Products April 14, 2021

WEX to Acquire benefitexpress

The deal adds a complementary suite of solutions to WEX’s health offerings, including employee enrollment and decision support tools for employees, and more.

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WEX, a financial technology service provider, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire benefitexpress.

WEX says the acquisition broadens its integrated benefits products and accelerates its growth strategy and strategic vision. benefitexpress offers highly configurable, cloud-based benefits administration technologies and services.

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The deal adds a complementary suite of solutions to WEX’s health offerings, including employee enrollment and decision support tools for employees, benefits administration and value-added services, such as Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliance, dependent verification services and other benefit administration services.

benefitexpress has been a trusted partner of WEX’s health division for several years, the firms say.

“The acquisition of benefitexpress accelerates our strategic vision of offering a complete health care ecosystem with a highly complementary benefits administration platform at its core,” says Robert Deshaies, president of WEX’s health division. “We are excited to welcome the benefitexpress team to the WEX family and look forward to delivering increased value to employers, consumers and partners through a comprehensive and integrated suite of products, services and technologies.”

Compliance April 14, 2021

DOL Issues Guidance for Investors, Plans on Investment Advice Exemption

It sets forth questions an investor can ask potential advice providers and information to help them understand the purpose of each question.

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The Department of Labor (DOL)’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has released guidance on fiduciary investment advice for retirement investors, employee benefit plans and investment advice providers. The DOL first announced the fiduciary prohibited transaction exemption (PTE), called “Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees,” on February 12, and it went into effect four days later, on February 16.

At the time the PTE was announced, officials said it “allowed for important investor protections, including a stringent ‘best interest’ standard of care for fiduciary recommendations of rollovers from ERISA [Employee Retirement Income Security Act]-protected retirement accounts.”

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The new guidance consists of two documents, the first being “Choosing the Right Person to Give You Investment Advice: Information for Investors in Retirement Plans.” It sets forth questions an investor can ask potential advice providers, information to help them understand the purpose of each question and frequently asked questions about the exemption.

The second document provides guidance for investment advice providers that want to rely on the exemption.

“The retirement investor guidance provides helpful information regarding the importance of selecting an investment advice provider who is a fiduciary, and the protections that are provided to retirement investors under the ‘Improving Investment Advice for Workers & Retirees’ exemption,” said Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employee Benefits Security Ali Khawar. “The compliance-focused frequently asked questions provide assistance to financial institutions and investment professionals as they ramp up compliance with the exemption.”

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