BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: March 2021 Cobb Business Journal For decades, life insurance sales have been dwindling to the point that, according to a 2020 Limra survey, just over half of American adults reported having a life insurance policy down from 63% in its 2010 survey.  Early indications are that COVID-19 may be reversing the tide. Between March and May of 2020, Google search traffic for “life insurance” jumped 50% and, since April 2020, many life insurance companies have reported significantly increased year-over-year policy purchases with the greatest increase in purchases occurring

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: November 2021 Cobb Business Journal While the news cycle has been saturated with reporting on employers requiring that their employees either be vaccinated or be fired, most employers are looking to take a more delicate “carrots and sticks” approach. To be sure, once the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issues the rules that will govern President Joe Biden’s executive order requiring that employers with more than 100 employees mandate COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment (and assuming those rules are upheld by the courts), large employers may find

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: February 2021 Cobb Business Journal With the January Senate runoffs behind us and Democratic control secured in the upper chamber of Congress, there is much speculation regarding what impact the new power dynamic in Washington will have in a variety of areas.  Given that healthcare is a key issue of importance for most Americans, much speculation is being made as to what the new Administration will, or will not, be able to accomplish with a razor thin majority in the Senate. Given that moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: January 2021 Cobb Business Journal As employers and individuals alike have attempted to maintain reasonably affordable health insurance coverage in the face of ever increasing health insurance premiums, it will come as a surprise to no one that deductibles and out-of-pocket maximum exposure have markedly increased in recent years.  One less recognized byproduct of the increase in plan premiums has been a migration from traditional, copay-based plans to IRS qualified, health savings account (HSA) eligible high deductible health plans which, by definition, do not include copays for doctor

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: December 2020 Cobb Business Journal The Affordable Care Act (ACA), originally signed into law on March 23, 2010, finds itself once again in front of the United States Supreme Court.  This time, the issue at question is whether the entire law should fall because the law’s individual mandate penalty was zeroed out by Congress in 2017.  For some background, supporters of the ACA reason that the individual mandate should just be severed from law since it is now effectively irrelevant.  Opponents of the ACA feel that, if the

BY DAVID BOTTOMS, REBC, RHU, CLU, CHFCSENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, BENEFITS Published: November 2020 Cobb Business Journal Historically, employers who made a decision to integrate their medical and dental plans with a single insurance carrier came to that decision largely on the basis of desiring administrative convenience or packaging discounts.  While strong arguments still exist for the convenience and financial efficiencies of packaging, a new and perhaps even more compelling clinical argument is beginning to emerge as medical insurance providers have been increasingly (and somewhat quietly) investing in technology tools that are providing medical and dental professionals with the opportunity