Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in CA

Senior Defined Benefit Data Analyst
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in MA

Defined Benefit Calculation Developer
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in MA

Plan Administration/Employee Benefits/Sales Support
Columbia Benefits, LLC
in CO

Part-time Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in VA

Retirement Planning Consultant
Transamerica Retirement Solutions
in WI

Sales Assistant - Retirement Plans
Dedicated Defined Benefit Services
in CA

Director, Employee Insurance
Minnesota Management & Budget
in MN

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Ethical Considerations for Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Attorneys
September 16, 2014 WEBCAST
(West LegalEdcenter)

Self-funding with a Safety Net
September 23, 2014 WEBCAST
(WellNet)

Full Scope vs. Limited Scope Audits in Retirement Plans
September 24, 2014 WEBCAST
(Multnomah Group)

ERISA Basics of Pension Plan Fund Investments
September 25, 2014 WEBCAST
(King & Spalding LLP)

How To Avoid the Pitfalls of Disability Plan Administration -- Learning From the Mistakes of Others
October 23, 2014 WEBCAST
(Lorman Education Services)

Society of Actuaries 2014 Annual Meeting & Exhibit
October 26, 2014 in FL
(Society of Actuaries)

Wellness Programs: Navigating the Applicable Federal and State Laws
October 30, 2014 WEBCAST
(Lorman Education Services)

View All Webcasts and Conferences

Departments Provide Guidance on Contraceptive Coverage Mandate for Employers with Religious Objections (PDF)
"Notably, a religious nonprofit entity could self-administer its self-insured plan directly rather than contracting with a TPA, or engage a religious TPA that, in turn, objects to providing contraceptive coverage. In those situations, the entity's employees would appear not be able to obtain contraceptive coverage services." (Buck Consultants at Xerox)

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GASB Exposure Drafts Propose New Disclosures for OPEB
"This Bulletin summarizes the key proposed changes in the Exposure Drafts, which are intended to provide a more comprehensive picture of the costs associated with state and local governments' OPEB promises. If GASB decides to include the changes it has proposed in final Statements, sponsors of public sector plans will face significant additional work in order to prepare their financial statements." (Segal Consulting)

Simplified Options for Reporting of Employer-Sponsored Health Coverage
"While we're still waiting for clarifying instructions, employers who use this method may only have to report the employee's name, Social Security number, address and an indicator code report that a qualifying offer was made. But your organization will have to use the general reporting method for any employee who did not receive a qualifying offer for all 12 months." (Warner Norcross & Judd LLP)

September 22 Deadline Looms for HIPAA Business Associate Agreements
"Although HHS provides a sample business associate agreement, the HHS guidance encourages parties to develop and negotiate their own agreements, consistent with the regulatory content requirements. Most agreements will have similar language concerning: [1] Permitted uses and disclosures. [2] Administrative, physical and technical safeguards. [3] Termination requirements. Business associate agreements, however, will differ with respect to delegation as it is critical that agreements specify whether the covered entity will delegate breach notification obligations." (Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM])

Yes, You Are Paying a Lot More for Your Employer Health Plan Than You Used To
"While premiums in employer plans have grown 26 percent in the past five years, that's been outpaced over the same time by the 47 percent rise in the average deductible -- the amount of care a worker has to pay for before insurance kicks in. In 2014, 80 percent of people covered by employee plans faced an average annual deductible of $1,217, compared to $826 in 2009. About 41 percent of all companies have an average deductible of at least $1,000, which is a big jump from 10 percent of firms in 2006. And 18 percent of firms have average deductibles of at least $2,000, which is up from just 3 percent in 2006." (The Washington Post; subscription may be required)

Premiums for Family Health Coverage Rise 3% in 2014
"This year's increase continues a recent trend of moderate premium growth. Premiums increased more slowly over the past five years than the preceding five years (26 percent vs. 34 percent) and well below the annual double-digit increases recorded in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This year's increase also is similar to the year-to-year rise in worker's wages (2.3 percent) and general inflation (2 percent)." (Health Affairs)

Nonprofit Religious Employers to Move Forward with Lawsuits Despite Revised Contraceptive Coverage Regs
"The government says its revised system accommodates religious employers' beliefs while ensuring their employees have access to the same range of contraception methods through their insurance as other workers. It plans to offer the new arrangement to nonprofit employers and some for-profit companies with religious objections to contraception. Religious groups say the compromise remains inadequate, and the administration should allow affiliated employers to omit contraception coverage entirely from health plans, as houses of worship are allowed to do." (The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)

California Repeals 60-Day Limit on Health Insurance Waiting Periods
"The new law, effective January 1, 2015, prohibits California insurance companies from applying any 'waiting or affiliation period' under a group or individual health benefit plan. So where does that leave California employers, who are permitted under federal law (the ACA) to have a one-month orientation period and up to a 90-day waiting period? They'll be able to continue applying ACA-compliant orientation periods and waiting periods, as the law prohibits carriers -- but not employers -- from imposing a waiting period." (Proskauer's ERISA Practice Center)

Narrow Health Networks: Maybe They're Not So Bad
"The savings, researchers found, came because the plans covered doctors and hospitals that charged less than their competition. But they also came because the patients who chose the narrow networks tended to use fewer expensive health care services. Over the course of the year, they tended to see their primary care doctor more and use the emergency room less than other patients." (The New York Times; subscription may be required)

