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Are Employee Benefit Plan Meeting Minutes Vital?

"Not only are plan amendments and meeting minutes vital for documenting adherence with ERISA and demonstrating meeting fiduciary obligations under ERISA, these documents also provide your auditors with information they will need to properly plan and execute your plan audit. Maintaining these documents and providing them early to your auditors will provide for a smoother and more efficient audit."

Investors Increasingly Consider Annuities 'Vital' to Retirement Plan

"In the past year, annuities have become more widely accepted as a vital part of a retirement strategy, according to survey by the Insured Retirement Institute and Cogent Research. Seventy-three percent of annuity owners and 17% of non-owners agreed that annuities are an important part of a retirement strategy, compared to 55% and 8%, respectively a year earlier ... While guaranteed income, advisor recommendation, and tax deferral continue to top the list of reasons to purchase annuities, inflation is becoming an increasing concern for investors. One percent of investors cited inflation protection as a reason to purchase an annuity that year, but that reached 6% this year."

Comments on Aetna's 'Vital Savings on Health' -- Offering Discount Cards to Small Employers

Excerpt: So Aetna's 'Vital Savings on Health' program is the next best thing to insurance: a card ensuring that patients will receive the same discount that Aetna receives from its PPO contracted physicians. This program should appeal especially to small businesses since the cost is lower than PPO plans which small businesses are finding to be less and less affordable each year.

2022 Health Savings Account Account Balances, Contributions, Distributions, and Other Vital Statistics

"HSA balances continued to increase over the course of the year, despite higher spending on health care.... Accounts that received an employer contribution saw higher total contributions and were more likely to invest.... Most accountholders took a distribution in 2022.... Relatively few HSAs are invested.... Age and tenure play a major role in HSA utilization."

Third-Party Risk Management Is a Vital Fiduciary Discipline

"[M]any third-party vendors now delegate primary functions to other contractors. These 4th (and nth) party 'subservice' vendors often escape the monitoring required of operations managers and plan committees by federal retirement and health plan laws.... The delegation tactics used by employee benefit plan service providers place a premium on third-party risk management (TPRM) as a strategy."

Health Savings Account Balances, Contributions, Distributions, and Other Vital Statistics, 2021

"Despite a rebound in out-of-pocket health care spending in 2021, HSA balances increased on average over the course of the year.... Accounts that received an employer contribution saw higher total contributions and were more likely to invest.... Most accountholders took a distribution in 2021.... Age and tenure play a major role in HSA utilization."

Why Account Consolidation Is Vital in Reducing 401(k) Cybersecurity Risk

"A key principle in loss prevention is that 'big frauds start small.' ... In recent years, there's been a very well-documented explosion of both small-balance 401k accounts and small-balance IRAs, which can present tempting targets, as system controls and monitoring can often be lax."

Health Savings Account Balances, Contributions, Distributions, and Other Vital Statistics

"Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, HSA accountholders continue to build up savings in their HSAs.... Accounts that received an employer contributions showed several signs of optimal usage, including higher total contributions and greater likelihood of investments other than cash.... More than half of HSAs experienced a distribution in 2020. However, most accountholders who did take distributions from their HSAs withdrew small amounts."

Health Savings Account Balances, Contributions, Distributions, and Other Vital Statistics, 2019

"The average end-of-year balance ($2,672) was higher than the average beginning-of-year balance ($2,187). The average balance increase was even larger when analyzing only accounts that had received either an employee or employer contribution in 2019 ($2,232, increasing to $3,055).... Accounts that received an employer contribution had higher total contributions ($2,846 vs. $2,455) and more frequently contained investments other than cash (9 percent vs. 7 percent).... 63 percent of HSAs experienced a distribution in 2019."

ERISA Preemption: A Vital Protection for Health Coverage

"As the American workforce becomes increasingly diverse, today's employees need and benefit from ERISA's preemption of inconsistent and overlapping state laws more than ever. By mitigating the harmful cost and health consequences of a patchwork of state regulation, ERISA preemption prevents disparities in coverage and benefits that would otherwise disadvantage employees in certain states."