Attracting and retaining high-quality employees is a priority for most businesses and requires a strategy that goes beyond offering attractive compensation. Employees often choose work based on whether an organization’s culture aligns with their own values, career development opportunities, or the presence of benefit options that empower them to make choices based on their personal lifestyles. Robust benefits packages today frequently include self-directed options that help plan participants stretch their budgets in a variety of ways.

Cybercrime is a burgeoning business. The World Economic Forum reports that by 2025 the global cost of cybercrime could reach $10.5 trillion annually. Individuals, businesses, and governments must work diligently to protect sensitive data. For businesses, one of the most common entry points for intruders is through compromised or hacked passwords used to access company data.

EIG: What brought you to Eastern Insurance Group?

According to The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), flooding is the most common and most expensive natural disaster in the United States. During our era of extreme climate transformation, flood risks are more common than ever. Heavy rain and flash floods can hit almost any community and can be financially devastating to homeowners.

Understanding and managing the high cost of prescription drugs presents challenges across the U.S. healthcare system. For years, a particularly complex set of pricing variables has frustrated employers sponsoring healthcare plans as well as their plan participants. Under the No Surprises Act (NSA), enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA), the federal government has recently mandated prescription drug data collection (RxDC) in an effort to create greater system-wide transparency.

For businesses of all sizes and across all sectors, last year presented significant new and existing challenges. Many widespread conditions that emerged during the first years of the pandemic continued to affect operational stability while rising inflation and the threat of recession created increased market turmoil. Additionally, Russia’s war on Ukraine accelerated commercial instability on a global scale.

EIG: What brought you to Eastern Insurance Group?

Today, with inflation at a 40-year high, few have escaped first-hand experience with the escalating cost of goods and services—including home and automobile insurance premiums. And while some analysts believe price increases have begun to ease, several global factors first ignited by the pandemic may continue to drive up coverage costs for the foreseeable future:

Eastern Insurance AVP Cassandra Koegel Selected to Co-Chair MAIA Young Agents Committee

Workplace norms and standards are rapidly shifting. To keep pace, most modern business owners share a common goal of creating and maintaining safe, equitable workplaces for all. Yet even the most ethical employers who adhere to best employment practices can be sued by workers who believe their legal rights as employees have been violated. Today, employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) has become an important part of the risk management strategy for businesses of every size.