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Showing posts from October, 2019

A Bitter Pill?

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I’ve never had very healthy eating habits – even as a child. And while this wasn’t a concern of mine at the time, my parents were quite insistent that either I start taking vitamins or improve my eating habits. Figuring that it was the lesser of two “evils,” I went for the pill. Well, until I saw THE PILL. Mind you, this was no kid-friendly Flintstones chewable – no, it was some big, ugly black monstrosity – a real “horse pill.”  And just looking at it I was sure that there was no way it could possibly make it down my poor 5-year old throat (I wasn’t altogether sure it would even fit in my mouth). However, and despite my vehement protestations, my parents were determined that I would ingest it. And, for the next 15 minutes or so (it felt like forever) I was as close to being waterboarded as I will ever want to be – as my parents proceeded to hold me down, tilt my head, and attempt to flush the pill down my throat with copious amounts of water. But sure enough

What’s Holding Back Financial Wellness?

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Financial wellness – it remains a hot topic among advisors – but among plan sponsors? For all the coverage that the subject engenders – and it’s considerable in this space – it’s not unusual to find awareness gaps among plan sponsors, with perspectives ranging from ignorance to ambivalence to downright skepticism. About a year ago, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) conducted a survey  of 250 large employers. At the time, the report claimed that while many employers were interested in offering financial wellness programs to their employees, there didn’t appear to be a consensus on the approach. So, what’s changed in in the past year? Well, as it turns out, not much. Once again EBRI surveyed  large plan sponsors – this time in June 2019, the online survey of 248 full-time benefits decision-makers from companies with at least 500 employees (17% had more than 10,000). Last year’s survey canvassed employers with an “expressed interest in financial welln