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retirement advisory services corp
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Choate Hall & Stewart
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Understanding Fiduciary Services, and Investment Policy Statements
March 26, 2014 in CT
(National Institute of Pension Administrators-CT Chapter)

401(k) Plan Workshop 2014, April-June, 22 Cities
April 22, 2014 in WI
(SunGard Relius)

PPA Document In-depth Review
April 23, 2014 WEBCAST
(ASCi)

Tax Forms Workshop: 5500 and More, April-June, 22 Cities,
April 23, 2014 in MO
(SunGard Relius)

DGEM Document System Review
May 7, 2014 WEBCAST
(ASCi)

PPA Pre-Approved Plans Workshop - Corbel and PPD Documents, May-June, 12 Cities
May 7, 2014 in MN
(SunGard Relius)

2014 IRA Institute
October 6, 2014 in AZ
(Ascensus)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

Privacy and Security of Protected Health Information: HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule and Stakeholder Considerations (PDF)
12 pages. Excerpt: "[HIPAA] greatly expands privacy and security standards, compliance actions, breach notification steps, and penalties. The new regulations allow for fines of more than $1 million for health record breaches. The permanent HIPAA audit program commences in 2014. The importance of ongoing risk analysis is a central feature of these audits. 5 In September 2013, the Omnibus Final Rule became enforceable. Industry stakeholders should consider evaluating their HIPAA privacy and security controls as soon as possible." (Deloitte Center for Health Solutions)

[Advert.]

Employer's Guide to Health Care Reform, 2014 Edition

A comprehensive book to help employers in strategizing and updating their health and welfare benefit plans to comply with ACA. You'll find step-by-step guidance to help you keep pace with the rapid changes affecting your health plans. Order Now!

IRS Issues Final Rules on Employer and Individual Mandate Reporting
"Reporting entities can furnish the statement [to employees] electronically, but only if the responsible individual has specifically consented to receiving the statement electronically. If the statement is furnished on a website, the furnisher must separately notify the responsible individual, provide instructions on how to access and print the document, and include the statement 'IMPORTANT TAX RETURN DOCUMENT AVAILABLE.' That statement must appear as the subject line if the notice is provided by e-mail." (HighRoads)

Navigator Resource Guide on Private Health Insurance Coverage and the Health Insurance Marketplace
"[T]his guide is intended to supplement the Navigator training available from HHS and help answer questions people may have about the private insurance reforms in the Affordable Care Act. This comprehensive resource addresses more than 230 enrollment questions about everything from tax credits and cost standards to enrollment periods, and more." (Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms, via Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)

Insurers Wary of Obamacare Unknowns as They Plan for 2015
"For 2015, insurers must describe their health plans and proposed rates to state and federal regulators starting in April and May. But before they do, some of the most important factors that go into those decisions may not be known, from the size of the doctor and hospital networks that the federal government will approve to final 2014 enrollment figures and the relative health of their new plan holders." (Reuters)

Who Has Been Looking for Information in the ACA Marketplaces? Why and How?
"Over one-quarter of nonelderly adults had either looked for information or planned to look for information on health insurance plans in the Marketplaces as of December 2013.... Adults targeted by and expected to benefit from the ACA reforms -- particularly lower-income individuals, adults with nongroup coverage, and the uninsured -- were more likely to have looked for or planned on looking for information in the Marketplaces than their respective reference groups[.]" (Urban Institute Health Policy Center)

[Advert.]

Why Is This Guy Still on My Health Plan?

This March 27 webinar will discuss how to formally investigate whether the right individuals are participating in your plan, and how to address a participant or beneficiary who should not have been initially enrolled. Special BenefitsLink discount .

A Slowdown in Latest Obamacare Enrollment Numbers
"About 943,000 people got health plans through healthcare.gov and state exchanges [in February 2014], fewer than in January or December ... The increase brought total enrollment to 4.2 million, a month before the March 31 deadline to secure coverage.... Most people signing up are over age 35. The mix hasn't changed a whole lot since the fall, though a slightly higher proportion of young adults enrolled in January and February." (Bloomberg Businessweek)

HHS Issues February Exchange Enrollment Report
"There are a number of questions the enrollment report does not answer. The first is how many individuals who selected a plan were previously uninsured. This is apparently not a question that is being asked of enrollees. A recent McKinsey report found that only ten percent of the exchange-coverage-eligible uninsured individuals surveyed had signed up for coverage for 2014, and of those who had signed up for coverage in February, only 27 percent were previously uninsured.... In any event, the exchanges seem to be having an impact on insurance coverage." (Timothy Jost in Health Affairs Blog)

Marketplace Open Enrollment Process by the Numbers
"This infographic summarizes key enrollment-related information for the first five months of the Health Insurance Marketplace initial open enrollment period, as cited in ' Health Insurance Marketplace: March Enrollment Report ,' ASPE Issue Brief ... March 11, 2014[.]" (Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

Health Insurance Marketplace: March Enrollment Report (PDF)
26 pages. Excerpt: "This brief includes updated data on the characteristics of persons who have selected a Marketplace plan (by gender, age, and financial assistance status) and the plans that they have selected (by metal level); as well as additional data on the characteristics of people who have selected plans in the FFM and the plans they have selected.... Cumulative enrollment-related activity during the first five months of the initial open enrollment period is reported for several metrics, including: the number of visits to the Marketplace websites, the number of calls to the Marketplace call centers, the number of persons who have been determined or assessed eligible by the Marketplaces for Medicaid or [CHIP], and the number of persons who have selected a plan through the Marketplace." [ Infographic also available.] (Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

