So if weve all staked our claim in the employee benefits business, whether it's providing them, selling them or writing about them. What happens if employees want something that cant be bought or sold?

Its probably a bad time of year to conduct any kind of polls, surveys or studies about the mood of just about anyone, let alone disgruntled voters.

In 2012, 39.4 percent of all workers (or 61.6 million Americans) participated in an employment-based retirement plan, compared with 39.7 percent and 61.0 million in 2011.

A former broker, Nelson Griswold today works as an agency growth consultant to benefits firms across the country and is recognized as a leading expert on selling and cross-selling.

It started off like every other piece of bad news to hit the wires over the last few months: the online marketplace for small businesses would be delayed another year.

Were all looking ahead.

State officials in both Vermont and Massachusetts are so unhappy with CGI, the lead contractor for the beleaguered HealthCare.gov, that theyre withholding payment.

You know its a slow news day (week/fortnight) when a poll telling us how much we hate Congress (again) leads the major news sites.