Foster & Foster Reviews Exposure Draft of Pub-2010 Public Retirement Plans Mortality Tables Report

Vectra DigitalBlog, Retirement

As mentioned in our August 28th Retirement Blog, an exposure draft of mortality tables based on public retirement plan experience has been released by the Society of Actuaries and the Retirement Plans Experience Committee (“RPEC”). We have completed our review of the draft and will summarize our findings in this post. Highlights The study was based on data gathered from … Read More

Executive Order to Strengthen Retirement Security

Vectra DigitalBlog, Retirement

On August 31, 2018, President Trump released an Executive Order on “Strengthening Retirement Security in America.” You can see the text here. The Order outlines the issue of low workplace retirement plan coverage and seeks to ease the regulatory burdens that might prevent employers from offering such solutions. The Order specifically directs the Secretaries of Labor and Treasury to explore … Read More

Draft Mortality Tables for Public Retirement Plans Released

Vectra DigitalBlog, Retirement

The Society of Actuaries has released an exposure draft for their public retirement plan mortality study. This study focuses exclusively on the mortality experience of public retirement plans, in contrast to the Society’s previous study which excluded public experience. The goals of this study were not just to develop public mortality tables, but also to examine the data for insights into … Read More

ACA Affordability Threshold Increases in 2019

Vectra DigitalBlog, Health & Welfare

In order to determine coverage affordability under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the IRS sets an “affordability percentage” annually. The affordability percentage is applied to the employee’s annual household income and the result is divided by 12 in order to determine the maximum “affordable” monthly contribution. Coverage is deemed to have met the ACA’s affordability standard if the employee cost for … Read More

Society of Actuaries Releases Study of Public Pension Mortality Assumptions

Vectra DigitalBlog, Retirement

On June 26, 2018, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) released a study of the mortality assumptions used for funding purposes by state-based and large-city public pension plans.  The study includes comparisons of how the mortality tables being used now compare to the latest mortality tables developed by the SOA (based on corporate pension plan data). Two items that we noted … Read More

Managing Prescription Drug Plan Costs: Pricing Tricks Employers Should Watch For

Vectra DigitalBlog, Private Self-Funded Health Plan

Employers typically pay close attention to medical plan provider discounts, stop loss premiums, and administrative costs, but often overlook ways to manage prescription drug plan costs. Proactively controlling prescription drug costs in your self-funded group health plan can save your organization up to $40 per employee per month through better-negotiated pricing alone. For a 500-employee group, this amounts to over … Read More