05/09/2012    10:30 am - 11:00 am

Introduction to IHR Benefits, Cost Containment, Audits and Legal Risk

Presenters:
Diana Vallee (HR.com)

Welcome to the Institute for Human Resources Benefits: Cost Containment, Audits and Legal Risks. Thank you to everyone for your participation and support. The Institute is committed to furthering the deploying and adoption of best practices across the Benefit vertical. The Institute provides an opportunity to bring together industry thought leaders in a year-long community that promotes best practices among vendors and HR Professionals with a series of research, webcasts, presentations, virtual events, awards and market research. The next two days mark the fifth virtual event for this great community. We have a very exciting event planned for you with many informative sessions covering the hot topics and trends in this exciting space.

This introduction to the event will give you an overview of the Institute for Human Resources certification program as it specifically relates to Benefits Cost Containment, Audits and Legal Risks. You will be introduced to the Advisory Board, learn about the opportunity to become certified within the IHR and see who is speaking and their topics. You will be given guidance on how to chat online with colleagues and access the virtual exhibit hall. You will have the opportunity to ask questions as it relates to the overall program, prior to its commencement. You can access all of the archived sessions where we launched this Institute in May, 2011 with 16 sessions followed by additonal events in August, November and February, 2012. The Institute will be offering in total over 80 hours of content over the 12 month period. There will be two more virtual events in 2012, August 7 & 8 and November 7 & 8. There will also be 2 webcasts per month with additional content and best practices. This virtual event introduction is not eligible for an HRCI credit.

05/09/2012    11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Perspective on Disability Insurance for Highly/Variable Compensated Employees

Presenters:
Alfred V Norton III (Charter Oak Insurance and Financial Services Co.)

The American College and MassMutual commissioned the study, Employer Perspectives on Disability Benefits, in order to better understand what employers are offering in disability coverage and to identify potential shortfalls and gaps in these offerings. The study was conducted by the Boston Research Group, a leading strategic market research and consulting firm specializing in the financial services industry. Benefit managers, or those most familiar with their company’s group long term disability plan, were interviewed by telephone. From a list of the 3,000 largest companies, 316 interviews were completed. Key findings overview highlights the responses of the companies interviewed for this study.

Overview of findings will be presented including the Base Disability Plan, Potential Coverage Gaps, the ability to purchase Buy-Up coverage within Group Plans and finally the purchase of Supplemental Individual Coverage.

Topical highlights include the following:
Base Disability Plan-the typical benefit amount of a group disability plan is less than the employee’s salary – 60 percent on average. In most cases, the benefit is taxable – further reducing the amount an employee would receive.
Potential Coverage Gaps- variable compensation (such as bonuses) in most cases are not covered.
Buy-Up Disability Coverage-For employees of most companies, the somewhat limited base plan is the only option. However, a few companies offer “buy-up” coverage, paid for by the employee, usually with after-tax dollars.
Supplemental Individual Disability Coverage- Supplemental individual coverage offers the opportunity to customize a long-term disability solution for an individual to help meet his or her unique needs.

Generally speaking, benefits managers regard their group long-term disability plan as an important part of their company’s benefit package. However, they feel that employees don’t necessarily feel as strongly. Insurance is an intangible product that can’t be seen, felt or tasted. Experienced benefits managers are more likely to have observed real-life cases of disability claims and understand the difference insurance can make to an individual and his or her family.
What makes a good group long-term disability plan? It depends on many things, such as a company’s size or its culture. Disability coverage offers a combination of many options to help protect an employee’s ability to earn an income. Plan decisions are best considered carefully and re-evaluated frequently.

05/09/2012    11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Who Said Cafeteria Flex Plans were Easy?

Presenters:
Nathan Carlson (24HourFlex)

This presentation will review the basics of Cafeteria plans; explain the change of status rules and nondiscrimination tests that each Cafeteria Plan must annually pass; show how Cafeteria Plans can integrate with HSAs; explain the various definitions of a "dependent" and how these definitions apply differently to health plans, Cafeteria plans, and HSAs; and explain how COBRA applies to Medical Flexible Spending Accounts.

Cafeteria plans provide tremendous tax savings to employers and employees. These amazing plans are the only employee benefit plan whereby the employer can actually make money through their FICA tax savings! However, in exchange for the marvelous tax benefits these plans provide, Congress requires that these plans comply with many specific rules.

While describing the basic structure and requirements of Cafeteria plans, this presentation takes you much deeper into the subject. We will examine how these plans can integrate with an HSA. We will study how and when COBRA applies to the Cafeteria Medical Flexible Spending Account.

