Products August 9, 2004

Motivano to Offer Prepaid Debit Card for HSAs

September 8, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - In a move that is intended to reduce the amount of paper-work required for Health Savings Account (HSA) processing, Motivano is launching a debit-card style prepaid health card for the new health plans, called 'SmartFlex'.
Reported by

In conjunction with UMB Bank, Motivano has release the multi-purpose card, with which a customer will have access to multiple accounts – for everything from HSA’s to parking accounts – on the same card.

“The ability to have a ‘multi-purpose’ card that can separate HSA, HRA, and FSA funds is essential in the growing prepaid card industry.   We are excited about the opportunity and functionality that Motivano’s SmartFlex program brings to this market,” says Dennis Triplett, UMB’s Executive Vice President of Lending Services, in the release.

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The debit card system for consumer-driven health plans has been growing in popularity as of late, as both employers and employees aim to reduce the amount of paperwork required.

“For healthcare consumers, the prepaid card is quickly becoming a critical part of HSA functionality. Without the card, it’s a paper-driven process. Our SmartFlex card relieves the administrative burden that healthcare providers and third party administrators face,” says Mark Keck, Motivano’s Executive Vice President, in a press release.

Motivano is a provider of electronic FSA, HRA, HSA, dependent care and mass transportation and parking prepaid card accounts as well as employee incentive and recognition programs. UMB Financial Corporation is a $6.9 billion holding company headquartered in Kansas City, Mo.

Administration August 8, 2004

FASB: New Pension Reporting Rules to Hit by YE 2003

August 20, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - By year-end, companies will have to change their pension plan financial reporting process in an attempt to give investors a clearer view of how the firm's pension plan is impacting its fiscal health.
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The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the nation’s accounting rule maker, made the tentative decision at a Wednesday meeting for companies with traditional retirement plans to adopt pending new reporting rules, Dow Jones reported.

Board members decided not to go forward with an earlier plan to ask companies to specify where their pension costs are generated. But they stuck to the rest of their planned initiatives, including one that would require companies to tell what percentage of stocks, bonds, and other asset classes they hold in the pension plan.

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FASB is writing the appropriate rules and says it will publish a draft within weeks for public comment. The group hopes to finalize the rules and adopt them officially soon after that. As a result, companies will have only a brief period to digest the regulations and put them into action.

The group is revamping pension accounting rules because of concerns that the current regulations – dating back to the mid-1980s – don’t produce a true corporate financial picture. The sustained bear market and low interest rates have caused many DB plans to suffer often-sizable funding shortfalls (see  America’s Pension Crisis ).

Existing FASB pension reporting rules require companies to provide investors with financial data on pensions only once a year. As part of the new rules, FASB will propose quarterly reporting on some aspects of the plans, including how much a company estimates it will contribute (See  FASB Tightens Pension Reporting Noose ).

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