Visualizing Health Policy: The Role of Medicare Advantage
"[This infographic] provides a snapshot of the role of Medicare Advantage plans ... including information about the proportion of Medicare beneficiaries who are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, geographic differences in Medicare Advantage penetration, the trend of increasing enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans, and the concentration of enrollment within a small number of firms and affiliates. It also shows the extent that Medicare has been paying more for beneficiaries in Medicare Advantage plans than for those in traditional Medicare, although that payment differential is projected to decline." (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation)

Do Health Care Costs Fuel Economic Inequality?
"From the perspective of the more than 150 million Americans who receive health insurance through their employers, health care costs may, in fact, be widening inequality.... From 1988 to 2012, the average employer-sponsored insurance premium rose from $3,660 to $15,745. For families in the lower-income bracket, that represents an increase from 13 percent to 60 percent of average annual income. For those in the upper-income bracket, premium increases amounted only to a rise from 1.4 percent to 4.5 percent of income -- a much smaller drain on workers' take-home pay." (The Commonwealth Fund)

ACA's Effect on Coverage of Parents and Children: A First Look
"[B]etween September 2013 and June of 2014, coverage increased for parents, particularly in states that have expanded Medicaid under the ACA, but no coverage changes were yet apparent for children. This early look suggests that the ACA is contributing to coverage gains for parents, which in turn should be beneficial to both them and their children." (Health Affairs)

CBO Cost Estimate for H.R. 3522, 'Employee Health Care Protection Act of 2014'
"H.R. 3522, as amended, would allow insurers to offer group health insurance plans that they offered on any date during 2013 until December 31, 2018, regardless of whether the coverage they provide complies with the [ACA] market and benefit rules that took effect on January 1, 2014 ... CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate that enacting H.R. 3522 would increase federal revenues by a total of $1.25 billion over the fiscal years 2015 to 2024." (Congressional Budget Office [CBO])

Obamacare's Impact on Small Business Wages and Employment
"[R]esearch finds that [ACA] regulations are reducing small business (20 to 99 workers) pay by at least $22.6 billion annually. In addition, ACA regulations and rising premiums have reduced employment by more than 350,000 jobs nationwide, with five states losing more than 20,000 jobs." (American Action Forum)

The Myth of Obamacare's Affordability
"[T]he ACA's long-term impact will include about 3% less weekly employment, 3% fewer aggregate work hours, 2% less GDP and 2% less labor income. These effects will be visible and obvious by 2017, if not before.... In effect, people who aren't receiving assistance through the ACA are paying twice for the law: once as the total economic pie gets smaller and again as they receive a smaller piece." (Casey B. Mulligan, in The Wall Street Journal; subscription may be required)

House Bill Would Raise Small Business Premiums and Undercut Health Reform's Consumer Protections
"[H.R. 3522] would allow insurance companies, through 2018, to continue to offer to any small employer the health insurance plans in the small group market that the insurers were selling in 2013.... [S]uch plans would not have to comply with the [ACA's] market reforms and consumer protections that otherwise apply to all health insurance plans offered in the small group market, starting in 2014.... [The] bill would likely have serious adverse effects both on premiums in the small group market -- causing them to rise substantially for many small firms -- and on health reform's consumer protections, such as the reform that prevents insurance companies from charging higher premiums to firms with older, less healthy workforces." (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2014 (PDF)
"In June 2014, average costs in private industry for retirement and savings benefits were $1.23 per hour worked, or 4.1 percent of total compensation. The average cost per hour worked for defined benefit plans -- retirement plans that specify a benefit typically based on age, years of service, and earnings -- was 58 cents or 1.9 percent of total compensation. The average cost for defined contribution plans -- retirement plans usually based on employer contributions to individual employee accounts -- was 65 cents or 2.2 percent of total compensation." (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS])

The Accidental Fiduciary: When a Signature is More Than Just a Name
"[T]his decision is only on a motion to dismiss ... However, the ruling from the Court does seem to suggest that at least some argument can be made that company officers could be liable for fiduciary breaches unless they can demonstrate that they did not control plan assets. Therefore, it might be worthwhile for employers as plan sponsors to actually formally [separate] plan assets [and to] limit the signatory authority on those accounts to people actually intended to be plan fiduciaries." [ Perez v. Geopharma , No. 8:14-cv-66-T-33T (M.D. Fla. July 25, 2014)] (Fox Rothschild LLP)

Implementing an Effective Employee Benefits Communication Campaign (PDF)
"[It's] not as simple as saying we have 100 employees [so] we will need to send 100 letters; a campaign should be thought out, organized, and timely. The type of campaign and the communication medium used will depend on the size, structure, and culture of the company. The following steps detail how to plan and produce an effective campaign.... Planning ahead ... Ask the employees ... Develop your materials ... Announce the campaign ... From education to action ... Follow-up ... [T]he communications surrounding the program must be clear, concise, and maintain a positive tone while being completely honest" (Bryan, Pendleton, Swats & McAllister, LLC)

Envisage Information System Promotes Robert Snyder Envisage Information Systems

Cedar Brook?s Rebecca Bar-Shain, CFP?, MBA, is Selected by Women?s Choice Award? as One of Top Financial Advisors in the U.S. Cedar Brook Financial Partners

Peter Stephan & Jim Norman Drive QBI, LLC into Orange County, CA QBI, LLC

CCIIO Exchanges and Related Programs Module: Agents and Brokers Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS]

HCCI and NASHP Announce New Grant Program for State Health Reform Research Health Care Cost Institute [HCCI]

Transamerica to Offer New Education and Decision Support Tools for Self-service Enrollments Transamerica Retirement Services

Mapping Out a Worry-free Retirement: Vosberg & Associates' Total Retirement Income System Provides Integrated, Five-step, Personalized Plan Vosberg & Associates

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