Product & Service Launches

Ameritas Launches Pooled Employer Plan for Nonprofit Organizations

Ameritas has announced an addition to its flexible retirement plan platform and pooled employer plan offerings. The Ameritas 403(b) PEP is designed to support nonprofit organizations sponsoring ERISA 403(b) plans.

The Ameritas 403(b) PEP offers an integrated platform supporting compliance and fiduciary oversight, administrative recordkeeping and reporting, flexible investment strategies and automated engagement tools. Ameritas now offers the Ameritas 401(k) PEP to for-profit businesses and the Ameritas 403(b) PEP to nonprofit organizations.

Instead of having to choose between sponsoring their own plan, or offering no retirement plan, the PEP enables a nonprofit to become an adopting employer. And that option removes a lot of the complexity and distractions nonprofit executives hope to avoid when looking at retirement benefits for their teams.

“Ameritas has a long record of providing the retirement plans expertise, back-office services, and onboarding support that lean, hardworking organizations are looking for,” Scott Holechek, vice president of institutional sales and retirement plans, said in a statement. “That’s one of our great strengths, doing the heavy lifting for people-focused organizations, which frees them to devote much more of their energy and resources to serving others.”

Stash Announces New Workplace Benefit StashWorks Backed by SHRM

Stash, an investing app, announced the launch of StashWorks, an employer benefit platform that aims to help salaried and hourly workers to improve their financial wellbeing. The product is backed by SHRM, an HR association.

Through StashWorks, employees can designate any dollar amount or paycheck percentage to save on pay day, earning rewards for “saving streaks” as they hit key financial wellness milestones. StashWorks works directly with employers and can be accessed through professional employer organizations as well as benefit brokers.

The first cohort of StashWorks partners includes Wonder, a food delivery service, Aurify Brands, a New York City independent restaurant operator, and PEAK6 Investments, a financial services firm. Other partners also include private and public brands in retail, customer service and insurance.

“It’s standard practice for employers to offer either a 401(k) or a pension for retirement, but hardworking Americans need just as much help saving for now,” Liza Landsman, Stash CEO, said in a statement. “StashWorks supports employees’ financial needs in both the short and long term, with the broader impact of helping companies elevate the employee experience.”

Flex Benefits Introduces Insurance Solution to Address Runaway Health Crisis

Flex Benefits Insurance Services announced its official company launch. The company offers proprietary product solutions that help individuals and families obtain insurance protections to combat high deductibles and out-of-pocket responsibilities when accidents, sickness, or critical illness strike.

In addition, Flex Benefits has created flexibility for consumers to temporarily pause their monthly premiums without terminating their insurance policy when other financial obligations become more imminent.

This is the seventh company in the last 18 years started by founder Jeff Smedsrud. Other companies include Healthcare.com, Pivot Health, IHC Specialty Benefits and HealthValues.

“America has a runaway medical debt crisis in which one in three individuals who buy individual health insurance—both under age 65 and over—end up with debts they cannot pay caused by insurance that often does not cover the first $10,000 in healthcare bills,” Smedsrud said in a statement. “Today we begin to fix this problem with the official launch of Flex Benefits.”

Hexure Expands Its Quoting to Include Annuities

Hexure, a provider of sales and regulatory automation solutions for the life and annuity industry, announced the addition of annuity products to its quoting solution.

“We are excited to expand our quoting capabilities to enable our clients and their advisers to quickly and easily run quotes for various lines of business and product types from a single platform,” Kevin Pohmer, chief product officer of Hexure, said in a statement.

“By adding annuity quoting to the Hexure platform, advisers no longer need to jump from one system to another to quote and submit life and annuity business. Now from one platform, advisers can quickly quote and compare products and then seamlessly flow into the e-application process.”

Hexure’s comparative quoting solution allows advisers to compare product rates, fees, as well as a host of product and carrier details. With the expansion to include annuities, advisers can access and filter annuity products based on product type or features and generate proposals to help clients make informed and confident buying decisions.