8:00-8:30 a.m.

President’s Report

8:30-9:30 a.m.

U.S. Legal Update
Speaker: Katherine Hesse, CEBS, Partner, Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane LLP, Boston, Massachusetts

This session covers the gamut of the most significant court cases affecting employee benefit plans. Learn what the decisions mean to you and what you need to know going forward to mitigate legal risk. U.S. benefit professionals will get valuable takeaways from recent and ongoing legal cases, while Canadian benefit professionals can gain additional perspective from these decisions and precedents.


Having the Risk Conversation
Speakers: Brent Delveaux, CEBS, Benefits Consultant, TRG Group Benefits and Pensions Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia
Robert Taylor, CEBS, Managing Director, TRG Group Benefits and Pensions Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia

High-cost drugs have really affected the risk for plan sponsors. Stop loss is the latest “trending” topic to emerge, with very few people understanding how their benefit program risk has changed overnight. This discussion will explore the many facets of this new emerging risk and frame the situation around the importance of having the “risk conversation.” This conversation needs to be held internally within organizations so that financial stewards can recognize risks and, more importantly, understand how their values intersect with those risks to develop the proper response and handling.

Takeaways

• Understanding your tolerance for risk
• Understanding the current level of your risk
• Understanding future trends that may affect your risk

10:00-11:00 a.m.

Hacking Mental Health: How Employers Can Overcome the Four Largest
       Barriers to Success
Speaker: Chris Cutter, CEO and Co-Founder, LifeDojo, San Francisco, California

Get an overview of the five tiers of mental health, specifically as they relate to challenges employees face and costs at each stage. Get an overview of the four problems (access, cost, stigma, utilization) in the specific context of those five tiers and how leaders can respond. Detail will be provided regarding a new, wider-net approach that offers subtle guidance to employees and avoids the trap of stigma around mental health assistance programs. Come away from this discussion with a nuanced understanding of issues surrounding employee mental health as well as strategies to apply, no matter what specific tools you choose, and identification of metrics for evaluation.

Takeaways

• Setting clear objectives
• Creating a useful implementation project plan
• Building a successful long-term partnership

Retirement Session To Be Announced


Beyond HIPAA: Data Security and the Benefit Plan
Speaker: Sarah Bhagwandin, Counsel, Bryan Cave LLP, Denver, Colorado

This session will examine the cybersecurity issues raised in the benefit plan context and address the scope of fiduciary duty and liability to protect data, along with concrete steps for identifying fiduciaries in this context; the role of HIPAA compliance for health plans and the limitations of HIPAA compliance for actually protecting data; the necessity of adopting a benefit plan cybersecurity program beyond HIPAA; mandatory components of any effective cybersecurity program for benefit plans; and fundamentals of conducting a gap analysis and developing/implementing an action plan.

Takeaways

• Employers must address data security for benefit plans in order to
  have a comprehensive cybersecurity program
• Fiduciaries have an ever-growing duty to implement measures to
  address data security for benefit plans
• Five areas that must be addressed in cybersecurity issues for
  benefit plans

Quick Hits: Five Ideas About Pensions in 50 Minutes
Speaker: Joseph Nunes, President, Actuarial Solutions Inc., Lakeshore, Ontario

Explore key issues facing pension plan sponsors, including topics such as investment derisking, plan conversions, the impact of expanded CPP on plan design, Ontario’s proposed rules for pension funding, and updated standards for governance.

Takeaways

• An overview of key issues facing DB plan sponsors
• A checklist of ideas to consider when deciding how to address
  these issues
• Confidence that you are in control of the management of your
  pension plan

11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.

Current Trends in Employee Health Plans: How Does Your Plan Compare?
Speaker: David Cooke, CEBS, Principal, Mercer, Chicago, Illinois

This interactive presentation will highlight employee benefit marketplace trends from a survey of over 2,500 plan sponsors. Among the highlights: the rise in high-deductible CDHPs and the steps employers take to help stretch workers’ health care dollars; increased use of telemedicine and transparency tools, mitigating the continued rise in prescription drug costs; and what steps employers are considering next. Key considerations for each trend will also be discussed.

Takeaways

• Knowledge of current, prevailing benefit design trends
• Discussion of best-in-class design approaches
• Benchmark your plan design against industry norms

The IRS Retirement Plan Correction Program Retooled for 2017
Speaker: Steven Grieb, CEBS, Director of Regulatory Services, Empower Retirement, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

In October 2016, the IRS comprehensively overhauled the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS). Though it maintained the three-component structure of the EPCRS, IRS added significant changes, include how having (or not having) a determination letter impacts when a plan can self-correct an error. The new procedure also contains a number of other significant changes, including sanction amounts under Audit CAP, anonymous VCP filings, failing to autoenroll a participant or to implement a deferral election, overpayments to participants, how to address “egregious failures,” finding lost participants, listing of new IRS filing fees, and correcting nonamender failures. As a rule, the changes to the EPCRS are positive from the perspective of plan sponsors and service providers.

