Employee Benefit Adviser articles from April 2007

Employee Benefit Adviser archives from April 2007

The nudging point.
April 1, 2007... About midway through this month's missive from EBA HQ you'll find some information on EAPs. Notably you'll briefly interact with Bobbie Harris of Birmingham's Cobbs Allen & Hall, an employee benefits broker with nearly a decade of experience...

Brokers should be poised to catch the wellness wave.
April 1, 2007... Don't pay to treat chronic disease when you can prevent it. It's a simple concept, but one that's spreading rapidly, as evidenced by the growing number and use of workplace wellness programs. According to the Willis Wellness and Disease...

Group LTC market undergoes major shifts.
April 1, 2007... Advisers who have not been paying a lot of attention to the group long-term care insurance market recently will be surprised by what they find upon returning. Aetna's out. Genworth's in. And MetLife is undecided sort of. And while the loss of...

The urge to merge.
April 1, 2007... In our six part series regarding insurance business mergers, we previously commented on some of the strategic reasons to consider a merger and what could potentially be achieved through such a transaction. Now, we will be delving into several...

Assessing the potential of a CPA partnership.
April 1, 2007... The opportunity to build a mutually beneficial alliance now exists between the insurance professional and the accounting professional. Today, the CPA can refer business to life insurance brokers and seek their professional expertise for...

Size matters in health care reform debate.
April 1, 2007... Throughout her career as a business journalist, Maggie Mahar has written about pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and managed care. She knew the blame game that comes with any discussion of health care costs and wanted to write a book to make...

Massachusetts health care reform will it fail before it begins?
April 1, 2007... I have been a broker in the state of Massachusetts for about fifteen years and nothing in this marketplace surprises me. I believe we need a solution for the uninsured who truly cannot afford health care. I do not believe the state of...

Signs point to new disability strategies: Next month is Disability Insurance Awareness Month and observing the latest trends in disability sales SHOULD help advisers make hay in May.
April 1, 2007... A quick review of market demographics reveals the extent of the opportunity. Seventy percent of people between the age 35 and 65 will become disabled for three months or longer, according to the Senate Finance Committee. The workplace is the...

Spreading the word on disability.
April 1, 2007... A recent survey by Guardian highlights some unsettling facts about how little employees know about disability income coverage. Employees spend very little time reviewing their benefits, and they understand their life and auto policies better...

EAP Reconnect: Progressive advisers give peers reasons to brush up on EAPs.
April 1, 2007... Talk to seven brokers and you'll get seven opinions about employee assistance programs. Some like the national names. Others say local providers are best. Some say cost-conscious employers are well-served by EAP as an add-on to an LTD program....

Going global.
April 1, 2007... As more companies open offices abroad, advisers are eyeing international benefit services as a new area to expand, and they are watching how major industry players react to globalization. One recent pairing of note is the strategic alliance...

The right vantage point.
April 1, 2007... Going global often means going complicated. International employers are more likely to have a greater variety of plans and offerings for their workers. Language barriers emerge. Data management becomes more difficult. For brokers eager to tap...

Dealmakers.(Segal Co. combines human capital division and corporate benefits and actuarial practices)(Nationwide acquires NWD Investment Management)(Arthur J. Gallagher and Co. acquired Elite Benefits Insurance Marketing Services)
April 1, 2007... * Segal combines business lines. The consulting firm has combined its Sibson human capital division with its Segal corporate benefits and actuarial practices. The pairing will now be known as Sibson Consulting, a division of Segal. * LIFA...

Ask the Coach.
April 1, 2007... Mel, I have been reading your columns and hope that you can help. Here is the situation: We have an in-house telemarketer who makes 40 calls per day and gets us from 10 to 20 bills per month to analyze. Unfortunately, we only close...

Northeastern broker plays hard ball with e-communications.
April 1, 2007... Benefit advisers from Atlanta to Tacoma use e-mail blasts to prospect for new clients. That's not new. Given the fact that so many firms use this channel the variations on tone and tenor are myriad. And while many advisers take a muted...

Help! My hospitalization rates have fallen.
April 1, 2007... Advisers familiar with Life Alert's "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up" slogan for its home monitoring service may soon have a similarly themed solution to share with clients who continue to struggle with hospitalization costs. ADT...

America's financial planner.
April 1, 2007... We turned the corner out of the elevator. I immediately noticed the richness of the oak, the curved wooden walls, the original works of art. If money had a smell, that fragrance was running through their halls. Wall Street? No, but close:...

Quigley's column raises reader's ire.(Ethical aspects of Insurance brokers)(Cash incentives for improving employee health)(Teleworking survey for federal employees unnecessary)
April 1, 2007... Readers react to a variety of recent coverage in this magazine and in its electronic-newsletter companion, Adviser. First up, Benjamin Brooks questions the benefits of devoting so much space to Thomas Quigley's proposal to reduce health care...