FEATURED
Covering all bases
The first in EBN’s three-part series on open enrollment
offers benefits practioners’ first-hand advice for
creating effective open enrollment communications.
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 25)
ALSO INSIDE
Benefits Corner Office
Columnist Nancy Bolton questions
punitive tactics on smokers
Quality of Life
An employer’s mentoring program
goes digital
BeneFIT Success Story
Health management company SHPS
walks the talk
BY THE NUMBERS
32%
of employees enrolled in
their vision plan don’t use the
benefit for a comprehensive
eye exam.
See page 58
MAY 2011 • VOL 25 NO 6 • EBN.BENEFITNEWS.COM
DOL HEARING
Potential redefinition of the
term fiduciary raises concerns
BY ANDREA DAVIS
Over two days of hearings in March, the
Department of Labor heard from almost
40 retirement industry players on its pro-
posed rule to update the de;nition of the
term “;duciary” under the Employee Re-
tirement Income Security Act. ;e agency
also has received over 200 public com-
ments on the proposal.
“There’s a lot of marketplace confusion
over the issue,” said Brian Graff, executive
director and CEO of the American Society
of Pension Professionals and Actuaries, at
ASPPA’s 401(k) Summit in March. “This
regulation has come under a great deal
of criticism.”
Greg Dean, chief counsel for the Sen-
ate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor & Pensions, speaking with Graff at
the summit’s opening session, said that
“what the DOL has done is take 35 years
of testing and turned it on its head. What
they’ve got now is a regulatory proposal
that [says that] everyone should be con-
sidered a fiduciary unless you meet cer-
tain requirements.”
Currently, to be considered a fiduciary
under ERISA, an individual has to meet all
five of the following criteria:
SHRM LAW CONFERENCE
Employers can’t afford to over-
look deficit reduction debate
BY LYDELL C. BRIDGEFORD
As employers start to conduct cost-bene-
;t analysis on providing health insurance
under the health law, they should also
study some proposals by the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility
and Reform.
“The current national debt is sitting at
$14.2 trillion. To put things in perspective,
prior to the start of the 2008 recession, it
was at $11 trillion, so we have added $3
trillion in just 24 months,” said Michael P.
Aitkin, director of governmental affairs at
the Society for Human Resource Manage-
ment, during the organization’s employ-
ment law and legislative conference in
March. According to the Congressional
Budget Office, the federal deficit for fis-
cal year 2011 and 2012 will average about
$600 billion a year, he added.
