misterfinder

Definitely not a waste of time because you've already helped me tremendously. Thank you! My goal in posting here is simply to have a decent groundwork of knowledge before I engage the lawyers. I want to at least know what questions to ask. So what you're saying is that it doesn't have to be a MEWA or a VEBA, but a multiemployer plan instead. Furthermore, who controls the plan depends on whatever is negotiated between the employer and union. Am I correct in my summarization? We've thrown around ideas where the members could own the plan and be able to cash-out some of the reserves after a certain period of time (assuming the reserves grow as large as we believe they can). Do you think that idea is legally viable? We are a state-wide union with 15,000 members. Primarily (90+%) public sector employees at the municipal level. We will outsource nearly 100% of the admin of this plan to start.

Now I'm really feeling dumb... Can you enlighten me? Don't we need to create a MEWA and a VEBA in order to do that?

We are just starting out; brainstorming concept stage. Just want to get a ballpark on cost before we dive deeper.

(Sorry, I posted this in "other kinds of welfare benefit plans" as well, but I'm not sure that's the right place for it. So I'm posting it here as well.) Stumbled on this forum, what a great wealth of wisdom! I'm a union rep and we are considering starting a healthcare plan for our members. Instead of the various employers having their own healthcare plans for our members, the employers are going to give us the money and we will provide the healthcare plan for our own members. I believe we will need to start a VEBA and a MEWA, but I am uncertain as to how much we will need to allocate for start-up costs (e.g. legal advice, documents, etc.). We have 10-15k local union members. I'm assuming it will cost $500-$1mm to start up and at least 1.5 years before we can go live. Am I even in the ballpark? Anyone know how much it will cost us to get this started? Any help is much appreciated!

Stumbled on this forum, what a great wealth of wisdom! I'm a union rep and we are considering starting a healthcare plan for our members. Instead of the various employers having their own healthcare plans for our members, the employers are going to give us the money and we will provide the healthcare plan for our own members. I believe we will need to start a VEBA and a MEWA, but I am uncertain as to how much we will need to allocate for start-up costs (e.g. legal advice, documents, etc.). We have 10-15k local union members. I'm assuming it will cost $500-$1mm to start up and at least 1.5 years before we can go live. Am I even in the ballpark? Anyone know how much it will cost us to get this started? Any help is much appreciated!