Exante to Offer VEBA Trust Management

December 13, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Exante Financial Services, a provider of health-related financial services and a business unit of UnitedHealth Group, announced it will begin managing medical trusts for voluntary employees' beneficiary associations (VEBAs).

The announcement said Exante’s November acquisition of Administration Resources Corporation (ARC) strengthens its ability to offer an integrated solution that encompasses both health- and banking-related VEBA services. ARC offers VEBA-related recordkeeping and administration, claims reimbursement, and regulatory compliance services.

More information is at  www.exantefinancialservices.com .

Employers are increasingly looking to VEBAs to fund current and future health care expenses for employees and retirees, Exante said. Recent negotiations between GM and the United Auto Workers (UAW) resulted in a VEBA trust for retiree health care obligations (See GM and UAW Agree to Retiree Health Care Trust ).

New Government Accounting Standards Board regulations requiring large governments to apply the same accounting standards used for pension liabilities to payments and services provided for retirees other than pensions (See GASB Issues New Standards for Post-Retirement Benefits ) are leading governments to assess their unfunded health care liabilities (See NJ Faces $58B Retiree Health Care Tab with no Fund Pool ).

The California Public Employees Retirement System recently approved a plan to pre-fund its retiree health care liabilities (See CalPERS Approves Plan for Pre-funding Health Benefits ).

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