Products July 21, 2016

Mercer Adds Trends Data to MercerInsight

Mercer suggests the Trends module will be updated on a quarterly basis with real data on investment manager searches, enabling users to create custom reporting and filtering.

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Mercer has announced a significant enhancement to its MercerInsight platform, centered around the development and launch of a new Trends module providing key information about investment manager searches and product fees.

“By providing quarterly manager search activity reported by Mercer consultants and real time data for fees, the Trends module enables institutional investors and asset managers to gain insight into the investment mandate activities of Mercer’s institutional clients and search trends around the world,” the firm explains. Clients can also “compare fees to those of other investment managers in aggregate by asset class, vehicle type, account size, among other data.”

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As the firm explains, MercerInsight is a cloud-based platform for institutional investors and asset managers that houses quantitative and qualitative data from Mercer’s global investment research team.

“Investment managers are often interested in understanding how the fees they charge for their products compare to those of similar products offered by their competitors,” notes Cara Williams, global head of wealth management and technology solutions. “Asset owners also want to know how the fees they are paying fare against those of other providers. This new Trends module was developed with these needs in mind.”

Mercer suggests the Trends module will be updated on a quarterly basis with investment manager searches performed by Mercer, enabling users to manipulate aggregate data and create custom reporting and filtering. Data goes back to 2006, allowing users to perform longer-term analyses. However the fee information in the Trends module is “updated in real time; as soon as an investment manager updates their fees on the database, new information is generated.”

For more information, visit www.mercer.com. 

Benefits July 21, 2016

Employers ‘Doing All They Can’ to Rein in Benefits Costs

However, many are missing opportunities to leverage proven cost management strategies, according to Hub International Limited.
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Nearly two-thirds (65%) of small and mid-sized employers believe they are doing all they can to rein in rising health benefits costs, a survey by Hub International Limited (HUB) finds.

Sixty-six percent are experiencing return on investment (ROI) on their health and performance initiatives, with 35% reporting improved productivity and 34% citing improved morale. However, key benchmarks for these initiatives which include employee turnover (21%), absenteeism (18%) and chronic disease management (16%) are lagging. Seventy percent report that their strategies are reigning in benefit costs.

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More than half (51%) have implemented voluntary benefits as a cost containment strategy. However, HUB notes many are missing opportunities to leverage proven cost management strategies. Only 31% are using pharmacy carve out strategies that HUB says could save 20%. Only 18% are using self-funding, which could save 9%, and only 16% are using narrow networks, which HUB says could save 17%.

Only 58% of respondents ranked Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliance as a top priority, despite 2016 being the first year of ACA reporting and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits.  It ranked third behind employee wellness and productivity improvements (83%) as well as cost management (76%). 

While ACA compliance was not the top priority, 64% of respondents said they would struggle to stay in business as a result of ACA compliance, with 57% concerned about the burden of calculating affordability and 45% concerned about calculating full-time employees and equivalents—key red flags for IRS audits.

Collaboration between HR and finance is critical, HUB says. The survey found 78% of Finance respondents consider HR a strategic partner, but Finance has significant concerns with benefits costs (97%), HR missteps with executive liability (93%) and ACA audits (88%). Even more indicative of the relationship is that one-third of Finance expects HR to go over budget (32%), mismanage ACA reporting (34%), and pay IRS audit penalties (35%).

More than 400 senior-level human resource and finance executives at U.S. companies with 50 to 1,000 employees were surveyed. The study report, “Employee Benefits Barometer: SMB Perspectives and Priorities in an Era of Disruption,” can be downloaded from here.

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