Last, we will review the various "dependent" definitions. There are actually four different definitions that apply separately to health plans, HSAs, and dependent care plans. In other words, an "eligible dependent" on your company's health plan may not be an "eligible dependent" in an HSA.

It can be confusing. Join me, Nathan Carlson, President and owner of 24HourFlex.com and a professional with over 25 years of experience as I explain these important rules in understandable terms. Although this is the first time that I have presented on HR.com, I conduct about 30 continuing education seminars each year to the HR and brokerage community.

05/09/2012    12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Implementing Cost Saving Benefit Strategies While Increasing Employees Perceived Value of Benefits

Presenters:
Nadine Dwan (TWIW Insurance Services)
Jeremy Lurey (Plus Delta Consulting, LLC)

Many of today’s employees are accustomed to employer provided rich benefit packages with high employer contributions. They are also more benefit savvy as more vendor benefit communication is being directed at the individual versus the employer.

In a time where the average employee has come to expect growing benefits packages and high employer contributions, how do organizations that can no longer afford to maintain this trend make changes without causing discontent among the employee population?

There is no lack of discussion surrounding what more HR executives must do to please both the executive team and the employee population. The Human Resource Department realizes that it must get used to the trend of doing more with fewer resources but how can it continue to do this efficiently and cost effectively? To whom can you turn for proper guidance and to help you accomplish these tasks? In this informative webcast, we will address these questions as well as the questions below.

Please join me, Nadine Dwan, Employee Benefits Advisor at Beneflex Insurance Services as I address the following:

1) How much of employees' perceived value of benefits is due to employee benefit communication and service level versus actual wealth of available benefits?

2) What are proper benchmarks to justify changes to employee benefit offerings and contribution levels?

3) How to communicate these benchmarks to employees?

4) How to communicate to employees the true cost of providing benefits?

5) How to increase employees' perceived value of the benefits you offer?

6) Who should be involved in benefit cost saving strategies and communication of changes to your employees?

05/09/2012    1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Long Term Care Insurance as a Voluntary Benefit

Presenters:
Diana Vallee (HR.com)

Long Term Care is one of the biggest issues facing our country. Over 90% of baby boomers have made no plans for the expense of long term care, even though they are turning 65 at the rate of around 10,000 per day. This presentation will discuss the impact that’s likely to have on employees and their families, their employers and governments. Employees that are caregivers cost businesses due to absenteeism, presenteeism, lost productivity and higher than average health care requirements. Government budgets are affected due to the fact that when people deplete their assets to pay for long term care expenses they are forced to rely on welfare.

The presentation will discuss the probability of needing care, the cost of that care, and how to plan for the cost. Long Term Care insurance will be discussed as one possible option in planning for long term care. We will look at gaps in health care insurance, and how Long Term Care insurance can fill those gaps, even for younger employees. We will examine what MediCare and Medicaid will pay for and what they won’t pay for.

Most previous attempts to offer long term care insurance at the workplace have used Group LTC products and have not been successful. This presentation will introduce Multi-Life products and discuss the advantages of this product. It will also show how to ensure a successful rollout, not only among the older employees, but also with younger employees, spouses and even extended family members. Unless the spouses and other family members are covered, you haven’t truly protected your business from the impact of a long term care event.

We will look at how a long term care insurance policy works; how to design a policy, what it covers, when it begins paying benefits, and how much it costs.

We will discuss the different ways that Long Term Care insurance can be offered at the workplace. This includes an executive carve-out for only the top executives, a totally voluntary plan, a combination of a base plan or a full plan for top executives plus a voluntary offering to the rank and file, a base plan for all or some employees or a contribution toward plans for all or some employees. We will discuss the advantages of offering a plan through the worksite, including the preferential tax treatment that LTC premiums are given by the IRS.

Even if your company has previously rolled out a long term care benefit in the past, you may want to attend, as it may be in your company’s interest to roll out a new Multi-Life offering, especially if the first rollout had a poor participation rate. This would give your employees who didn’t take advantage of it the first time around a new window for Simplified Underwriting. If your company purchased a base plan for employees, and very few of them bought up to a meaningful level of benefits with inflation protection, you will benefit from attending this presentation. You may discover a way to better utilize those corporate dollars.

