Employee Benefit Adviser articles from November 2004

Employee Benefit Adviser archives from November 2004

Disclose, disclose, disclose.
November 1, 2004... Well, he did it. After months of expectation, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer finally lowered the boom on the broker industry, suing the biggest of them all, Marsh & McLennan, and leveling charges that the firm blatantly...

Testing the waters of prescription drug-only HRAs.(Rx-only HRA)
November 1, 2004... Despite all the hype over consumer-directed health care, comparatively few employers have undertaken a full replacement of their health care programs by consumer-directed models. That's one reason the sales opportunities for brokers remain...

Predictive modeling software helps brokers, TPAs cut health costs.
November 1, 2004... Brokers know the bottom line to ensuring employer client satisfaction is attention to their bottom line, particularly to their health care costs. Disease management and wellness programs have played important roles in keeping some of those...

Solo 401(k)s make a viable option for small clients.(Addis & Hill)
November 1, 2004... Addis & Hill, a Wayne, Pa.-based financial and investment planning firm, has a new retirement plan. It is not the simplified employee pension (SEP), which is the traditional self-employed plan. Instead, the two-partner firm went with a solo...

Recovering economy points demand toward lifestyle benefits.
November 1, 2004... As the economy continues its long, slow recovery, employers, with their brokers' help, are resorting to benefits reminiscent of those offered during the 1990s job boom to keep quality workers and bring more into the fold. That means a boom...

Plan sponsors overdue to rebid 401(k) business.
November 1, 2004... Like so many other areas of the financial services industry, 401(k) and defined contribution plans have been forever changed by the mutual funds scandals of the past year and their aftermath. But while the industry gropes through these...

Clearing the hurdles: Worksite marketers and brokers fight to surmount the obstacles to selling LTC.
November 1, 2004... Only a few years after long-term care insurance was touted as the next hot product, worksite marketers and brokers have come up against a host of hurdles to significant sales - and at least some have concluded that, in the face of employee...

Waging a Campaign: Advisers need basic tools to build alliances with their clients.
November 1, 2004... As the benefits market rapidly shifts with the latest technology and products, the need for a broker-client bond built on trust and reliability has remained constant in the war against rising costs. "It all comes down to a relationship...

Marsh lawsuit brings more disclosure, contingency regs.
November 1, 2004... Tom Kane, president of The Kane Agency in Little Rock, Ark., recently did something for the first time: He disclosed to a prospective client every type of fee and commission he would receive from the transaction. That may not seem like a...

Out with the old, in with the new: Final COBRA notice regulations require immediate action.
November 1, 2004... On May 26 the Labor Department issued final COBRA regulations that require immediate action for clients to stay in compliance with COBRA's notice and disclosure rules. For calendar year plans, the new requirements are effective January 1, 2005....

Brokers learn a recipe for a successful health plan.
November 1, 2004... As health care costs rise unabated, brokers' abilities to bring cost containment ideas to the table can mean the difference between a successful and unsuccessful sales call. The way to do it is through the aggregation of data, a chronic...

Broker industry tries to address aging professionals.
November 1, 2004... The aging of the workforce is an issue that insurance producers need to consider every day - and not just in terms of their client base. The broker and adviser industry is itself aging rapidly, and younger agents are not entering the business...

E-newsletter.
November 1, 2004... Almost two in three Americans fail long-term care "quiz" A national poll finds that most Americans lack a basic understanding of long-term care. Just 37% of Americans between the ages of 40 and 70 have the information they need to make...