We don't see the late-night meetings, the weekend tests, the deadlines feverishly met or reluctantly let go. What we see are the flashy sites, the graphics -- and the new employee benefits products, fresh and ready to be used. Here are tools for human resources people, for brokers and advisors. Here are tools for health and wellness, finances and retirement saving, for assessing cost effectiveness, for helping kids with cancer get through the day. Check out the slideshow for all the products and links to their respective sites.   Aflac recently announced the introduction of My Special Aflac Duck, a social robot created by Sproutel and Aflac to serve as a caring companion for children with cancer. Aflac also launched its Aflac Cancer Protection Assurance plan. See more at Aflac. Health care data services company Vericred announced its new Group Rating API, which delivers group medical insurance benefit and premium data to insurtech platforms to help companies build group quoting platforms. It also generates reporting and analytics for carrier partners. Aon has joined forces with digital health companies Amino and MPIRICA to provide employers with independent and objective cost and quality metrics for thousands of U.S. health providers. Aon's market analysis includes the following: -- Aggregated medical cost data on high-volume medical procedures from Amino's dataset, which captures nearly $2 trillion of claims volume for 220 million Americans covering virtually all facilities and practicing doctors in the US. -- Robust surgery quality scores from MPIRICA, whose quality scores include analyses of more than 123,400 surgeons and nearly 5,000 hospitals nationwide. ClassPass announced its corporate membership program that enables companies to add customized wellness programs to their benefits packages. The program offers support for employee challenges, monthly reports on employee usage, promotional materials to drive employee engagement and a large network of fitness studios and gyms. Advizr announced Workplace, a financial wellness solution. It equips financial advisors, record keepers, employers, and investment advisers with personalized, targeted financial wellness programs and marketing collateral to drive end-user engagement and behavior change. It can fully integrate with existing benefits platforms to deliver high-touch, client-centered services. To learn more, email [email protected]. Benefits provider Colonial Life has launched a Spanish-language consumer website. As an enhancement to the company's WorkLife consumer website, the Spanish-language site features content on benefits and types of insurance, healthy living, finances and common workplace issues. The company notes that the Census Bureau predicts the number of Latino consumers will increase 163 percent to 133 million by 2050. Independent digital investment advisory firm GuidedChoice and dailyVest, a fintech data and analytics provider have partnered to upgrade the PlanAnalytics dashboard from dailyVest. Projected retirement income can now be viewed at both the plan and participant level - providing the ability to analyze retirement readiness by demographics such as age, salary, contribution rate, or geography. Retirement readiness metrics can be tracked over time and be securely accessed by plan consultants and advisors. The platform and retirement readiness metrics will start rolling out in July. For more, contact either GuidedChoice or dailyVest. The Best Practices for 403(b) and 457(b) Plans guide has been released. Published by the National Tax-Deferred Savings Association (NTSA), it's designed to provide employers, consultants, distributors, product providers and TPAs with the information necessary to properly understand their obligations so communications can be clear and concise, and fulfillment of required tasks can be focused toward a common goal. Best Practices for 403(b) and 457(b) Plans provides guidance on a wide variety of topics, including 401(k) distributions, rollovers, loans, hardship withdrawals, exchanges, and more. It is available as a NTSA member benefit. To find out more about purchasing the guide as a non-member, contact Elizabeth Duda at [email protected].

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C.J. Marwitz

C.J. Marwitz is a writer and editor.