Our Designated Account Managers Are Happy to Share Their Expertise

Have you ever noticed the three characters, CFC, behind many of our health and welfare account managers' names? Have you ever wondered what it means? 

What does CFC stand for? CFC stands for Certified in Flexible Compensation. This designation is earned by professionals who are involved in all aspects of the flexible compensation field. The Certified in Flexible Compensation designation requires an understanding of eight main topics within flexible compensation:

1.      Flexible Spending Accounts

2.      Claims Management and Payment Cards

3.      Consumer Driven Healthcare: Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)

4.      Legal Requirements

5.      Plan Discrimination

6.      Documentation and Filing Requirements

7.      Transit and Parking Plans

8.      HIPAA and COBRA

To apply for the CFC designation, one must have at least three years (36 months) of experience in the employee benefits industry. Alliance Benefit Group North Central States, Inc. (ABGNCS) currently has 6 staff members certified in the CFC designation.   

These designations hold us to high standards and help us maintain our high level of knowledge. ABGNCS is an administrator of health savings options. We’re dedicated to helping employers contain benefit-related costs while enhancing the quality of service to their employees. ABGNCS provides the following services for tax-favored health saving accounts:

-Health Savings Account (HSA)
-Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA)
-Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
-Transportation Spending Accounts (TSA)

With a commitment to maintaining expert professionals and state-of-the-art systems, ABGNCS will help you achieve measurable results. 

The Author: Michelle Hintz, CFC

Health & Welfare Manager
abgncs.com/hsafsahra
mhintz@abg-mn.com

Disclaimer: This blog is of an informative and educational nature, and should not be considered legal, financial or operational advice. Please contact the appropriate parties for those services. Thank you.

Identifying Full-Time Employees in Accordance With the Affordable Care Act

Effective January 1, 2015 the Affordable Care Act (ACA) imposes a penalty on large employers that do not offer minimum health insurance coverage to all full-time employees and their dependents. 

So, how do you determine who is a full-time employee? A full-time employee is an employee who was employed on average at least 30 hours of service per week. 

To determine an employee’s hours of service, an employer must count:

• Each hour for which the employee is paid, or entitled to payment, for the performance of duties for the employer; and
• Each hour for which an employee is paid, or entitled to payment, by the employer on account of a period of time during which no duties are performed due to vacation, holiday, illness, jury duty, military leave or leave of absence.

Alliance Benefit Group North Central States, Inc. offers reports that are designed to calculate the number of full-time equivalent employees to help employers be in compliance with the ACA. This calculation is based on employee status, pay frequency and hours pulled from payroll for a selected period of time.

The Affordable Care Act does not require businesses to provide health benefits to their workers, but larger employers face penalties if they don’t make affordable coverage available. Enforcement of these penalties will begin in 2015, so if you would like to start receiving these reports or would like to learn more about them, please contact your Payroll Administrator.

The Author: Joan Wichmann

Payroll Manager

abgncs.com/payroll

JWichmann@abg-mn.com

Disclaimer: This blog is of an informative and educational nature, and should not be considered legal, financial or operational advice. Please contact the appropriate parties for those services. Thank you.

If You Post it They Will Come: 7 Tips for Getting More out of LinkedIn

For advisors and brokers, and even plumbers and welders for that matter, LinkedIn can be a valuable tool for connecting with prospects. These 7 tips can help you grow your network and your business. 

1. Prepare your escalator pitch and include it in your profile. When you’re on an escalator, as opposed to an elevator, you’re out in the open where everyone can hear you. The same goes for social networks. Consider your main audience which is your ideal prospect and the secondary audience, which is basically the entire internet or in our escalator example the entire mall. The secondary audience may not be who you're looking for but they may know someone who is. Once you're dialed in on the pulse of the audience, tell your story using as few words as possible to sum up what you are all about.

Fictional Example: “We help people make the most of their retirement and health benefits. Our goal is to put more healthy people at the beach when it comes time to retire.”

2. Connect with everyone you know (and maybe even some you don’t). If you invest a minute or so each working day clicking the "connect" button on the "People You May Know" you will expand your network.

Everyone you talk to about business or meet during the course of the day is a potential LinkedIn connection. If a friend brings someone new into your golf foursome, add them to your network. You never know where it could go. That person you shared a sand trap with may just have a cousin with a friend that has an opportunity for you. 

3. Follow to be followed. There was a time when following people was creepy, but today it's more of a complement, at least when it comes to social networking. Follow your current clients and prospects. Spend a couple minutes every few days looking them up. If they have a page, follow them and stay up to date on their happenings.

