HRSB Partners with HealthView Services to offer a New Retirement Health Care Assessment Tool

HR Solutions & Brokerage (HRSB) announced a new partnership with HealthView Services (HVS) of Danvers, Massachusetts. HVS has created the first web-based software that utilizes actuarial data to integrate projected health care costs into the retirement planning process.

The approach is revolutionary, as it calculates out-of-pocket health care expenses while creating a system of income distribution, providing a customized solution to address the primary concern of retirees: having enough accumulated savings to cover basic needs throughout retirement. Managing Principal of HRSB Michael Gerali states, “I’ve worked in the retirement planning arena for over 20 years and have not seen a better health care cost assessment tool.”

The cost of retirement health care has been difficult to calculate and thus difficult to create an appropriate plan to fund such costs. Most people believe that Medicare covers the majority of retirement health care costs but the reality is that Medicare currently only covers about 64 percent of the expenses associated with retirement health care services.* “It is difficult to offer a secure solution without a dependable method of determining what retirement costs are, especially with the exorbitant prices of health care”, says Gerali.

HRSB and a division, Guaranteed-Life-Income.com, will be providing the reports to their corporate and individual clients to assist them in creating effective plans to deal with retirement health care costs. An example of the reports can be found on their website at www.hrsbenefits.com or www.guaranteed-life-income.com. For more information on how you or your organization can access a personalized retirement health care report please contact Michael Gerali at 303-308-8181 or mgerali@hrsolve.com.

About HR Solutions & Brokerage, LLC. (HRSB)

HRSB, based in LakewoodColorado, is an insurance consulting firm founded in 2000. Its founders have over 40 years of combined experience in the insurance and employee benefits arena. The company is focused on providing guaranteed life income retirement solutions to individuals, corporations and governments along with a full range of employee benefits offerings including, health insurance, disability insurance, long term care insurance, life insurance, and annuities. 

About Healthview Services

HVS, based in DanversMassachusetts, was founded in 2008 by a team of experienced executives who identified a serious deficiency in financial planning in relation to retirement planning. In order to fill this void, HVS founders employed a group of expert physicians, experienced actuaries, and health care industry programmers to develop the HVS RetireMark Planning System. HVS is one of the only firms in the country that builds solutions for both the health care and financial services industries to address out-of-pocket retirement health care costs. For more information, visit www.hvsfinancial.com.

 

*Fronstin, Paul. “Funding Savings Needed for Health Expenses for Persons Eligible for Medicare| EBRI.” Employee Benefit Research Institute | EBRI. December 2010

Deloitte Releases 17th annual Top 5 Total Rewards Survey

Deloitte and CEBS have released their 2011 Total Rewards Survey.  The survey highlights the top employee benefits challenges facing employers and their employees.  The top 5 employer priorities were as follows:

1. The cost of providing healthcare benefits to active employees
2. The willingness of employees to pay for an increasing portion of benefit plan coverage and to manage their own reward budget
3. The ability of reward programs to attract, motivate and retain talented employees
4. The ability to adjust to and comply with current and future provisions of Health Reform legislation
5. Clear alignment of Total Rewards strategy with business strategy and brand

The 4th question is new to the survey and reflects the uncertainty surrounding Health Reform.  Because of this uncertainty, 65% of the respondents have made no plans to change their existing employer sponsored coverage.  The vast majority of respondents however, expect to re-evaluate employee benefits in the next 12 months.  This may also lead more employers to evaluate Human Resource Outsourcing and Benefits Administration options to keep up with the complexities and compliance issues surrounding Health Reform. 

On the employee side, the top 5 challenges were:

1. My ability to afford retirement, including post-retirement healthcare
2. The future of my employment security
3. My ability to earn additional rewards
4. The investment performance of my 401(k)
5. My cost of current health care benefits

As a way of dealing with these concerns 60% of the employees stated that they would be open to participating in wellness and disease management programs to maximize their health status.  In addition, over 45% plan on increasing contributions to their 401(k) plans and private savings plans. 

From an employee perspective the Deloitte Survey reveals similar concerns to those outlined in the Met Life employee benefits survey released earlier this year.   It highlights the importance of communication in the redesign of benefit plans to meet the needs of employees and the organization. 

Additional insights centered around retirement planning show employers looking to better equip their employees with tools to provide for a successful retirement. 

