Employee Benefit Adviser articles from April 2009

Employee Benefit Adviser archives from April 2009

Forced rhetoric.(Editorial)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Robert Whiddon, editor-In-Chief While tending to a severe case of trade-show foot during a recent session on the state of critical illness, I was struck by one speaker's comments that his sales force "is out there creating needs."...

Mistakes health care advisers should avoid when building retirement muscles.(Retirement)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Fred Barstein Assuming you have drunk the Kool-Aid and believe that it makes sense to leverage relationships with health care clients into other employee benefit mandates like retirement planning, the question is how to...

Pain puts CDH, other programs in new light.(Voluntary)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Robert L. Whiddon Ongoing economic woe has employers in the driver's seat when it comes to employee benefits. Workers across the country are just happy to have a job, much less a rich, comprehensive benefits package. And while some...

TEN ways to Slash benefit cost now.(Voluntary)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff If it works, copy it There is a simple, proven two-part benefits design structure that is saving companies 10% to 20% today. Combine HDHP with a wellness program that drives participation with incentives. And...

Swimming against (and occasionally with) the tide of public opinion on cancer insurance.(Voluntary)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Robert L. Whiddon It only takes a minute for the Web-enabled consumer to find a host of people telling them cancer insurance is a bad buy. From consumer financial sites to celebrity advisers, the message is clear. You don't need...

Guarantees are a good way to make good on the promise of superior service.(Your Business)(Column)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Jack Kwicien It is hard to believe, but here we are already at the beginning of the second quarter. It seems that 2009 is just racing by. And I suppose that many in our nation are grateful for that. So how is your year going thus...

The Pipeline Get more at bats.(Your Business)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Joe Part It's spring training season in Florida and every great ballplayer wants to get more at bats - and so should you. Every time I speak with a colleague at another employee benefit firm around the country, it always comes...

Appetite for mid-year changes emerges.(Movers & Shakers)(Interview)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Elizabeth Galentine It's no surprise that employers are looking to cut costs. Revealing how they might do so in Mercer's annual health care survey took Tracy Watts, a 20-year vet and senior consultant for the HR consulting firm, by...

Be an Amazonian benefits adviser.(Sales Call)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Mel Schlesinger This was not the article I had originally written for this month's issue, but it is one every benefit professional needs to read. The impetus for this column was a February 27 Business Week article that caught my...

Workers want to know how CDHPs work for them, not the company.(Sales Call)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Benz Consumer-driven health care is again on the radar of many companies as they search for ways to cut costs and keep their health plan budgets under control. Unfortunately, if not done properly, a move to consumer-driven...

Trusted business advisers will be fluent in the language of benefits technology; Technology is too important to you and your clients for you to trot out the old line about you not being in the technology business.(Tips on technology)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Joe Markland When I first entered the benefits technology business in 1997, venture capital firms were pouring billions of dollars into technology start-up companies, including many with visions for the employee benefits business....

Would all the bloggin' benefits brokers please step forward.(Sound Off)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Michelle McMullen Last month I asked Robert to lay off (no pun intended) the doom and gloom articles. Thank you! I was pleased to see he happily complied. There were several stories this month that made me stop and think about what...

Bits and bytes: Find your agency management system nexus.(Tips on technology)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Craig J. Davidson Are you in the market for a benefits agency management system? Focus your due diligence process on revenue and commission tracking capabilities of the systems. Most systems purport to function in this area but,...

Money on the Line.(Cover Story)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Elizabeth Galentine, Photograher David Lubarsky It started with a phone line and a thought. With high deductibles and defined contribution plans that highlight personal responsibility becoming the norm, Craig Hasday, president of...

Seeking the high ground; It's easy to let ethics slide when doing so could mean more dollars in a down economy, but pointing your moral compass to a client's best interests will always set you straight.(Feature Story)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Elizabeth Galentine, Illustration By Jason Raish If most of us bothered to picture our proverbial moral compass we'd probably see a circular contraption or a star-shaped figure pointing us toward the ethical high ground. Bob Arnoff...

Weary travelers.(Be Advised)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Rob Lieblein Let's be honest, over the last year and change the economy has caught up with our industry in a big way. Heretofore, many benefit advisers have been able to escape industry and economic challenges and have continued to...

What's fresh on EBA's raw bar.(Sound Off)(employee benefit adviser)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff Go online and check out who we've been talking to this month. Visit eba.benefitnews.com/podcasts. Are you intellectually constipated when it comes to HSAs? No disrespect intended, but Business Benefits...

Valuing wellness data as an asset on the balance sheet.(Health)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Lydell C. Bridgeford It is still a toss of the coin if the wellness industry can create well-being indices similar to the consumer-price or Dow Jones indices. Some wellness experts believe that U.S. employers will eventually have...

Employer experience with CDHPs mixed; While employers continue to report widely varying experiences with CDHPs, some experts say value-based benefit designs could further erode the movement's traction.(Health)(consumer driven health plans)(Survey)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Leah Carlson Shepherd The majority of employers with consumer-driven health plans rate their experience as good or excellent, but many have been unable to judge the return on investment on their health spending, according to a...

Public employers not buying into CDHPs.(Health)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Editorial Staff According to a new survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, only 17% of public employers offer a consumer-driven health plan. "Although CDHPs have become common in the corporate...

Do not let your clients make these six dependent audit mistakes.(Health)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Tony Schy Dependent eligibility audits are a hot topic. The high return on investment has helped this cost containment strategy become a central point of discussion between many advisers and their clients. While audits can be...

Turmoil spurs target-date evolution.(Retirement)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Seth J. Masters and Thomas J. Fontaine Target-date retirement portfolios have gained wide popularity as a 401(k) plan qualified default investment alternative just as financial markets have entered a period of extreme volatility....

Crisis stalls, does not stop, 401(k) reform.(Retirement)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Elayne Robertson Demby America once again has a Democratic president and Congress. Some welcome the change, but others find it ominous. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are in the latter category - insisting Democrats are planning...