What ADA, ADEA, ERISA issues need to be considered when a company prov

[Guest John B Natowitz]

What ADA, ADEA, ERISA issues need to be considered when a company provides a supplemental disability plan to executives? If policies can only be issued through age 65 what do you do with a 68 year old? What if the coverage is underwritten and someone is declined for health reasons?

[KIP KRAUS]

John:

If you are talking about the company purchasing individual disability policies I’m not sure that ERISA even applies. As far as my understanding individual policies of insurance are not ERISA plans.

If the insurance company underwriting the policies will not issue a policy to someone on the basis of medical evidence, I don’t see what you can do about that. So is it the company being discriminatory or the insurance company?

If the employer is really concerned about the 68-year-old, or the person that couldn’t satisfy the medical evidence, they may want to consider self-insuring the supplemental disability benefit payments from general assets.

I’m just guessing from your post that the employer has a group LTD plan and just wants to supplement that plan for executives.

[Guest John B Natowitz]

Thanks for the info. There is an existing group plan. The company provides additional coverage to all employees above a certain level. There is a plan document and the company pays for the coverage.