off to international worksites, but preparing for accidents - or the complexity of global insurance rules - requires some extra forethought.

With the ACA’s employer mandate on the horizon, many employers with part-time and variable hour employees are also re-evaluating their benefit offerings for part-time employees.