National Committee for Quality Assurance to Overhaul Health Plan Accreditation
"In particular, the NCQA is focusing on two areas: provider networks, something federal regulators are promising more oversight for, and provider quality, something that both insurers and regulators are trying to more effectively communicate to members and insurance exchange shoppers. With narrow networks accounting for half of public exchange plans in at least 13 states ... and with many exchange shoppers willing to accept narrow networks if they bring affordability ... the NCQA 'feels it is necessary to introduce a standardized method of monitoring the quality of these networks.'" (Healthcare Payer News)

Report to NAIC on the Impact of Risk Adjustment, Reinsurance, and Risk Corridors on Health Risk-Based Capital (PDF)
"Estimating the net effect on the resulting assets and liabilities from these three mechanisms is difficult and creates the risk that ACA-compliant individual and small-group net income may be understated or overstated in their respective contributions to capital and surplus.... There are two risks associated with each 3Rs estimate: the risk of misestimation and the risk of collection of receivables ... there are risk mitigators and potential minimums and maximums to the assets, liabilities, and aggregate impact associated with the 3Rs that may be considered as an indication of the potential magnitude of the misestimation." (American Academy of Actuaries)

Replace Obamacare, Stat!
"With a uniform tax credit, 90 percent of the problems the Obamacare exchanges are now having would go away in a flash. Signing up for insurance would be easy. Insurance companies and brokers would be able to sign people up outside the exchanges without asking privacy-invading questions about their income and assets.... Further, with a tax-credit approach, employers and employees would no longer face perverse incentives to buy wasteful insurance. (Under the current system, the more costly the insurance, the greater the tax benefit.) Instead, they could buy insurance that meets their core needs and increase take-home pay with the savings, with no tax penalty. This would lower the cost of employment and encourage hiring." (National Review)

Obamacare's Secret Mandate Exemption
"HHS originally defined and reserved hardship exemptions for the truly down and out ... But amid the post-rollout political backlash, last week the agency created a new category: Now all you need to do is fill out a form attesting that your plan was cancelled and that you 'believe that the plan options available in the (ObamaCare) Marketplace in your area are more expensive than your cancelled health insurance policy' or 'you consider other available policies unaffordable.' ... [T]hese shifting legal benchmarks offer an exemption to everyone who conceivably wants one." (The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, December 2013 (PDF)
"Private industry employers spent an average of $29.63 per hour worked for total employee compensation in December 2013 ... Wages and salaries averaged $20.76 per hour worked and accounted for 70.1 percent of these costs, while benefits averaged $8.87 and accounted for the remaining 29.9 percent.... Private industry employer costs averaged $2.45 per hour worked for insurance benefits (life, health, and disability insurance), or 8.3 percent of total compensation. In addition to insurance, ... retirement and savings ... averaged $1.10 per hour (3.7 percent)." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Financial Planning Considerations for Same-Sex Couples After Windsor
12 pages. Excerpt: "As a result of the new ruling, employee benefits and financial planning strategies once available only to opposite-sex married couples may now be available to same-sex married couples. This paper highlights several of the changes that have taken place, and details how same-sex couples may wish to incorporate them into their financial planning." [Includes a checklist; updated March 2014.] (Prudential Retirement)

2013 SEC Comment Letter Trends: Pensions and Other Postretirement Benefits (PDF)
14 pages. Excerpt: "[The authors] have prepared this publication to assist management teams in identifying and understanding the SEC staff's current focus related to pensions and OPEB. The information summarized within this publication is based on comment letters published by the SEC staff between January 1, 2013 and September 15, 2013 related to pensions and OPEB. [They] have highlighted the more prevalent issues commented on by the SEC staff and provided relevant examples of recent comments to aid preparers in ensuring their disclosures are robust and consistent with the accounting, valuation, and reporting guidance for pensions and OPEB." (PricewaterhouseCoopers)

'Substantial Risk of Forfeiture' Clarification Impacts Restricted Property (Stock) Grants
"The final regulations will have the most direct impact on employers who have granted awards of restricted stock or other restricted property on or after January 1, 2013. That is because the regulations stress the need for these agreements to contain a service or performance-based vesting condition that is not substantially certain to be satisfied.... [T]he final regulations generally offer 'clarifications' of the former regulations rather than new guidance. Still, it is important that affected employers review their restricted stock arrangements and determine whether they should take additional action." (Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP)

Tax Reform Proposal Takes Aim at Executive Compensation
"Congressman Camp's proposal includes the elimination of tax deductions for commission payments and qualified performance-based compensation under Section 162(m) ... the narrowing of the 'substantial risk of forfeiture' concept as applied to nonqualified deferred compensation under Code Section 409A; the imposition of a penalty excise tax on the payment of 'excess' compensation and certain golden parachute payments to service providers of tax-exempt organizations; and the denial of corporate tax deductions for stock transferred pursuant to incentive stock option plans." (Proskauer's ERISA Practice Center)

Five-Year Trends Point to the Link Between Benefits Education and Business Success
"Employees' ratings of their benefits packages have remained consistent since 2008. About half rate their benefits as excellent or very good. But about 20% rate them poor or fair.... When it comes time to enroll in benefits, the most frequently used method is online with no assistance (48%), followed by a paper form (33%). People generally also said they preferred these methods. However, 45% of employees said they would like assistance from their benefits staff or another benefits expert. Unfortunately, only 20% reported that help was available." (Unum)

Financial Professionals Rank The Principal No. 1 for Plan Sponsor Support Principal Financial Group

ING U.S. Becomes Service Provider for the Angell Pension Group Retirement Savings Program ING U.S.

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