Employee Benefits Week in Review (EBWiR) wishes you a belated Happy National Employee Benefits Day, which was Monday, April 4. Just in case you're not sure how to celebrate the occasion, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) offers some fairly humorous suggestions. (My personal favorite: spiking the water cooler with Tamiflu to reduce flu-related absenteeism.)
Retirement survey says . . . : Next week is National Retirement Planning Week, another calendar observance still aspiring to reach greeting-card status. In advance of the holiday, the results of four major studies were published this week, including: Bankers Life and Casualty Company's Middle-Income Retirement Preparedness Study, Employee Benefit Research Institute's Retirement Confidence Survey, ING Retirement Research Institute's Shedding Light on Retirement and a poll by AP/LifeGoesStrong.com. The studies collectively arrive at the same basic conclusion: we are in the middle of a retirement crisis in this country. Major themes of the studies' findings include retirement advisors are ignoring middle-income Americans, retirement confidence is at an all-time low, Americans really need and want guidance and boomers are especially apprehensive about their retirement preparedness.
Benefits brokers descend on Nashville: Benefits Selling Expo, the largest and best annual gathering of employee benefits brokers, took place in Nashville this week. Mark Lacher, partner at Souderton, PA-based Lacher & Associates, was named Broker of the Year, among an impressive field of Broker of the Year Finalists. By far, the most lively and well attended event was Fred Thompson and Dee Dee Myers debate about the merits of health reform. Alan Katz kicked off the week's meetings on Tuesday with a keynote presentation on the shared characteristics of the most successful brokers, based on interviews with 200 sales professionals.
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Health Care Reform battle takes one step closer to U.S. Supreme Court: Oral arguments for the U.S. Department of Justice's appeal of Florida Judge Roger Vinson's January ruling that PPACA's individual mandate is unconstitutional are scheduled for June 8. Here's the full text of Vinson's ruling.
In other Health Care Reform Developments: The Senate voted to repeal the almost universally unpopular 1099 provision. As BenefitsPro blogger Eric Johnson reports, the provision posed an "administrative nightmare" for employers because it would have required companies to file a 1099 form for all vendors who were paid more than $600 for services and products.
Quick hits from around the web:
- Companies anticipating hiring increases in April, suggesting labor market is coming back to life.
- Several articles advocating employee benefits appeared in the popular media this week. The San Francisco Chronicle encourages readers to take advantage of employer-sponsored LTC insurance. U.S. News & World Report offers ways to save for retirement. The Chicago Tribune warns job hoppers of common 401(k) pitfalls.
- Two possible friendly-fire casualties in the escalating Health Care Reform conflict: Child-only insurance and insurance for early retirees.
- Life Insurance Selling on voluntary life sales, made easy.
- AIG is back in court, facing claims by current and former employees that the company overly invested employee pensions in company stock before shares plummeted 97 percent in 2008.
- HuffPo published a thought-provoking blog by Humphrey Taylor, Chairman, Harris Poll, on Americans contradiction of American attitudes. In a case of "love the forest but hate the trees," Taylor points out that, according to most polls, including his own, Americans are against Health Care Reform but strongly in favor of the major provisions in the bill (with the exception of the individual mandate).
EBWir recommends:
- Most popular BenefitsPro story this week: 2011 Broker of the Year Finalists
- Follow on Twitter: @SamFleetSays
- Cool retirement website: erollover.com
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