BenefitsPRO Magazine-September 2013

Detroit Pension Crisis: Bracing for pension cuts

Dan Berman

Pension experts say that whatever decisions Detroit makes could set a precedent for retiree benefits in other cash-strapped cities and counties nationwide.

Life Insurance: Prioritizing benefits

Bruce Hentschel

Choices are great, right? With choice comes freedom but, with freedom, comes accountability. In the context of insurance, choices often provoke anxiety or fear because people are worried theyll make the wrong one.

Life Insurance: Three new school tricks of the trade

John West

Old school, tried and true trade secrets arent cutting it anymore as a new generation of HR managers and their employees enter the workforce.

Home town blues

Denis Storey

Ill admit I still get a little homesick.

More consumers want to pick their carrier

Kathryn Mayer

Consumers want more of a hand in making decisions about their health insurance.

The ticking time bomb plan sponsors can’t ignore

Christopher Carosa

During the climax of the movie A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholsons character confronts Tom Cruises with the memorable line You cant handle the truth!

Brokers failing employers

Kathryn Mayer

What do employers want from benefits brokers? More than what brokers are offering.

System failure

Kathryn Mayer

More than 50 new health exchange websitesluring more than 30 million new userswill go live Oct. 1. So what could possibly go wrong?

Life insurance global lifeline

Katie Kuehner-Hebert

Carriers are still courting specific markets within the United States, including Hispanics, gay couples, up-and-coming Gen Yers, and women.

Under Reconstruction: Can Medicare Advantage survive PPACA?

Danielle Kunkle

While theres a high level of interest every year in what the new plan designs will look like, this year is perhaps the most anticipated in recent history.

Our sick health care system

Marty Traynor

Health care spending is a major problem in our nation. But just whose fault is it?

HDHP, HSA shift can drive big employer savings

Kathryn Mayer

High-deductible health plans paired with health savings accounts can save employers a bundle on premiums, according to a study by the nonpartisan Employee Benefits Research Institute.

Universal Life Insurance source list

Charlene Harris

The real retirement age

Pam Black

What a difference a generation makes.

Health care spending case study

Denis Storey, Joe Schlue

 $527 Amount per person the employer’s aggregate health care spending fell in the first year of the HSA.                  

Holy Alcatraz, Batman!

Brian Hicks

Forty-five percent. Did you see that? According that infamous Aflac survey, nearly half of you wont be reading this column soon. Seriously yall, I think its time for a little prayer meeting.

Uninsured rate creeps up

Kathryn Mayer

An increasing number of American adults lack health insurance, according to new Gallup numbers, and fewer than ever are getting it at work.

What is voluntary, exactly?

Bonnie Brazzell, Gil Lowerre

The voluntary business is thriving and will continue for the foreseeable future.

Consumers see value in independent agents

Kathryn Mayer

Theyll be back. Independent agents who lose out on business to insurers need not worry: Most customers who are lured away from independent agents by direct insurers promising lower prices will ultimately return to an independent agent.

Exchange navigators to earn $20-$48 an hour

Allison Bell

The federal exchange navigators will have a lot of work ahead of them, and a few at the very top will get paid up to $48 an hour.

What I’ve learned

Denis Storey

Mark Sinatra is CEO of Staff One, a Dallas-based PEO.

Detroit Pension Crisis: The hunt for a pension crisis fix

Paula Aven Gladych

Experts say the best way for cities and states to get out from under crippling pension debt is to close their pension plans to new hires and move employees to lower-cost defined contribution plans.