4. Lend your expertise. Join groups and use this as a strategic way to add value to others, share insights, and build out your network with prospects. If your prospects are looking for answers, take advantage of these opportunities.  

5. If you post it they will come.  Post an update every couple days. Use the daily update to share a link to an article or a video that is relevant to your prospects and customers. Be careful to hold back the sell when you post updates. Add value and share expertise instead. This tells a better story and the story is what sells.

6. Shock and Awe. Praise and Applaud. When you come across a news story or post that offers good news about your client or prospect, or any key contact, give it a like, post a comment or share the news as a status update. 

7. The recommendation heard round the world. Recommending a colleague, client or contact is a great way to send some positive energy their way and almost always results in some form of reciprocation. 

Just getting started is a step in the right direction. Don’t think about it too hard. The most important thing is to be out there so people who are looking for your expertise or service can find you.  The more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.

The Author: Cole Thompson

Marketing Specialist

abgncs.com

cthompson@abg-mn.com

Disclaimer: This blog is of an informative and educational nature, and should not be considered legal, financial or operational advice. Please contact the appropriate parties for those services. Thank you.

Timely Retirement Plan Deposits are the Key to Meeting Safe Harbor Guidelines

Are you depositing your employee deferral and loan payments into your retirement  plan on a timely basis?

What do you mean timely? 

The Department of Labor (DOL) safe harbor guidelines define “timely” as within 7 business days of withholding these payments from employees’ paychecks. These safe harbor guidelines apply only to plans with fewer than 100 participants on the first day of the plan year. 

The DOL has not specifically addressed plans with more than 100 participants. A couple of examples we have seen them use during an audit is to review the timeframe in which deposits are normally made or to review how fast a plan sponsor is able to remit other types of payments, such as federal tax withholdings. This is often only a couple days after the payroll date.

Salary deferral contributions and loan payments that are not deposited within the safe harbor guidelines are considered late deposits. The employer must make up earnings on the late deposits, file Form 5330 with the IRS along with payment of an excise tax, and report the late deposits on Form 5500 (which can be a trigger to cause a DOL audit for the plan). 

How can this mistake be avoided?

Coordinate with your payroll provider to set up procedures to ensure that the deposits are made timely.

Are there any other options? 

Employers who believe that they will not always be able to deposit salary deferrals and loan payments to a plan investment account within 7 business days should consider opening a plan checking account. Salary deferrals and loan payments should be deposited to the plan checking account immediately following each pay date and then transferred to the investment account at a later date. Keep in mind that employee funds should not be held in a plan checking account for an extended period of time but should be transmitted to the investment account as soon as possible.

If you have any further questions, please contact your plan’s Account Manager at 1-800-898-9344. 

The Author: Angie Krueger, CPA/QKA

Account Supervisor - Retirement

abgncs.com

akrueger@abg-mn.com

Disclaimer: This blog is of an informative and educational nature, and should not be considered legal, financial or operational advice. Please contact the appropriate parties for those services. Thank you.

The Right Message Leads to Ideal Results

We're making it easier for advisors and plan sponsors to connect with participants.

One of the latest features within our Relius participant website allows messages to be emailed using a set of rules to determine recipients. These preset and pre-developed messages provide a low maintenance communication method with a high touch feel. 

How Does it Work? 
Target retirement plan participants within a certain age range, deferring a certain amount/percent, terminated employees, those invested in particular funds, newly eligible employees or a variety of other scenarios.

·         Example: if you set up a message to go out once a month to employees over 49 encouraging them to utilize the catch up contribution ability when they turn 50, the system will ping the participants that match your selections and deploy the custom message

Possible variables used to create messages:

·         Age; (see example above)

·         Account balance; target balances < or > than a specified amount

·         Contribution amount or %; target rates < or > than specified amount

·         Investments; target by specified investment such as the default fund

·         X number of days prior to hardship suspension end to encourage them to complete a new election form and resume deferrals

How Do I Use it?

1.      If you are a retirement plan sponsor, advisor or consultant and you're interested in taking advantage of this tool, reach out to the administration team with your request to see if we can build the set of rules to meet your needs. We'll give you advice and help you set up the data points. 

2.      Once you have the rules set up, compose your message and send it to the administration team. Our team will carefully edit the message and place it in the appropriately branded email template.

3.      After we've confirmed the message is accurate and meets your needs the system will begin applying the message to the scenario you've set up. The system will flag an employee once they have received a message so they do not get the same message again.  

