Do you know what's trending? With all of the important duties that come with managing an employee benefits program, the plethora of changing regulatory changes and of course, the up's and down's of the investment world, it can be hard to stay on top of what's new. 

Jason Crane has been in the business of retirement for over 15 years. As a wholesaler for Transamerica, he has a proven track record of providing companies and their employees with high-quality retirement plan products. With his most recent role though, he's working to help employers take more into consideration than account balances, investment performance and the bottom line. 

In our interview with Jason, who is also the keynote speaker for our 2016 Employee Benefits Symposium, he talks about the changing focus in the retirement space, how technology plays a part and what this means for an organization's future. 

Hugh O'Toole, a speaker at our 2016 Employee Benefits Symposium, is disrupting employee benefits with data. After years of working for MassMutual heading up retirement plan distribution and relationship management, Hugh O'Toole broke out on his own. With that, Viability Advisory Group was born where he developed a patent-pending analysis program to show companies, based on their specific demographics and benefits offering, how their employees' lack of retirement preparedness has long-standing effects not just on those individuals, but on a business as a whole. 

In this interview, we explore Hugh's road to the financial services industry, how his innovative use of data is changing the industry, and how he works with CFOs to implement important changes that are good for not just a company, but for everyone. 

This time of year not only brings a new season, but also plenty of opportunities for us to get the latest about employer-sponsored retirement plans, employee benefits and much more. To stay current on industry trends and hot topics, two of our advisors, Alex Assaley and Daniel Haverkos recently attended two conferences: The Employee Benefit News Forum & Expo and the National Association of Plan Advisers DC Fly-In Forum. Both of these events offered up valuable information on all aspects of retirement plans and employee benefits: wearable health technology, tax reform, corporate wellness, new proposed rules on the fiduciary definition and much more.