When asked what today's political climate looks like for them, Sellers was quick to respond.

“It's a mess,” he said. “The White House has kept us in a perpetual state of confusion, and I'm not sure if that's intentional or not.”

“It's never intentional,” Wallace responded, as chuckles peppered the room. “In this moment, it's more painful for me, because my party stands for something very different now.”

The two continued, discussing how we got here—with a president who wasn't supposed to win and has been anything but conventional since he took office earlier this year.

“We are seeing some epic battles in Trump's White House,” said Wallace. “He has this desire to dance with the ones who brung him—Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway—but on the other side, he has these generals, like Mattis, who have helped some Trump skeptics sleep at night.”

These two forces—the Trump aides who have caught flak for their PR woes and lack of experience and the more seasoned experts and advisors—are pitted against each other and as Wallace pointed out, Trump will have to decide who will ultimately and truly guide his tenure on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Democrats as the opposition party

“This seems unprecedented,” noted Wilson. “It's not just a feeling; it actually is unprecedented,” said Sellers. He added there has never been a more inexperienced president. (That didn't sit well with some audience members, who audibly disagreed.)

But Sellers went on, telling the audience Democrats are in a situation they haven't been in for eight years—taking on the role of the opposition party. It's not something they know how to do very well right now, he said, and they need to figure out what their future looks like in this regard.

“There is a lot of chaos, but a lot of that can be calmed down if you have a leader in the Republican Party like Paul Ryan who steps forward and leads,” he said.

To a certain degree, Wallace agreed, but with a simple, yet crucial, caveat.

“Paul Ryan was prepared and knew how to do his job under Hillary Clinton, but he wasn't prepared for this,” she said. “He has no idea how to be Paul Ryan in a Trump administration. He will ultimately pay the price for the Republicans in the midterms over the health care debacle.”

Paul Ryan's defeat

Nicolle Wallace and Bakari Sellers discuss health care reform, prior to the most recent changes regarding the AHCA.

And how much did the initial American Health Care Act failure hurt Trump? Not much at all, actually. Wallace said Trump won't have to pay a political price, because his supporters weren't necessarily that offended by the ongoing health care debate; but Ryan's supporters won't be as forgiving.

“It's the more conservative ideological ones who make up Paul Ryan's base, and they are going to be angry they blew up one of their chances to repeal Obamacare,” Wallace said.

It seems that anger will reverberate for some time, considering Ryan's admission that the ACA is the law of the land and will be for the foreseeable future. Or will it? Trump says repeal is still on the table.

“The White House OMB director was talking about how ACA repeal will be done before tax reform, but I think that's aspirational,” Wallace said. “There is just not enough will for this among Trump's base.”

So, despite Trump's tweets and recent developments in the House, the ACA could be in place for the time being, and many Americans are starting to give the health care law more love than it had in the years it wasn't on the chopping block.

“I will give credit to Trump for that,” Sellers said. “He made the ACA popular, which Obama couldn't do. The AHCA only had an approval of 17 percent. That's lower than the ACA ever was.”

“It's hard for your first piece of legislation to take something away from people,” he continued. “Obama failed to communicate the ACA accomplishments, and you can see that now. I do think the ACA will be the law of the land because of insurance reimbursements for the 7 million people covered out-of-pocket by those insurers. Obama attempted to do that, but the Republicans said no way. Now they are saying it will be done.”

Spending political capital

With the missed opportunity that is repeal and replace, it's time to face facts: The unpopular branding of the ACA made it hard to swallow for many Americans, but without something solid and sellable, Trump and his cohorts will most likely have to face a package of tweaks.

“If anyone tells you the ACA doesn't need to be fixed, they are lying to you and themselves,” Sellers said.

Later in the keynote, an audience member wondered how much political capital Ryan expended on his first attempt at health care reform, and if he'd try to take on another endeavor soon, like Social Security.

“I think his bank of political capital is a lot lighter,” Wallace said.

“It's probably in overdraft,” Sellers chimed in.

“But I don't think he has a partner to help him do anything in Social Security,” Wallace said. “It's not Trump's impulse to take things away. I think he thinks he can make the pie bigger, because I don't really think he wants reform.”

Had someone like Jeb Bush or even Hillary Clinton taken the White House, both Wallace and Sellers agreed, reforms would be on the docket. But as Sellers put it, “Paul Ryan is in the wrong era. He's too wonky.”

