| | Benefits & Administration | | Self-Funding, Stop-Loss Insurance Gaining Attraction | | One could certainly see the attractiveness of
fully insured health benefits—employers know their set costs each month and can
budget for them, and responsibility for administration and paying claims is
handed over to insurance carriers. However, increasing health care costs and
requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) are
leading more employers to consider self-funding their health benefits. “In
many, if not most, cases, a properly organized self-insurance program with
appropriate stop-loss coverage will be cheaper than a fully insured program,”
says Joseph Berardo, CEO of MagnaCare, a New York and New Jersey heath care
network, based in Red Bank, New Jersey. There are administrative and other fees
built into premium costs, he notes.Read more > | | | Products, Deals & People | | International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP
has named Elizabeth Deckman partner in the benefits and compensation group of
its Seattle office. Deckman’s practice focuses on advising companies regarding
employee benefits and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).Read more > | | Podcast Series Explores Real Estate in DC Plans | | The Defined Contribution Real Estate Council
(DCREC) launched a podcast series aimed at educating plan sponsors and advisers
about the potential benefits and risks of using commercial real estate
investments. The first two podcasts in the series are available now and feature
David Skinner, portfolio manager and head of the defined contribution practice
at Prudential Real Estate Investors, who is also a former co-president of DCREC.
According to Skinner, adding commercial real estate to a portfolio can bring
improved diversification, stronger risk-adjusted returns and lower overall
correlation to stocks and bonds. Skinner suggests commercial real estate also
has the ability to generate income and act as a potential inflation hedge in
the defined contribution plan context.Read more > | | Transamerica Retirement Solutions has adopted
RiskFirst’s real-time analytics and reporting platform, PFaroe, for use in
coordination with plan sponsor clients and its advisory partners. RiskFirst’s
PFaroe solution allows Transamerica clients to monitor and review defined
benefit (DB) plan funding positions on a daily basis. It also allows advisers
and sponsors to work together to do deep dives into DB plan risk—including
value-at-risk (VaR) interrogation, what-if analysis, and stress-testing against
historic market events.Read more > |
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