Trust Accounting, Plan Integration & Database Management, Retirement Plan Administration
Growing NJ Employee Benefits, Retirement Planning & Actuarial Consulting Firm
in NJ

Defined Benefit Administrator
Growing Employee Benefits, Retirement Planning and Actuarial Consulting Firm
in NY

Education Consultant
Milliman
in TX

Defined Benefit - Implementation Analyst
Milliman
in TX

401(k) Administrator
TPS Group
in CT

401(k) Administrator
Swerdlin & Company
in GA

IRT Relationship Manager 3
Wells Fargo
in PA

401(k) Plan Associate Plan Consultant
America's 401k, Inc.
in TX

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5-Minute Fiduciary: Bonds -- Recorded
May 28, 2014 WEBCAST
(Conrad Siegel Actuaries)

Public Exchanges: Translating Lessons Learned Into Insurer Strategies for 2015 -- Recorded
May 29, 2014 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc)

2014 Webinar: Understanding and Processing Transfers and Rollovers
June 10, 2014 WEBCAST
(Ascensus)

PPA Pre-Approved Plans Workshop - PPD Document - San Francisco
June 11, 2014 in CA
(SunGard Relius)

PPA Pre-Approved Plans Workshop - PPD Document - Denver
June 11, 2014 in CO
(SunGard Relius)

PPA Pre-Approved Plans Workshop - Corbel Document - Norfolk
June 11, 2014 in VA
(SunGard Relius)

2014 Webinar: IRA Basics
June 12, 2014 WEBCAST
(Ascensus)

High Duals Demo Opt-Out Rates: Why They’re Occurring and How to Reduce Them
June 17, 2014 WEBCAST
(Atlantic Information Services, Inc)

The Rise of HSAs: Past, Present, and Future Trends
June 25, 2014 WEBCAST
(Healthcare Trends Institute)

2014 IHC FORUM West
December 3, 2014 in NV
(The Institute for HealthCare Consumerism)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Issues Guidance on Retiree Health Benefits Funded Through Captive Insurance Subsidiary (PDF)
"In order for an arrangement to qualify as insurance, the arrangement must, among other requirements, shift the risk of loss from the party paying the premium to the recipient of the premium, and the recipient must distribute that risk of loss among other insured parties. Prior to the issuance of Revenue Ruling 2014-15, there was uncertainty as to whether retiree health benefits funded through captive insurance subsidiaries had sufficient risk shifting and risk distribution to qualify as insurance." (Bryan Cave)  

[Advert.]

New E-Learning Course: Medicare Basics

Enroll now in Medicare Basics, a self-paced e-learning course that provides employers with a comprehensive overview of Medicare benefits and explains how Medicare coordinates with existing employer-sponsored health care plans. Enroll Now!

[Guidance Overview]

Simple Cafeteria Plans: More to the ACA Than Just Health Benefits
"First effective for years beginning after 2010, the ACA allowed eligible small employers to establish a simple cafeteria plan. The main advantage of the simple cafeteria plan over the traditional option is that it removes the obstacle of nondiscrimination requirements favoring highly compensated and key employees which disqualify many small businesses from participating in traditional cafeteria plans. Instead, under a simple cafeteria plan, the applicable nondiscrimination requirements of a classic cafeteria plan are treated as satisfied, as long as specified contribution, eligibility, and participation rules are met." (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business)  

[Guidance Overview]

Health Plan Identifiers: Procrastination Might Pay Off for Employers
"[T]he HPID is tethered to a technical issue that HHS is actively analyzing, and there's a chance HHS may excuse employers from the need to obtain HPIDs, or delay the deadline for doing so.... The [online application] process is cumbersome, at best, and delaying a few months may give HHS time to streamline it and work out any bugs. HHS' current deliberations, coupled with the relatively long lead times for application, mean that procrastination may prove to be employers' best HPID compliance strategy for the time being." (Lockton)  

[Guidance Overview]

San Francisco Bay Area Employers Required to Provide Commuter Benefits (PDF)
"Several Bay area cities and the San Francisco International Airport already have commuter benefit programs in place .... Employers will not have to comply with both programs. Employers with fewer than 50 employees, but who meet the thresholds shown ... will continue to comply with their local ordinance. Employers with at least 50 full-time employees in the Bay area will now need to comply with the new Bay area program even if they have complied with a local ordinance in the past." (Buck Consultants)  

