Health care reform gets all the press. All the love. All the hate. All the controversy.

But what's been overlooked by most is that the politicians and regulators began the painful process of reforming retirement years before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was even a gleam in President Obama's eye. Advisors have been adapting to a new way of life for a while now, while brokers still struggle with “life after reform.”

At any rate, narrowing our scope to the last decade, three pivotal events emerge as milestones of retirement reform, reshaping the landscape for brokers involved in the worksite retirement market. They are, in chronological order: