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Pension Risk Perspective: Insight for Corporate Defined Benefit Plan Sponsors

"The more recent view of pension risk management focuses on the funded status of a plan. This view contemplates both the assets and liabilities of a plan together, and how they behave relative to one another. When pension risk is viewed this way, various approaches can be utilized to manage contribution and/or funded status volatility. The approaches take several forms, from the design of plans to investment strategy to liability transfers."

Wall Street Journal and Credit Suisse 'Union Pension Bomb' Is Long on Drama, Short on Insight (PDF)

"The May 15, 2012 Wall Street Journal editorial entitled 'The Union Pension Bomb' and the Credit Suisse report to which it refers may provide an eye-catching headline, but it contains numerous factual inaccuracies and misleading statements regarding multiemployer plans.... Rather than acknowledging the long-term nature of pension obligations and the market fluctuations that will produce periodic and transitory periods of over- or underfunding, [the editorial] chose to capitalize on the anomalies produced by artificially low interest rates, overly influenced by monetary policies intended to stimulate low-cost borrowing, at the expense of those institutions and individuals whose long-term financial survival is dependent on savings and historically dependable fixed income instruments. The sensationalism of these conclusions may play well to those whose interests are served by eliminating any sense of corporate responsibility to the workers whose efforts are as much a contributing factor to the companies' success as those who provide the capital, but no one should be fooled by this shameless and opportunistic characterization of the current rates as market driven 'risk-free' rates, appropriate for such conclusions."

Annuity and Life Insurance Product Update

"This quarterly slide deck examines new product releases from annuity carriers and life insurers covered in [the Corporate Insight] Annuity Monitor and Life Insurance Monitor research services.... [It provides] a rundown of the new products introduced on the firms' websites in the fourth quarter of 2015 and highlight their key features [along with] an overview of all releases by product type for 2015."

This Is Not a Bill: User Perspective on EOBs

"When faced with a document they can't decode, members often disengage until a problem (like an unexpected bill) forces them back in. This defensive strategy might protect users' mental bandwidth in the short term, but the accompanying 'avoidance penalty' leads to real costs on both sides. Confused members delay payments, call support more often, and dispute bills they don't understand. They also lose the ability to plan for healthcare expenses or make confident care decisions -- leaving them frustrated and financially uncertain."

2025 Health Plan Experience Benchmarks Reveal Significant Mobile Improvement

"Health insurers accelerated their mobile app investments over the past 12 months, with nearly universal improvements in member experience scores as organizations race to meet consumer expectations shaped by retail and banking apps ... The industry average mobile score rose from 57 to 63 points (out of 100), while desktop scores improved from 67 to 70 points—showing mobile’s faster pace of advancement."

Mobile, AI, and Beyond: Trends and the Future of Retirement Plan Digital Experiences

"Digital experiences are increasingly important in RFPs and are winning and losing firms millions of dollars.... [C]ustomers have come to expect that they should be able to accomplish anything from their phone that they can do from a computer. This has objectively seeped into how retirement plan participants track and manage their retirement accounts[.]"

The Dodd-Frank Act: Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation (PDF)

4 pages. Excerpt: [The article provides] insight on the effects the Dodd-Frank Act are having on corporate governance and executive compensation practices at public companies. [Reprinted with permission from Financier Worldwide Limited].

Pharmacy Firms Add Pets to Digital Platforms

"While pharmacies commonly allow members to add a dependent to their account, retail pharmacy Kroger Pharmacy and online pharmacy DiRx uniquely offer pet profiles. With these profiles, pet owners can conveniently manage, order and refill their prescriptions, along with their pets', from a single account."

Retirement Competitive Benchmarking: Participant and Sponsor

"Recordkeepers increasingly leverage virtual assistants to bolster the self-service experience and serve as a navigational aid ... Leaders in Plan Health offer robust functionality, customization and tailored recommendations, but recent changes forecast the increasing value of design enhancements."

A Corporate Take on the GM/UAW VEBA

Excerpt: Larry Cunningham (George Washington), guest-blogging over at the Conglomerate Blog, has an insightful analysis of the voluntary employee benefit associations being set up by GM to have unions handle retiree health liabilities.