Health insurance vs. health care costs

Another question from the audience, brought up the question on many brokers' minds. “Health insurance is expensive because health care is expensive. Why have both sides of the aisle been afraid to talk about it?”

“That was the goal of the ACA, and it missed the mark,” Sellers said simply. “Not enough people get it,” said Wallace.

Sellers then pushed back on the original question, saying, “I think your premise is wrong. I don't think cost is the problem; access remains the No. 1 problem.” It was then the all-too-familiar point was made by the audience: “Part of access is affordability.”

That argument has been—and should be—made often. For Wallace, she says not enough people in the government know how to have this conversation, with one exception.

“Governors are more fluent because they live it,” she said. “[John] Kasich made one of the more impassioned pleas to the president to slow down on health care.”

The death spiral

Another audience member brought up the so-called death spiral the ACA seems to be succumbing to. “What does the ACA collapse mean, and could it actually happen?” he asked.

“The Aetna CEO is the one who said Obamacare was in a death spiral, and he said it when the government didn't back his merger,” Sellers said.

(It should be mentioned Mark Bertollini denies the two are linked, but recently, Aetna did remove itself from an Iowa ACA marketplace for individual plans, the second major insurer to do so.)

Sellers disagreed the ACA is in a death spiral and said what will help stabilize it will be the subsidies to insurance companies that will act as reinforcement to keep them on board. “I think it will be stable,” he said.

Wallace agreed somewhat. “I think it will be bloated, but when it gets close to dying, they will fix it, but not until then.”

“It's not how we repeal it,” Sellers said. “It's how we fix it.”

The (brain) science of change

By Daniel Williams

“No industry has seen more upheaval and change than yours,” said Britt Andreatta, speaking at the annual BenefitsPRO Broker Expo. “And that's bad for your brain, because your brain hates change, and it hates uncertainty.”

Andreatta, CEO of 7th Mind Inc., is an expert on brain science and learning, and the author of “Wired to Grow” and “Wired to Resist.”

She likened the recent experiences of the brokerage industry to holding an umbrella in a storm, only the winds of change have ripped the umbrella from your hands and it's tumbling end over end, always just out of your reach.

An educator, Andreatta became fascinated about the brain's resistance to change firsthand when LinkedIn acquired the company where she worked.

“My entire landscape shifted,” said Andreatta. “The rest of my team was laid off. I was told to report to Sunnyvale, California, 500 miles away.”

Under normal conditions, she loved the idea of being acquired by LinkedIn, but this was not a normal time for Andreatta. She had undertaken a major remodeling project at her house, and her mother was battling Parkinson's.

In short, her bandwidth for change was already maxed out. When she wandered around the campus at LinkedIn, everything was new. Even simple tasks like operating a faucet in the bathroom caused her to stress out.

The change journey

With technology frequently a driver of change, organizations and their employees are often in a state of flux. When a company is acquired, or you get a new boss, or a new software platform is introduced, your natural instinct, an instinct hardwired in your brain, fires up defense mechanisms.

“Humans actually have an emotional reaction to change,” said Andreatta. “Your initial response might be: 'No! I don't want this to happen!' In this early stage, the natural emotions are shock, fear and denial.”

As you begin to process the change, your feelings may shift to stress, anger and anxiety. A series of questions begin to swirl around in your head. “Basically, you are breaking down the situation and asking yourself, 'What will this change do to me? How is this bad for me? What will I lose?'”

After continuing to process the change, you eventually reach a tipping point that Andreatta described as “resignation.” If the change is taking place at work, you may actually resign from the company, or, you may get onboard and resign yourself to the new normal.

According to a recent study, 47 percent of senior executives believe change fatigue is prevalent in their organizations.

“What I tell leaders in companies is change is normal,” said Andreatta. “You can't make change go away. What you can do is help people get through it.”

The biological cocktail

“The brain is wired to do three things: survive, belong and become,” Andreatta said. “We have this awesome biological cocktail that sends out emotional distress signals.”

This cocktail can manifest itself as a voice chirping in your head, as depicted in the Pixar movie Inside Out. When stress ramps up, the voice becomes louder, according to Andreatta. The wall of noise shouts out: “I don't know what to do! I can't screw up! I'm freaking out! I'm lost!”

What leaders can do is offer support, provide guidance, and have patience with employees, giving them the time to adapt to the changes.