The full survey can be found at: 

http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_consulting_2011TopFiveTotalRewardsSurvey_040711.pdf

MG

S & P Lowers U. S. Outlook to Negative

Happy Monday!  S & P lowered the  outlook of the United States today from neutral to negative sending the markets down early.  They did this based on the uncertainty surrounding large budget deficits and rising government debt.  It appears that S & P is sending politicians in the U. S. a clear sign that something substantial needs to be done regarding our out of control debt.  The Wall Street Journal published an opinion today citing tax collection data from the IRS for 2008.  In it they point out that were the government to raise the tax rate to 100% of income on all millionaires and billionaires it would only collect $938 billion in revenues.  Slightly less than 25% of the current budget and $700 billion short of our current $1.65 trillion deficit. 

Without reform of our current entitlement programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid(which account for 1.5 trillion in 2012) then we can anticipate that taxes will have to rise for the Middle Class.

The article can be found at:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704621304576267113524583554.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_opinion

MG

The Federal Budget: How much is $38 Billion?

A lot has been made of the budget negotiations this week and the potential closure of the Federal Government.  If you believe what you hear the Democrats and the Republicans were battling over $38 billion in this years budget.  That is a lot of money, unless you compare it to the overall size of our national debt.  Then it becomes a very small number. 

According to U.S. Debt Clock, http://www.usdebtclock.org/, the current federal deficit stands at just over $14 trillion dollars.  This does not include the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare which total an additional $113 trillion dollars.  To put this in perspective our total national assets are estimated to be just over $77 trillion dollars.   Our balance sheet does not look good. 

Rep. Paul Ryan came out this week with a proposal to help cut our debt by roughly $4 trillion over the next 10 years.  I do not want to debate the merits of his proposal but the fact is, unless we do something soon we are going to find ourselves in a position that we cannot get out from under.  Which brings me to the point of my writing today. 

We can all expect to pay more taxes in the  future and receive less in benefits when it comes to social security and medicare.  This is our fiscal reality today unless we begin to make some dramatic changes.  Many of us who are 55 and younger need to begin preparing to take on a bigger share of our retirement costs in the future.  We will also need to save more for our healthcare costs in retirement, including the cost of long-term care and home health care.  As a country we are also going to need to do a better job of taking care of ourselves.  Wellness is no longer an option it is a necessity if we are going to control the cost of healthcare in the future. 

Whether it is Rep. Ryan’s proposal or someone else’s our political leaders need to start making hard choices and leading us to a brighter while more disciplined future. 

The time to start preparing for the future is today while we still have our health, some money and some of us…a job.  mg.

Met Life Study of Employee Benefits Trends

Met Life released their 9th annual, “Study of Employee Benefits Trends”, this week. 

The times they are a changing.

The study highlights the continued importance of employer provided benefit plans and their role in determining employee satisfaction.  However, it points out the need for employers to reconstruct their benefit plans  to take a generational approach.  Flexibility, Customization and Choice are the keys. 

Voluntary Benefits and Social Media:  Employees are ready to pay for more personally relevant benefits, while incorporating social media into benefits communication tools can be a way of capturing the attention of younger workers. 

Financial Security and Retirement:  Employers need to focus on raising employee responsibility for their own financial security and retirement.  It is recognized that there is a direct connection between financial wellness and physical and mental health.  Rather than providing a security blanket as was done in the past, firms are focusing on providing safety nets.  This can be accomplished by providing access to the right coverages and by providing effective education and guidance. 

In Summary,  employers project that non-medical benefits and retirement offerings will become more important components of their future  benefits strategies. 

The link to the study can be found at: 

http://www.metlife.com/business/insights-and-tools/industry-knowledge/employee-benefits-trends-study/index.html?WT.ac=Ban_BUSEBTS2011_5-45785_T4288-BU-business&oc_id=Ban_BUSEBTS2011_5-45785_T4288-BU-business#highlights

MG

HRSB Introduces Peace of Mind

Good Morning, HRSB is introducing a weekly blog dedicated to discussing the topics that keep both employers and employees awake at night.  Our goal is to twofold:  First to provide information on the different concerns that we all face in our daily lives as it relates to financial security.  We will cover topics ranging from healthcare and personal retirement planning to the funding of Governmental and Corporate pension and healthcare funding. 

Second, we will make it a point to offer both potential solutions to these common concerns along with sources of information that can assist in resolving these concerns.  In the end, it is our goal to provide you Peace of Mind.   Michael Gerali