Benefits June 4, 2014

Benefits Gain Value with Good Communication

June 4, 2014 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - United Benefit Advisors released a white paper that aims to teach employers how to help employees better understand their benefits.
Reported by

Colonial Life, a UBA strategic partner, conducted a survey that found three out of four employees say they need more education to understand how changes in their benefits affect their financial safety net.

How best to reach them, what they need to know and how they prefer to receive the information are tackled in “A Business Case for Benefits Communications.” The paper addresses several key areas, including:

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter.

  • Hidden Paychecks: Total compensation statements help to inform employees of what the company is providing for them. In addition to outlining wages, the statement displays the employer’s contributions to benefit plans such as medical and retirement plans.
  • Making Employees “Stewards” of the Plan: Sharing the financials associated with benefits helps employees become better consumers and help control costs.
  • Benchmarking Data: Showing benchmarked data comparing an employer’s plan to those of other companies helps drive home the value of a benefits package.

“Industry research has shown that employees have a positive perception of their benefits (even when the overall package is mediocre) if there is an excellent communications plan in place,” says Gary Jurney, president of Kainos Partners, Inc., a UBA Partner Firm in Houston.

The white paper is available for download here.

Products June 4, 2014

Employee Fiduciary Offers Fee Comparison Service

June 4, 2014 (PLANSPONSOR.com) – Employee Fiduciary LLC is now offering a fee comparison service for 401(k) plan sponsors.
Reported by

The company will review and interpret a service provider’s Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Section 408(b)(2) fee disclosure document and plainly summarize its fees in dollars, both direct fees and indirect fees paid by mutual fund companies. There will be no cost for this service.

The company will also summarize its fees for providing the same services in the same format, allowing for a side-by-side comparison. Employee Fiduciary proposed a similar fee summary in their response to the Department of Labor’s request for comments related to 401(k) fee disclosure reform.

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANSPONSOR NEWSDash daily newsletter.

“Current fee disclosure regulations only address a small part of the needs of 401(k) plan fiduciaries,” says Eric Droblyen, president of Employee Fiduciary, based in Mobile, Alabama. “Because the disclosure document’s format is open to broad interpretation, many providers have used this discretion to effectively bury fees in pages of dense language. Plan fiduciaries are unable to sort out the fees they are paying. Our service is a direct response to overcoming the inadequacies of the current regulations.”

Plan sponsors may request the new service online at http://www.employeefiduciary.com/401k-fee-comparison/.

Employee Fiduciary is a 401(k) plan provider for small businesses, offering retirement plan recordkeeping and administration services.

«