Voluntary benefits

Road to Workplace Benefits Mania: Ahead of the July conference, speaker Donald Rowe discusses why you need something new to talk about with clients and how there's a product that no one is too old, too sick, too tall, too short or too anything to be eligible for.

Many job seekers view seasonal retail positions as “commodity jobs” – they don’t necessarily care where they work because it’s short-term and the pay is similar wherever they go. For employers, that means they can encounter difficulty finding the best talent.

Funding for Social Security Disability Insurance is set to run out by 2016, and if no further action from Congress is taken, SSDI recipients could see a 20% reduction in benefits.

Road to Workplace Benefits Mania: Ahead of the July conference, speaker Phyllis Falotico discusses why it’s important for brokers and carriers alike to help employers evolve the experience of voluntary benefits from just providing access to products to driving awareness of the need to their employees.

Paul S. Amos, who co-founded Aflac Inc. with his brothers and helped build it into the largest seller of supplemental health insurance, has died. He was 88

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s vigorous zeal for employer compliance with the Americans with Disability Act is not showing any signs of letting up. As a result, legal advisers in the labor and employment field recommend that employers of all sizes conduct a thorough review of their policies and accommodations.

If it “smells like a benefit plan,” you likely have to follow ERISA, said one speaker at the National Association of Health Underwriters annual convention in Scottsdale, Ariz. Here are some general tips benefit advisers need to know about complying with this law, for your clients and their employees alike.

An abundance of veterans in the U.S. - and the litany of disabilities experienced by so many of them - makes it especially important to work to utilize their skills and experiences.

How the ACA has drawn attention to vision care coverage and prompted employers to ask advisers about this voluntary benefit.

Commentary: Columnist Nelson Griswold explores the value of selling this product line for benefit brokers and advisers.

Employees just aren’t using their vacation days and it’s taking a toll...on their health, their work-life balance and, ultimately, affecting the company’s bottom line. Using vacation or paid-time off allows workers to recharge both physically and mentally.

Industry experts provide an overview of three new voluntary products — that employers might not know about yet — so benefit advisers and brokers can get a leg up before a competitor does.

Although most employers review retirement plan costs annually, many are not assessing fees evenly across all asset classes — and that’s where benefit advisers come in.

Industry experts say that while unlikely, the historically stable product line may have the potential for price changes as its sales continue to rise.

Given that hospital charges currently represent about a third of the $2.7 trillion annual U.S. health care bill, employers may want to consider offering hospital indemnity insurance as a voluntary benefit. When an employer is reviewing these plans, there are several important features to look for.

Benefit advisers are poised to close the gap between employers’ need to control health costs and comply with the health law and employees’ lack of interest in taking ownership of their health care choices.

Workers who travel out of their state or country of hire to perform work on behalf of their employers create liability exposures, due to complex laws, administrative rules and regulations that deal with workplace injuries and diseases across the U.S. and abroad.

With interest rates near record lows, employers are increasingly seeking new retirement investment options for their employee participants. Advisers should be prepared to discuss absolute return assets, industry experts say.

Commentary: There are some misconceptions about a particular rising-star voluntary product and blogger Sam Fleet breaks them down.

The life insurance and annuities market continues to grow, but advisers hoping to capitalize on that will first need to meet the challenges of a diversifying U.S. population.