Current and Past Articles

Offering and providing flexible, customizable employee benefits can enhance employee satisfaction with your benefit plan, and allows employees to tailor their benefits so they can get the most out of your investment—which is great for both them and you. That’s where Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs) come in. LSAs help companies support employee wellness, work-life balance, and job satisfaction. Let’s delve into the whats and whys of LSAs.

What are Lifestyle Spending Accounts?
An employer-funded LSA account supports employees’ lifestyle and wellness needs. While LSAs sound similar to Health Spending Accounts (HSAs) or Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), they differ slightly. HSAs and FSAs are more focused on medical expenses, while LSAs are designed to cover non-medical lifestyle expenses.

In today’s fast-paced work environment, it’s easy for teams to get caught up in the grind, constantly pushing forward without pausing to consider how they’re performing. However, without taking time to reflect, teams can fall into habits that slow growth and prevent them from reaching their full potential. The highest-performing teams don’t just react—they regularly reflect on their actions, decisions, and dynamics.

Self-reflection doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, but it’s a game-changer for teams looking to improve. When teams make space to analyze what’s working and what isn’t, they gain clarity on how to move forward, make sharper decisions, and collaborate with more purpose. Teams that practice self-reflection become more resilient, emotionally intelligent, and aligned with their long-term goals.

Here’s how self-reflection can strengthen your team’s resilience, emotional intelligence, and continuous growth.

Prefer to listen instead of read? No problem! Listen to the blog post at any time by clicking here.   The Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health & Human Services released much anticipated final rules further clarifying and implementing the requirements related to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). The goal of the MHPAEA is to make sure that health plans cover mental health (MH) and substance use disorders (SUD) fairly. The law and its related regulations require all applicable plans to ensure that any plan’s financial requirements and coverage terms related to MH/SUDs are “in parity” with (meaning no more restrictive than) the requirements related to substantially all medical/surgical (M/S) services in the same benefit category.

Prefer to listen instead of read? No problem! Listen to the blog post at any time by clicking here.    One of the most well-known components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is that it requires applicable large employers (ALEs), meaning those employers that averaged at least 50 full-time and full-time equivalent employees during the previous calendar year, to (1) offer minimum essential coverage (MEC) to at least 95% of their full-time employees and the dependent children of those employees and (2) ensure that minimum value (MV) coverage is affordable to their full-time employees at the lowest-cost, employee-only coverage level. Full-time employees that do not receive an affordable MV offer from their ALE can receive a subsidy for enrolling in Exchange coverage, which exposes the ALE to employer mandate tax penalties. ALEs are not required to offer affordable coverage to the spouses and dependents of full-time employees, though these individuals can also enroll in subsidized coverage through an Exchange if the employer-sponsored coverage they have access to is unaffordable. 

Prefer to listen instead of read? No problem! Listen to the blog post at any time by clicking here.      Employee benefits is a big investment, and can average about 30% of an employer’s total budget. Open enrollment is more than something you do every year—it’s an opportunity to get a positive return on that investment, engage your employees, ensure they understand their benefits, and demonstrate your commitment to their well-being. While the process can be complex, with careful planning, clear communication, and strategic collaboration with your broker, open enrollment can be a smooth and successful experience for everyone involved. 

Prefer to listen instead of read? No problem! Listen to the blog post at any time by clicking here.    Generative AI (or GenAI or simply AI) has emerged as a helpful and now ubiquitous tool in the workplace. It can complete numerous things: from streamlining workflows to automating repetitive tasks to crafting personalized content. This gives you and your employees time to focus on strategic and creative endeavors, refining strategies, and fostering client relationships.  But here’s the catch—while AI can enhance productivity (up to 40% compared with people who don’t use it), relying on it as a replacement for strategic areas like content creation, HR, customer support, and project management is a misstep. It is a valuable tool and can be part of an overall strategy, not a replacement for strategy.