Tips for success

Although the brain doesn't like change, it does adapt. Think of the first time you drove to work versus five years into your job, when you're on autopilot and wind your way to the office as if you have an internal GPS. Andreatta offered five ideas on how to help yourself to adapt to change:

• Work with the brain. Eventually, biology will win. We have to understand how the brain works and what the emotional responses are to change.

• Increase emotional intelligence. Change impacts emotions. It's vital that you develop your emotional intelligence. This can give you the skills to better navigate change.

• Problem solving, not goals. When it comes to change, goals can mean success or failure. Instead of goals, look at change as a series of problem-solving phases. This will help your brain begin seeking how to adapt to the change, rather than avoiding it.

• Celebrate milestones and successes. When adapting to change, be sure and enjoy your accomplishments.

• Embrace mindfulness. Meditation has the ability to change your brain. Harvard University has conducted studies on meditation's impact on the brain. Even a single 10-minute meditation session can alter the brain, lessening anxiety and creating a mellow state.

When the DOL comes knocking

By Rosalie Donlon

Although we get most important communications through email in the 21st century, there are still many things that come via snail mail, and a letter from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announcing an audit of an employer's benefit plans is among them.

“Many employers panic when they get a letter from DOL, and wonder how they were selected,” said Evelyn King, J.D., vice president of compliance and operations, ERISA Pros LLC. She was speaking at the BenefitsPRO Broker Expo session “How to Survive a DOL Audit,” presented jointly with Erika Medina, ERISA counsel, USI Insurance Services.

Medina said the first thing employers should do is look at the codes on the letter to understand exactly what plan is being audited. For instance, a letter with a code 53 is a pension plan review, while one with a 50 code is a health and welfare plan review.

If the audit requests information about the pension plan, be careful to limit your response only to that plan, Medina cautioned. “Don't provide more information than strictly necessary.”

Finding errors on Form 5500

King explained the DOL has a lot more information now that Form 5500s are filed electronically, and they can more easily find errors.

“DOL may be acting in response to a targeted program or to a review of a Form 5500 that seems in error,” Medina explained. For example, if a company had 500 employees in 2015, then 1,500 employees in 2016, DOL may want to confirm whether there was an acquisition or whether the number is just a typographical error. “An audit or investigation by another agency might also be a trigger,” she added, “for example, an Internal Revenue Service audit often sparks audits in other areas.”

“Another common trigger,” King pointed out, “can be when the 5500 shows a 401(k) plan but no health and welfare plan. In that situation, DOL will ask the company to provide all applicable plan documents.”

Medina and King both stressed complaints from disgruntled employees are often the impetus for DOL investigations—even when the complaints may be groundless. Another favorite technique of unhappy employees is to discard old plan documents so it's more complicated to show continuity of plan changes and amendments, King added.

In one case, Medina said, an investigator went to a spa for a massage and saw an unusual poster on the wall about employee benefits, which piqued her interest. In another case, an investigator was in a sandwich line at a deli listening to a group of nurses in front of him discussing proposed changes to their pension plan from a local hospital that didn't seem right to them; he followed up with the hospital, launching a full audit.

Third parties can affect confidentiality

Most employers rely on third-party vendors to administer their benefit plans or on consultants to help design the plans. It can be tempting to contact the vendors or third-party administrators (TPAs) to provide information as part of the audit, but be careful when communicating with them, Medina advised. Conversations with the company's attorney preserves any attorney/client privilege, but the privilege may be waived, depending on how the communications with the third-party vendors takes place.

King reminded the audience there might also be an inherent conflict of interest between the employer and the third parties if the audit finds that the vendor or consultant was at fault. Even though the employer may be entitled to indemnification, the vendor is likely to be taking care of its own issues with DOL first.

Both speakers agreed high-profile organizations can affect the results of an audit—or even whether the audits go beyond an investigation letter in the first place.

“Facts and circumstances are very influential,” Medina said. “If a company has a well-known name—even if it's a small company—it has a high risk of being audited.”

“The employer is always responsible for any violations,” King emphasized, “even when the third party caused the violation. The employer has to write the check, and DOL is a money-making agency.” Many departments within DOL are evaluated on how much they collect in fines and penalties as part of the enforcement process, Medina explained.

You can survive a DOL audit without panicking. Remember to provide only the information requested—after consulting your attorney, of course.