Takeaways

• What’s changing from the prior version of the EPCRS, and what’s
  staying the same
• When can an error be self-corrected, and when should a plan file a
  VCP application with the IRS?
• How having a determination letter (or relying on a preapproved plan
  opinion or advisory letter) impacts a plan’s correction alternatives

Winning the War for Talent: Is Telecommuting the Answer?
Speaker: Michelle Oram, CEBS, Director, Product Development, Manulife, Kitchener, Ontario

As organizations compete to attract and retain the best talent, and since work-life balance is a high priority for many employees, telecommuting is often put forward as a potential solution. Advances in technology have opened the door for employers to hire the best candidate for the job, regardless of location. At the same time, some organizations close the door on telecommuting in an effort to improve collaboration and stimulate creativity. Can telecommuting work for your organization? How do you convince leaders that employees are productive when you can’t actually see them? Is it possible to collaborate and innovate from a distance?

Takeaways

• Considerations for implementing a telecommuting policy
• Out of sight doesn’t have to man out of mind—Managing your
  career as a remote worker
• Tips for leaders of multilocation teams

12:15-1:30 p.m.

Lunch: Fellowship Recognition

1:30-2:30 p.m.

Creating an Engaged Culture Through Well-Being
Speakers: Kathryn Mowry, Director of Employee Benefits and Wellness, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, Denver, Colorado
Colleen Reilly, Vice President Well-Being, Total Well-Being, A Telligen Company, Greenwood Village, Colorado

Wellness and well-being are not the same thing. Well-being provides a more holistic solution to managing the employee life experience, whereas focusing solely on wellness limits the solution to physical health alone. This session will showcase two perspectives of the benefits of transitioning to well-being. Learn the strategy and techniques, and hear how a national law firm blended well-being into the values of the firm, which has increased engagement, retention and recruitment. Get an understanding of strategic best practices as well as tactical ideas and experiences on how to transition from wellness to well-being and transform your current program to a cultural norm and a way of doing business within your organization.

Takeaways

• Learn how to build a thriving culture of well-being
• Understand the difference between healthy culture and climate and
  what organizational well-being means and the results it yields
• Experience an employer’s strategies of challenging the status quo
  and overcoming an unhealthy workplace culture by taking it out of
  HR and embedding it into the business mission

401(k) Lawsuits on the Rise: Best Practices for Plan Fiduciaries
Speaker: Todd Solomon, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, Chicago, Illinois

It is no secret that 401(k) plan lawsuits alleging breach of fiduciary duty are on the rise and can lead to significant settlements, legal costs and bad publicity. Plan sponsors and fiduciaries need to be educated about the legal risks and the best practices they can take to protect the plan and its fiduciaries from such challenges. This session will discuss strategies fiduciaries can take, including reducing or eliminating revenue-sharing arrangements, getting the most favorable share class for investment funds offered under the plan, charging only reasonable administrative expenses to plan participants in an appropriate manner, engaging qualified outside advisors, and meeting regularly to diligently review the plan and its investment and fee structure.

Takeaways

• Best practices for managing a 401(k) investment committee,
  including practical case studies and sample committee materials
• Nature of the allegations against 401(k) plan committees and how
  to insulate against such challenges
• Unique challenges of managing a plan that offers company stock,
  including pros and cons of engaging an independent fiduciary to
  manage such a fund

Unlimited PTO: Considerations for Implementation
Speaker: Laura Earley, CEBS, Senior Manager, U.S. Health and Welfare Benefits, CH2M, Englewood, Colorado

Get an overview of all of the financial, emotional and systematic requirements to implement an unlimited paid-time-off program. This session covers payroll system requirements, how to manage employee perceptions (both for those receiving the benefit and those “left out” of the benefit), the value to the employer, the value to the employee, the pitfalls to the employer and employee, the required coordination with leave and disability programs, transition considerations when moving from a traditional program to another, and lessons learned from an employer that implemented the program.

Takeaways

• Implementation of unlimited time off can be accomplished with
  significant savings to the employer and be viewed as a significant
  piece of the total rewards strategy
• How to manage communications and perceptions and overcome
  objections from leadership
• Considerations for payroll, HR, managers and leadership during a
  time of change

2:45-3:45 p.m.

