Products November 17, 2010

The Standard Names VP of Absence Management

November 17, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Standard Insurance Company has announced that Mike Dunst has been named Assistant Vice President of Absence Management.
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In his role, Dunst will lead The Standard’s Absence Management program and have responsibility for service and processes, software development/enhancement, sales training and support, vendor/partner management, operational effectiveness and customer service. He will also serve as The Standard’s National Practice Leader for Absence Management.   

According to the announcement, Dunst began his insurance career at CIGNA, working in finance and reinsurance before moving into disability claims operations. He co-founded Disability Management Alternatives (DMA) in 1996. In 2003, DMA merged with Lewisco to form LCG. In 2008, LCG was acquired by Hewitt, where Dunst was a leader in absence management operations.  

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Dunst earned a degree in accounting from Villanova University and holds an M.B.A. in finance from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  

The Standard’s Absence Management program helps companies with the management of Short Term Disability, family medical leave, state leaves and other company time off.  The services track and manage employee absences, increase employee productivity and free managers and administrators to focus on driving results in their businesses, the announcement said.
Ask the Experts November 17, 2010

(b)lines Ask the Experts – Fee Disclosure and Annuity Contracts

November 23, 2010 (PLANSPONSOR (b)lines) – Will the new fee disclosure rules for disclosures from service providers to plan fiduciaries and for disclosures to plan participants that are generally scheduled to go into effect in the next 12-18 months apply to frozen group annuity contracts, active individual annuity contracts, or frozen individual contracts within an ERISA 403(b) plan?
Reported by

David Levine, Groom Law Group, answers:    

Under the recently issued final rules under ERISA section 408(b)(2) and ERISA section 404(a), ERISA service providers will be required to provide enhanced disclosures to plan fiduciaries and plan fiduciaries will be required to provide enhanced disclosures to ERISA plan participants and beneficiaries.  It is not clear whether the relief in DoL Field Assistance Bulletins 2009-2 and 2010-1 that applies to certain frozen plan contracts funding an ERISA 403(b) plan would also apply to these disclosure requirements.  As such, to the extent that contracts are not provided relief from ERISA section 408(b)(2) and/or ERISA section 404(a) (which, as noted above, is not specifically provided at this time), compliance with the new disclosure requirements would be required.    

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Notably, the ERISA section 404(a) guidance provides some limited relief for 403(b) plans in that it allows providers (as would be the case of individual annuity contracts or may be the case with respect to frozen legacy contracts subject to ERISA) to provide their own documents as part of a set of documents satisfying the ERISA section 404(a) disclosure requirements.   

 

NOTE: This feature is to provide general information only, does not constitute legal advice, and cannot be used or substituted for legal or tax advice. 

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