Message details:

·         Subject: 200 character limit

·         Message content: 4000 character limit

·         Frequency (this can be setup to be sent one time or on a frequency of your choice)

Are you ready to connect? If you have any questions on this feature or other possible ways to utilize this service, please do not hesitate to contact your dedicated administration team.

The Author: Tonia Palmer

Account Supervisor, QKA

abgncs.com

tpalmer@abg-mn.com

Disclaimer: This blog is of an informative and educational nature, and should not be considered legal, financial or operational advice. Please contact the appropriate parties for those services. Thank you.

Hang ‘Em Up with Something Left in the Tank

At Alliance Benefit Group we talk a lot about being prepared when it comes time to hang up the cleats or the apron or the welding helmet or the stethoscope. It’s our job and our passion to make sure you’re getting the most of your benefits, now and in the future. Investing in your retirement plan and your health savings account are some of the great things you can do to set yourself up for that great vacation we call retirement. Recently an award given to ABG reminded me of another important way to prepare for a happier post work life.

Alliance Benefit Group was chosen as a "Fit Friendly Worksite" by the American Heart Association, thanks in large part to the support of leadership, an active wellness committee and a health-conscious office culture. Since everyone was pretty busy this week I thought I'd take this week’s blog post and remind everyone to take a moment for yourself during your busy days and try to benefit your own health and wellness. Maybe cut back on soda, or “pop” as we like to call it here in the land of ten thousand lakes. Maybe take a walk after work or go kayaking over the weekend. Just stop and think a little bit about how putting in a little time at the gym, or the salad bar now, can result in a healthier you down the road. On top of putting yourself in a good spot with your financial and healthcare needs try to take care of your mind and body so you have enough left in the tank to enjoy yourself.

We want you to be able to enjoy your days at the beach, the cabin, trekking around Europe or chasing around grand kids when you retire. Staying active and healthy now and throughout your busy work life could be a big help in you being able to live out that retirement of your dreams. We all know things happen in regards to our health that we can't control but I know for me there are a few things I can control - like not going over and getting a second doughnut or maybe doing a few lunges at the desk here.

If you have any questions about your fitness regiment, you’ll have to consult an expert, but in the meantime if you have any questions about retirement, HSAs, FSAs, HRAs, payroll or even COBRA, give us a call.   

The Author: Cole Thompson

Marketing Specialist

abgncs.com

cthompson@abg-mn.com 

Disclaimer: This blog is of an informative and educational nature, and should not be considered legal, financial or operational advice. Please contact the appropriate parties for those services. Thank you.

3 Things to Consider to Make the Most of Your 401(k) Plan

Many of you know that your employer’s 401(k) plan is one of the best places to save for retirement. Because of this you enrolled, and you’ve been contributing, but for some reason you aren't seeing the results you had expected. What could help?

Maximizing your 401(k) plan does take some work. However, you don’t have to take on all of the work yourself. Taking full advantage of your retirement plan features and working with your plan advisor will help you to get the most out of your retirement savings. Here are 3 things you should also consider looking into:

• No investment allocation – Many 401(k) investors end up in the plan’s default investment option (target date fund, money market fund, conservative portfolio) because they have not made an investment election. If this sounds familiar, look at your plan’s investment menu and/or meet with your plan’s investment advisor to determine a selection of investments that best match your risk tolerance.

• Automatic rebalancing - Participants who choose to build their own fund lineup, will realize over time some funds will out perform others. This will result in a portfolio that can be more or less aggressive than you intended. Rebalancing corrects this very thing. Having your account set-up to auto rebalance on a regular basis keeps you from having to do this on your own.

• Maximizing your employer match - Many 401(k) plans offer an employer match to encourage employee participation. This is comparable to getting a raise without having to do anything. Unfortunately, many participants who participate in their employer sponsored 401(k) plan do not contribute enough to receive the full employer match. If you have not done so already, check if your plan offers an employer match. If they do I would encourage you to contribute enough to receive the full match.

It's always best to gain advice from your advisor. As a plan administrator, our role is to educate you on the options out there. The role of the advisor is just that, to give you advice. To learn more about Alliance Benefit Group North Central States, Inc. and the services we provide please visit abgncs.com or email info@abg-mn.com. 

The Author: Seth Holstad

Account Executive

abgncs.com/RetirementAdministration

sholstad@abg-mn.com

Disclaimer: This blog is of an informative and educational nature, and should not be considered legal, financial or operational advice. Please contact the appropriate parties for those services. Thank you.