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ERISA News & Views - December 2009 | |
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A
common misperception held by even experienced insurance brokers,
consultants, human resources and benefits personnel, accountants, and
attorneys is that an insurance company's group insurance policy or
Certificate of Insurance is an SPD. However, Certificates of Insurance are not SPDs because
they rarely contain all of the required ERISA language. An employer
must prepare an ERISA "wrapper." Together, the wrapper and the
Certificate of Insurance constitute an SPD.
Another common misperception is who is responsible for preparing and filing Form 5500s.
Even though that's the employer's responsibility, most of
them believe that their
insurance broker, accountant, or legal advisor is taking care
of this. Should the DOL fine your client for noncompliance, it
could easily be upset for not bringing this liability to
light. It is in the advisor's interest to help their clients
become compliant.
Better Compliance Solutions
Until
now, employers had to either engage an attorney to draft a custom SPD
or fill in a template. A custom SPD is typically quite expensive,
and a template is often not in full compliance with ERISA. Either way,
an employer's documents can become out of compliance without periodic
monitoring because of changes in an employer's benefits or in the law. Our compliance solutions are better because:
Our experienced
professionals will personally obtain the information to prepare
documents for employers, rather than giving them a blank template,
which would likely be incomplete, completed incorrectly, or perhaps
never completed.
ERISA Pros
proactively contacts its customers every year to assess
whether their SPDs are still in compliance, and, if not, prepare the
necessary documents to help get them back into compliance.
ERISA Pros' proprietary Wrap-Tight sm
SPD allows all of an employer's ERISA Plans to be consolidated into a
single Plan. Our wrap SPD saves an employer the time and expense of
preparing an SPD and a Form 5500 for each separate Plan.
Partner with Pros
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Atlanta attorney, Bernard Kearse, JD, LLM, founded ERISA Pros to
fill the need for high quality, yet affordable SPDs for Welfare
Benefit Plans. For a complimentary ERISA compliance evaluation or for
additional information on ERISA Pros, its Wrap-Tight sm SPD, or Form 5500 preparation and electronic filing, contact us today.
Call: 678-443-4003
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Local: 678.443.4003
Toll Free: 866.488.6582
ERISA Compliant &
Wrap-TightSM
SPD
Form 5500
Plan Document
SAR
SMM
for Health & Welfare Benefit Plans only
The day after a Department of Labor audit, what would you wish you had done?
Why aren't you doing it now?
Our work at ERISA Pros
is driven by these questions. The threat from a DOL audit is
growing, and you are in a race between compliance and catastrophe.
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© 2012 ERISA Pros, LLC, All rights reserved. Information on ERISA Pros' website, its newsletter, “News & Views,” and its blog, “ERISA Wonk,” is published as a general informational source. Information and articles are general in nature and are not intended to constitute legal or tax advice in any particular matter. Blog posts and comments reflect the personal views of their respective authors - not those of ERISA Pros. Transmission of this information does not create an attorney-client relationship. ERISA Pros, LLC is not a law firm and is not giving legal or tax advice. It does not warrant and is not responsible for errors or omissions in the content on its website or in its newsletters. ERISA is a complicated and confusing law. Summary Plan Descriptions (SPDs), Wrap Plan Documents, and Form 5500s require review and updating by qualified ERISA compliance professionals.
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