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By David Katz “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. The great Oz has spoken.” Invoking scenes from the Wizard of Oz, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez and the Department of Labor unveiled last week the finished product of its highly-anticipated union “persuader” rule, requiring employers and their advisers to report […]

6 tips for conducting exit interviews. Exit interviews may be an untapped source of information for benefit managers to analyze and make changes to programs that may be underperforming or in need of revamping to be better used. Listening A little more than 60% of employers say they heed employees’ parting words from exit interviews, […]

United Healthcare, the nation’s largest health insurer, has a novel idea to cut costs: Give people more stuff for free. The company has set up a subsidiary firm, Harken Health, that gives its members access to unlimited primary care services. Beyond visits to the doctor’s office, members have access to a 24-hour help line, a […]

Negotiating the compliance landscape for controlled and affiliated service groups was always a difficult task for benefit advisers and their corporate clients. Now the Affordable Care Act has made it even more challenging.   Although large corporations are accustomed to intricate benefit rules, including those pertaining to the shared responsibilities of related businesses, the ACA […]

In Announcement 2015-19, issued on July 21, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service said it was eliminating the staggered five-year determination letter remedial amendment cycles for individually designed tax-qualified retirement plans effective Jan. 1, 2017. Employers depend on these determination letters to ensure both their defined benefit and defined contribution plans remain in compliance with the […]

New Vermont legislation that requires employers to provide paid sick leave will have the greatest impact on smaller employers that don’t currently offer a comparable benefit and employers doing business in multiple states. Under H.187 passed by the Vermont legislature in February, employers must provide employees in the Green Mountain State at least 24 hours […]

In more than 20 years working in human resources, there is one thing I’ve learned above everything else: HR is incredibly complex. For starters, there are dozens of state and federal agencies tasked with enforcing hundreds of employment-related laws that organizations must follow. Add to this that businesses are also responsible for, at a minimum, […]

Employers who haven’t already started preparing to adhere to the Department of Labor’s proposed overtime rules – raising the minimum salary for FLSA exemptions – are already behind the eight-ball, according to one expert. “Do not wait for the DOL to publish its final rule to begin preparing,” says Tammy McCutchen, a principal with Littler […]

Tax season is well underway and the April 18, 2016 filing deadline is approaching fast. Employers, and particularly small business owners, can’t wait until April to get started on filing — they need to start now, if they haven’t already. From the Affordable Care Act to employee classification, there is a multitude of evolving regulations […]

Premium increases continue to motivate employers to consider cost-saving solutions they previously may have shunned, Paul Fetterolf, senior consultant and market leader of Arthur J. Gallagher, says, encouraging advisers to understand some of these augmenting strategies. “Employers are considering things they wouldn’t have before, including self-funding, captives, PEOs,” he said while moderating a panel of […]