Federal Judge in Wyoming Denies Catholic Diocese's Request for ACA Injunction
"Roman Catholic organizations in Wyoming aren't entitled to a court order blocking provisions of the [ACA] that require hundreds of non-ministerial employees to get health insurance coverage for contraception and abortion services ... Judge Scott Skavdahl of Casper denied a request from the Diocese of Cheyenne, which covers all of Wyoming, Catholic schools and other groups for an injunction ... The plaintiffs had asked Skavdahl to block access to contraception and abortion services insurance coverage while their lawsuit challenging the health law runs its course.... Skavdahl stated that the requirement that religious groups fill out the certification doesn't place a substantial burden on their free exercise of religion." (Daily Journal)  

[Advert.]

Wrap SPDs—Are Your Clients Ready for a DOL Audit?

In 2013, the DOL's EBSA agency handled more than 236,000 employee complaints about their benefit plans, some of which triggered DOL audits. SPDs will be requested by DOL auditors. Will your clients be compliant?

Eight Circuit: City Welder Not Rehired After FMLA Leave Entitled to Liquidated Damages
"Reversing the denial of liquidated damages to Wayne Jackson, the Eighth Circuit found that Hot Springs offered no evidence that it acted in subjective good faith or that it had an objectively reasonable belief that its refusal to rehire Jackson didn't violate the FMLA. Nevertheless, it said the lower district court summarily stated that the city met that burden 'without providing any factual support for this finding.' In doing so, the lower court abused its discretion, the appeals court said." [Jackson v. City of Hot Springs, No. 13-1722 (8th Cir. May 12, 2014)] (Bloomberg BNA)  

Can a Failure to Hire Violate ERISA?
"The court said that construing the facts favorably to the former employee, the former employee reasonably expected to become employed full-time. Because that was his reasonable expectation, he met the definition of participant ... This case pre-dates the ACA and the changes employers are making to comply with those requirements.... Those employees who have their hours cut and even, under this case, those employees who are hired for positions that are less than 30 hours a week and not considered for full-time employment, may be able to bring suit challenging the employer's actions." [Sanders v. Amerimed, No. 1:13-cv-813 (S.D. Ohio Apr. 25, 2014)] (Stinson Leonard Street)  

Complex ACA Filing Requirements Ahead for Employers, Individuals
"Employers will encounter one particularly 'tricky part' when filing their authoritative annual returns listing comprehensive data on offers of coverage to employees ... The process becomes more complicated for employees that may have been promoted and thus moved from an insured group of employees to a self-insured group of employees ... Employers can file a report for each category of employee, but employers will need to figure out how to file a single form, and which reporting category to use, for employees who have been members of both categories[.]" (Bloomberg BNA)  

Health Insurance Premiums: Comparing ACA Exchange Rates to the Employer-Based Market (PDF)
"The data suggest the new exchanges are competitive with the current insurance market and may open doors for employers as they contemplate future benefits strategies.... Employer-sponsored health plans pay about 85% of healthcare costs with the remainder paid by the employee. In other words, the average employer-based plan falls between the gold (80%) and platinum (90%) levels created under the 2010 law." (PricewaterhouseCoopers)  

Health Insurance Giants to Unveil Online Price Transparency Tool
"The elusive goal to provide consumers more transparency about prices may soon be achieved via a collaborative effort of health insurance giants Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth Group ... Health Care Cost Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, said the insurance companies will develop and provide consumers 'free access to an online tool that will offer consumers the most comprehensive information about the price and quality of health care services.' Additional health plans could soon join Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth in the effort." (Forbes)  

Employees Sense Weakened Commitment to Work/Life Flexibility; Lack of Training Contributes to Eroding Confidence
"[W]hile almost all full-time employees reported they had some type of flexibility in 2013, more than 4 in 10 full-time employees were uncertain about their employer's commitment to that flexibility.... A majority of employees did not receive training or guidance on how to manage work life flexibility. A majority of employees continue to cite obstacles to work life flexibility with the number of employees noting their workloads increased/they had no time rising from 29% in 2011 to 37% in 2013." (flex+strategy group)  