Legally Compliant Communications and the Consequences of
       Miscommunication
Speaker: Marilyn Monahan, Owner, Monahan Law Office, Marina del Rey, California

Learn what you have to do, and what you should do, both to ensure employees understand the terms of their health plan and to help employers limit their exposure to liability. The session will review the disclosure (and distribution) rules in ERISA and other key laws governing health plans, with a particular emphasis on how the legal requirements—and best practices—have changed in light of ACA. Common misconceptions and traps for the unwary will be discussed—including a look at the potential consequences of miscommunications of plan terms.

Takeaways

• Learn what and how benefit professionals must do to ensure health
  plan terms are effectively communicated
• Practical tips and best practices for working in an increasingly
  complicated benefits environment
• Understand what could happen if plan terms are not accurately
  communicated

Life After the End of the Amendment Cycle: Is Your Qualified Plan Up
       to Date?
Speaker: Suzanne Spicer, CEBS, Senior Client Employee Benefits Advisor, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, Washington, D.C.

With the elimination of IRS staggered qualified retirement plan amendment cycles, how can plan sponsors ensure their qualified plans remain compliant with new legislation and regulations? This presentation will provide information and suggestions on the new IRS amendment process, managing risks and compliance, and looking beyond required provisions.

Takeaways

• Understanding IRS guidance
• Establishing an annual review process
• Ideas for increasing operational efficiency

Connecting the Dots Between Wellness and Ancillary: An Easy Way to
       Draw Down Health Care Costs
Speaker: Mike Reha, CEBS, Vice President of Product Development, EPIC Hearing Healthcare, Pomona, California

Healthy senses play a key role in employee health and productivity. However, research reveals less than a quarter of employers are aware of vision or hearing being integrated into wellness programs. This session will share the ROI of improving vision, oral and hearing health and provide a blueprint for connecting ancillary benefits to wellness efforts. Gain useful strategies for integrating healthy senses into health education efforts and for incorporating incentives and discounts to motivate action. Real-world cases will show how employers in health and education fields have taken steps to connect their ancillary benefits and wellness strategies and share results of improved employee health, performance and satisfaction.

Takeaways

• Understand how improved vision, oral and hearing health care can
  impact employee wellness, health care costs, productivity and
  satisfaction
• Gain strategies for connecting wellness efforts to ancillary benefits,
  including education efforts and incentives
• The “dos and don’ts” of working with ancillary benefits for maximum
  wellness integration and measurement

Beyond Compensation, Group Benefits and Retirement: Modern Total
       Reward Strategy
Speaker: Bonni Titgemeyer, CEBS, Managing Director, The Employers’ Choice Inc., Brampton, Ontario

Employee expectations have moved well beyond the traditional mix of total rewards. These expectations, and the products, services and approaches that address them, now compete with the dollars needed to meet pay, benefits and retirement plans. Get an inside view on current thinking on total reward strategy. The session will include examples and case studies to highlight strategic attraction and retention strategies.

Takeaways

• The competitive landscape for payroll and benefits dollars
• The types of strategies successful organizations have tried to build
  engagement with less traditional resources
• How to keep competitive in today’s market even when you have a
  limited budget

4:00-5:00 p.m.

Ask the U.S. Health Care Expert
Speaker: John Garner, CEBS, Chief Compliance Officer, Bolton & Company, Pasadena, California

This workshop session is a question-and-answer forum devoted to health benefit issues, with attendees invited to share theirexperiences to help answer questions. The workshop will begin with a preview of answers to new questions being added to the next edition of the Health Insurance Answer Book.
Takeaways

• Improved understanding of the status of health care reform
• The latest legislative and regulatory developments
• Benefit from the perspectives of all the other experts in the
  audience

Ethical Habits to Build Trust in Business Relationships
Discussion Leader: Rick Storms, CEBS, Assistant Vice President, LifeTrac, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Business ethics do more than keep us out of jail. Ethics are good for business. This session outlines the key definitions of ethics from business, insurance, retirement planning and financial planning perspectives through the use of case studies and interactive quizzes.

Takeaways

• Examine business habits
• Make ethical behavior second nature
• Establish trust-based working relationships

U.S. Legal Update: Followup and Discussion
Speaker: Katherine Hesse, CEBS

As a followup to the morning session, this is an opportunity to hear more of the legal cases that continue to shape the benefits landscape.

Let’s Talk Retirement Benefits
Discussion Leader: TBA

Let’s Talk Benefit Challenges (for plan sponsors)
Discussion Leader: TBA

Let’s Talk Canadian Benefits
Discussion Leader: TBA