ERISA is a friend of mine: Recent Episodes
Lockton Companies
Whoever said employee benefits compliance can’t be fun was pretty much exactly right ... until now.
The bold and more than modestly deranged ERISA experts from Lockton Benefit Group’s Compliance Services division are throwing all caution to the wind and attempting to make plain the intricacies of employee benefits while laughing through it all.
Their motto: “If after all this effort we can elicit a single laugh, the fact that we skipped lunch to record this will more or less have been worth it.”
Not legal advice: Nothing in this podcast should be construed as legal advice (although it may be considered advice for better living). Lockton may not be considered your legal counsel, and communications with Lockton's Compliance Services group are not privileged under the attorney-client privilege.
In the larger scheme of corporate mergers and acquisitions, benefits issues are just nuisance issues ... until they're not. Buyers in stock and asset purchases are often stunned to learn that they may own COBRA liability related to the seller's former employees (and their dependents). And they might be required to open the doors of their group health plans to unwanted guests – the metaphorical Cousin Eddie – for up to 36 months.
In this, the final substantive episode of the final season of ERISA is a Friend of Mine, Ed and Scott unravel the beguiling mysteries of COBRA (and health FSA) coverage in the M&A. The episode explores:
- Why and how does the stock vs. asset nature of a sale affect COBRA liabilities?
- If the parties to a corporate transaction contractually assign COBRA responsibility, what happens if the obligee drops the COBRA ball?
- How is sorting the COBRA obligations in an M&A like Scott trying to get all his kids out the door in the morning?
- How can buyers and sellers deal with health FSA coverage to make the corporate transaction painless for enrollees in the seller's FSA?
When a home’s circuitry goes bust, sometimes you have to rip into the walls to reveal the source of the problem. So too, with medical insurance.
With the cost of medical care, and thus medical insurance, trending relentlessly higher, Congress decided it was time to bust into the walls to figure out why. Enter a new obligation on group plan sponsor: medical plan cost reporting.
In this episode of ERISA is a Friend of Mine, Scott and Ed take a look at this new reporting obligation and the dazzling array of data the feds want plan sponsors to disclose, starting as early as this December. Tune in to learn:
- What does this new obligation require of employers?
- Who will employers need to lean on in order to make their disclosures?
- Why do Ed and Scott feel adrift on the sea of mediocrity?
- When is the first report due … and when must subsequent filings be made?
In the ERISA world, the collision of COBRA with Medicare is about as brutally taxing mentally as an ultramarathon is physically. Lucky for Ed and Scott, Courtenay Brummer from Lockton’s Mylo division joins the show to help us understand some of the convoluted nuances we encounter when COBRA and Medicare collide. In this episode, the trio work through: * When does Medicare enrollment allow a plan to terminate COBRA? * Why doesn’t Medicare enrollment, for an individual already buying COBRA coverage, operate as a second COBRA qualifying event? * Where an employee enrolls in Medicare before employment termination or reduction in hours, why might their dependents be entitled to more than 18 months of COBRA? * If Ed and Scott were really big-time ERISA lawyers, would they really need to draw a picture to explain all this? * Why do individuals who wait until COBRA is exhausted before leaping to Medicare risk a lifetime late enrollment penalty?
Mylo can help sort out not only Medicare enrollment timing issues, but also whether Part C is a better option than A, B and D, and when it makes sense to consider a Medigap plan. To contact our guest, Courtenay Brummer you can call her (913-981-3695) or reach out to her by email (cbrummer@choosemylo.com).
If ERISA compliance were as easy as baking a cake, the establishment of a plan document would be an essential step in the recipe before it goes in the oven. Plan documents are critical to permit proper administration of the plan and, thusly, keep employers out of trouble. In this episode, Ed and Scott welcome back their colleague, and former Department of Labor national office attorney, Suzanne Bach, and address:
- What is a plan document and why is it important?
- Can a plan “document” be comprised of multipledocuments?
- Can a plan document double as a summary plan description?
- When it comes to asking stupid questions, should Ed or Scott really be the judge?
- What’s the difference between a healthcare plan, a cafeteria plan, and a wrap plan?