With Flextime, Bosses Prefer Early Birds to Night Owls
"Research shows that in general, flexible work practices lead to increased productivity, higher job satisfaction, and decreased turnover intentions.... Across 149 employee-supervisor dyads, even after statistically controlling for total work hours, employees who started work earlier in the day were rated by their supervisors as more conscientious, and thus received higher performance ratings.... [T]eam leaders must come to accept that the people who use flextime to start their day late are not necessarily lazier than their early-bird colleagues. Otherwise, flextime policies that could serve both employees and employers well will become known, and avoided, as routes to dead-end careers." (Christopher M. Barnes, Kai Chi Yam and Ryan Fehr in Harvard Business Review Blog Network)  

Some Young Health Insurance Enrollees May Pose More Risks Than Expected
"The new individual customers who completed health assessments are also showing a higher percentage of chronic conditions like diabetes, depression and asthma. The trends may be similar at other large insurers around the country.... While BCBSNC may have been expecting 50 percent of enrollees to be kids or young adults and other insurers may been hoping for similar proportions, the new populations of insurance customers were always expected to have greater-than-average health needs and bring new waves of utilization." (Healthcare Payer News)  

One Health Insurer Wants a 6.8% Rate Cut But Another Wants a 26% Rate Hike -- Why?
"In Virginia, insurers are seeking rate increases ranging from 3.3 percent to 14.9 percent in the individual market. In Washington State the range is even bigger: Insurers have requested between a 6.8 percent rate decrease and a 26 percent increase in rates.... The 2015 rates will be an interesting study of how insurers are adjusting after the first Obamacare enrollment period, which marked a huge shift for the industry." (The Washington Post; subscription may be required)  

How Will 2015 Health Insurance Premiums Compare to 2014?
"[W]hile some insurers are seeing 2014 enrollee demographics fairly similar to what they projected, others are seeing an older-than-expected enrollee population. Any available medical claims data will need to be adjusted to reflect any expectations that individuals enrolling later during the open enrollment period are healthier.... [If] actual experience regarding the risk profile of 2014 enrollees differs from assumptions and losses occur in 2014, insurers cannot recoup past losses through higher future premiums. Instead, assumptions for 2015 will be reset incorporating available 2014 experience." (Health Affairs Blog)  

[Opinion]

Senate Republican Health Plan Would Likely Result in More Uninsured and Fewer Protections for Consumers
"[B]ased on the public information available, the Burr-Coburn-Hatch plan likely would: [1] Add substantially to the ranks of the uninsured and the underinsured by causing millions of people to lose their existing coverage and by making (or leaving) coverage unaffordable for many people of limited means through changes that would cause their premiums, co-payments, and other out-of-pocket charges to climb significantly; ... and [2] Eliminate or significantly weaken health reform's consumer protections and market reforms, especially for people with pre-existing conditions." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)  

[Guidance Overview]

IRS Issues Final Regs on Tax Treatment of Qualified Retirement Plan Distributions to Pay for Accident or Health Insurance Premiums
"Under the final regulations, beginning in 2015, payments by qualified retirement plans for accident or health insurance are treated as taxable distributions. However, amounts that are used to pay premiums for disability insurance that replace retirement contributions are not taxable if they meet certain requirements." (Practical Law Company)  

IRS Embarks on 409A Audits: Staying in Shallow Waters?
"[It] appears the initiative is targeted primarily at traditional nonqualified deferred compensation plans, or 'top hat' plans ... If so, the scope of these audits would be relatively comfortable for both the Service and the employers because Section 409A, to the extent it is ever straightforward, applies most understandably and objectively to traditional top hat plans." (Winston & Strawn LLP)  

Health Care Cost Institute to Develop Online Platform to Help Consumers, Employers and Regulators Examine the Price and Quality of Health Care Services
Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI)

CalPERS Launches Search for Chief Investment Officer
CalPERS [California Public Employees' Retirement System]

ShareBuilder 401k Celebrates Small Business Week by Waiving 401(k) Set-Up Costs May 12 - May 23, 2014
ShareBuilder 401k

BrightScope Announces Social Influence Rank for Financial Advisors
BrightScope

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