05/09/2012    2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Mobile Technology and Insurance : Pension and Group Benefits

Presenters:
Scott Warner (Chartis Insurance /AIG)

You have a benefits program. Your employees have smartphones. Now what? Attend this presentation to learn how mobile technology will change insurance and employee benefits forever. On demand Real-Time and finally the potential for a fully integrated health records systems encompassing Government health plans and private health insurance. This presentation will cover, among other things;
What will change in the delivery of my benefit program?
How will mobile devices enhance personal health?
Will this brave new world help eliminate fraud in benefits?
How will my pension plan use mobile technology
Beyond the Smartphone (Hint you will likely wear it)
This presentation will review emerging standards in mHealth, and how benefit programs can use this to lower employer costs. Stretched thin – organizations and human resources will learn about this new platform for program management, and how to lower administration overhead by using and effectively deploying not just Apps to smartphones but components of a fully integrated health system, major medical to sundry and consumer medical devices, this presentation will review why this new technology may be the most important weapon in the fit against obesity in the western world.
Moving to a voluntary set of coverages will never be the same as the ease of communication and engagement allowed by the Smartphone and future devices places actionable control of their plans in the hands of employees and their families.
Apps everywhere but will Apps be the true future of mobile and will they deliver what employers and plan sponsor need with respect to pensions and benefits?

05/09/2012    3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

The Latest APP For Retirement Planning - The Adjustable Pension Plan

Presenters:
Richard Hudson (Cheiron Inc)

The Adjustable Pension Plan (APP) is designed to mitigate the various risks that have caused many pension plans to shutdown over the past decades. Americans need a secure way to provide lifetime income during retirement and the current defined contribution plans will not provide a safe level income stream throughout the retirement years. This plan creates a partnership with the employers and employees by sharing the investment risk of the pension plan and moving towards a lower risk investment pool.
The basic plan design provides a flat dollar or career average pay formula for the participants. This benefit is developed after determining what level of contributions are available to fund the plan. This information is used to determine the cost of the plan and develop the ultimate benefit level that can be sustained by the employer’s contribution level. The costs are developed using very conservative assumptions to provide more certainty that the benefits promised can be delivered. This benefit is referred to as the Floor Benefit and will provide a minimum level of benefit to the participants. The Adjustable Benefit will be tied to overall investment performance of the fund. The participant gets the greater of the Floor Benefit or Adjustable Benefit.
The APP considers the following risks that are inherent in typical defined benefit plans today:
• Investment Risk
• Maturity Risk
• Mortality Risk
• Inflation Risk

The studies we have performed show the Adjustable Pension Plan is a sustainable model for providing secure retirement income for life and has a high probability of delivering a benefit higher than the promised floor benefit. It provides a risk sharing element to create a partnership between the interested parties and considers the risks that have hurt many retirement plans during the past decades.

05/09/2012    3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

July 1st 2012 - When FREE Becomes Expensive, 408 b2 & 404 a5. What HR & Plan Sponsors Need to Know

Presenters:
James Holland (MillenniuM Investment & Retirement Advisors, LLC)

On July 1st, 2012 72 million Americans are going to find out their 401k/403b is not free. Service Providers are going to be sending information to Plan Sponsors who in turn will have to decipher this information to send out to each participant in their plan. What is required in these disclosures? How must they be sent out? Is our plan ERISA Compliant? Where do I go to get information on how to better understand the information my Service Providers send me? What happens if the provider is late in sending the information? Are there sources out there to help me? In what format must these disclosures be made? What information must be in the disclosure? All of these questions and more will be addressed during the webinar so Plan Sponsors & HR can be proactive and get out in front of the new disclosure rules. Fee disclosure is one of the biggest changes we have seen in the ERISA space and the responsibility and liability is enormous. Every HR & Finance professional who at any point in time during the year has their finger prints on the 401k/403b must attend this program. The Retirement Plan is set up solely for the benefit of the participants and their beneficiaries; this is clearly stated in ERISA. ERISA also clearly states that if you are a Responsible Plan Fiduciary (RPF) and you are not an expert in ERISA, you are required to hire an independent, un-conflicted qualified expert to help you. There are going to be plan participants lined up outside HR demanding answers to why they are just learning about these expenses now. How long have I been paying these? Who gets these fees? What did I get in return for these fees? Is this the best plan possible? Are there less expensive options out there? How did you decide to choose these vendors? Who actually makes that decision? What is my recourse if I am not satisfied with the answers I am getting? Fee disclosure is going to be a very complicated issue, no one Human Resource professional needs to answer alone. Join us for this webinar and come find out who is available to help guide you through this very detailed and complicated process.