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Image: Adobe Stock For many small business owners, launching a retirement plan can be an uphill battle. The process is filled with dense jargon, opaque pricing, and time-consuming administration, said Rakesh Mahajan, chief revenue officer of Human Interest, a provider of 401(k) plans for small and midsize businesses. “Legacy plans often intimidate workers with ‘analysis paralysis,’ offering complex investment choices and confusing fee structures that discourage enrollment,” M

Image: Adobe Stock Key Insight: Here's why employees are keeping their mental health struggles hidden despite increased workplace awareness. What's at Stake: Losing career opportunities and facing retaliation if employees disclose mental health struggles. Supporting Data: 48% of employees who worry about one specific reaction from their colleagues. Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review Despite increased awareness around mental health, stigma and fear of judgme

Image: Adobe Stock Key Insight: Discover how simplifying 401(k) onboarding materially increases young-employee participation. What's at Stake: Low early-career participation could erode long-term retirement outcomes and employer retention metrics. Forward Look: Anticipate wider auto-enrollment and auto-escalation adoption to boost early-career savings. Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review The best benefits education feels less like homework and more like help

Image: Adobe Stock For the past few years, benefits consultants have spent considerable energy helping employers understand and navigate the dynamic GLP-1 landscape. It's a space moving faster than most can keep up with: new drugs entering the market, new indications and mounting cost pressures. Initially, employers grappled with the dilemma of whether to cover GLP-1s. Notably, the conversation has shifted with employers and benefits leaders are now trending in favor of cove

Image: Adobe Stock Key Insight: Learn why steady paychecks are failing to protect employees from sudden financial vulnerability. What's at Stake: Employers risk losing distracted, financially stressed workers to competitors offering greater stability. Forward Look: Prepare for employers to sequence their financial support rather than defaulting to single solutions. Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review Unexpected expenses have become one of the biggest blind s

Image: Adobe Stock Most employers invest real effort in benefits education. They hold open enrollment meetings. They send guides, comparison resources and summary plan descriptions. They layer in emails and reminders. And still, employees reach out weeks or months later, unsure about how to use the coverage they selected. The instinct is to conclude that employees aren't paying attention. But that framing misses the real problem. Many of the employees who ask for help do pay

Image: Adobe Stock The modern workplace is changing faster than most benefits strategies can keep up. Employees are overwhelmed by information, HR teams are stretched thin and employers are under increasing pressure to maximize the return on every dollar spent on benefits. Organizations are investing heavily in everything from healthcare and mental health support to financial wellness tools, condition management and wellbeing programs. Yet there is a persistent and costly di

Image: Adobe Stock There is a quiet assumption embedded in almost every benefits strategy in America: We treat insurance companies as if they are healthcare companies. That assumption influences the way brokers advise clients, the way employers structure plans and the way employees think about the ID card in their wallet. It shapes conversations about networks, plan design and cost control. And yet, when you step back and examine the system honestly, the assumption doesn't re

Image: Adobe Stock Medicare launched an 18-month pilot program Wednesday called Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, giving eligible participants access to certain GLP-1 medications for $50 per month. While this program is separate from employer-sponsored health plans, benefits that contribute to the long-term success of these prescription drugs may soon be in higher demand. With millions of Americans aged 65 and older remaining in the workforce, employers will no doubt see the use of GLP

Image: Adobe Stock At a time when some employers are pulling back on workplace perks, adoption benefits continued to grow in 2026, with increases in financial reimbursement and paid leave, according to a new survey. Companies are offering an average of $16,716 in financial reimbursement for adoption costs this year — a 6% increase from 2025, according to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption's 2026 100 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces report. Foster parents also saw gains

Image: Adobe Stock Strong mental health benefits can improve access to care and reinforce a healthier workplace culture, but employees may still struggle to navigate them. Many people need a trusted leader to help them understand their support options and how to take the first step. With the right training, managers strengthen mental health benefits by making them easier to use. Find out how HR and benefits leaders can equip managers to turn formal programs into real workplac

Adobe Stock To the casual observer, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding job candidates may seem like simple processes. You browse LinkedIn and Indeed, conduct a couple interviews, send out an offer letter, get the new employee's workstation up and running, have them sign some paperwork, and then run through some online training. If only it were so easy — and inexpensive. An inconvenient truth of the HR world is that it is an incredible investment of not only time but also mone

Image: Adobe Stock A 29-year-old marketing manager recently left her job after two years. When the HR team explained that her group life insurance policy wouldn't be transferred over to her new employer, she asked a question that should make the industry uncomfortable: "So what was the point?" Brokers and advisers know she's asking the right question. Our World Life Insurance Report 2026 reveals a troubling reality: a fundamental mismatch exists between what younger employees

Image: Adobe Stock Finance companies are expanding their offerings of pooled employer plans, a relatively new 401(k)-style retirement arrangement that allows multiple small businesses and nonprofits to participate in a single, jointly administered system. Equitable, a life insurance and retirement services company, announced earlier this month that it was rolling out a new 403(b) plan designed for nonprofit employers. "Nonprofit leaders pour everything into the people and co

Image: Adobe Stock Employees can now invest in more than just traditional mutual funds through their retirement plans, and federal regulators are making sure that plan sponsors responsible for choosing additional alternatives are protected. In March, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed a new safe harbor rule in response to Executive Order 14330, which President Trump signed last August. The order encourages fiduciaries and employers to expand the use of "alternative funds"

Image: Adobe Stock Financial advisers call it "leakage," a dangerous habit that drains retirement accounts to pay for today's wants. But new research suggests that 401(k) loans are rarely used for frivolous spending, serving instead as a critical safety net for households hitting a wall on medical bills and housing costs. The research, conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and J.P. Morgan Asset Management, analyzed the spending behavior of private-sector 401(k)

Image: Adobe Stock With the start of the new year, many employees traditionally consider exploring new jobs, alongside other resolutions like fitness goals or budgeting. But for the past two years, more workers have stayed in their roles — not because they're entirely satisfied with them, but because economic uncertainty has made them prioritize stability over the risk that comes with changing jobs. Most often referred to as "job hugging," many employees are clinging to their

Image: Adobe Stock AI is turning the traditionally complex, overwhelming process of selecting benefits into a more personalized and easy-to-understand experience. Eighty-five percent of employees say they feel confused about their benefits, according to a recent survey by Businessolver. However, when supported by AI, their assurance rises significantly: 79% of employees report feeling confident in their decisions, 85% rate their enrollment experience as great or excellent, an

Image: Adobe Stock Finance companies are expanding their offerings of pooled employer plans, a relatively new 401(k)-style retirement arrangement that allows multiple small businesses and nonprofits to participate in a single, jointly administered system. Equitable, a life insurance and retirement services company, announced earlier this month that it was rolling out a new 403(b) plan designed for nonprofit employers. "Nonprofit leaders pour everything into the people and co

Image: Adobe Stock Open enrollment presents an optimal time to reevaluate your employee benefits strategy and take stock of how well your retirement plan supports it. Whether your benefits strategy emphasizes talent attraction and retention or employee engagement and well-being, plan data and benchmarking can uncover whether your 401(k)-plan design aligns with your benefits strategy and, if not, what changes to make. Talent attraction and retention A few fundamental plan