Advanced Trustees and Administrators Institute

With a presidential election looming, the severe impacts of climate change, and global political and economic uncertainty, navigating the next 12-18 months will require careful analysis and a steady hand. Understanding the economic environment both at home in the United States and abroad will help you manage your benefit plan investment assets. This session will review key economic indicators, market conditions and policy implications to give you the information you need to make prudent investment decisions.

This session will provide a legal and regulatory update for retirement and health plans, covering the topics of greatest importance at the time of the conference. You can also expect the session to cover:

• Legislative activity
• Status of recently enacted and proposed regulations
• Issues to watch heading into the 2024 election season
• Consolidated Appropriations Act compliance.

The benefits world is in a constant state of change, and it reflects what is happening in the workforce, in families and in our society. A panel of experts will share insights on the current and emerging benefits trends with a focus on:

• What survey data tells us
• Legislation driving trends
• Hot coverages: Student loan debt relief, LGBTQ, weight-loss drugs, telemedicine
• Implications for the future and your plans
• Coalitions.

This session is designed for those who work with small plans. The session will feature a facilitated discussion about the unique challenges that small plans face and identify ideas and opportunities that can be considered given limited resources. Come to this session prepared to contribute to the dialogue and take away solutions to implement.

Being a fiduciary sounds simple—Run the plan solely in the interest of participants and for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits and paying plan expenses. But we all know it goes much deeper. Dive into the more complex aspects of fiduciary responsibility as you consider:

• How the fiduciary role is expanding
• Unique legal cases with fiduciary implications
• Diversity in governance and among your professionals and service providers
• Complex issues including conflict of interest; service provider fees; two-hat dilemma; environmental, social and governance (ESG); functional fiduciaries; and delegation.

Your service providers and A-team are operating in a changing and dynamic marketplace that is impacted by venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, technology and changing consumer demand. This session will provide an overview of changes and consider the best practices. Topics include:

• Service provider fails—How to find them and what to do
• Movement in ownership of TPAs to hedge funds and what that means
• Health and retirement service provider changes
• Investment company mergers
• Best practices.

One of the key ways to combat burnout is investing in well-being. Yet, implementing well-being initiatives faces several barriers such as cost, time, a lack of actionable data, and challenges faced by your dispersed worker and participant population. This session will help trustees and administrators design effective programs that combat escalating costs, improve well-being and even combat burnout. This session will address:

• Benefits of well-being initiatives and making the business case
• Well-being program design
• Broadening the scope of well-being
• Improving member engagement through communication initiatives.

Join in a conversation with an actuary and an investment consultant as they discuss managing risk in your pension fund. Consider how to evaluate your portfolio in today’s high-interest, high-inflation environment. Take away a deeper understanding of the range of asset classes that may or may not be suitable for your situation. Revisit your investment policy statement for guidance today and in the future.

This is an opportunity for administrators to come together to discuss issues of importance. Come prepared to contribute and learn as you discuss issues, ideas and best practices. Potential topics may include operational efficiency, cybersecurity, compliance, staffing, internal controls and policies.

A robust collections program is key to the financial health of your fund. This session will refresh your knowledge of best practices in collections. Topics include:

• Understanding the players
• Policies and procedures
• Payroll auditing
• Collection committees
• Unique collection cases.

According to the CDC, more than one in three adults struggle with obesity, leading to higher risks of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Health plans need a comprehensive approach to manage obesity to reduce costs and improve worker well-being. This session will cover:

• The impact of stigma/bias in management
• Addressing barriers to comprehensive care
• The organizational impacts on health, well-being and economic outcomes
• Evidenced-based approaches for medical management of obesity, including pharmacotherapy
• Potential health outcomes associated with weight reduction.

In recent years, much attention has been given to hybrid plans as a possible shared risk approach to a secure retirement. This session will help you understand how these plans work and some of the unique issues associated with implementation, including:

• What is a variable annuity plan?
• How do they work and what are the design and feature variations?
• Political and communication issues
• What happens in the bad years?
• Case studies.

This session will explore the potential future of prescription drugs and highlight the issues and strategies to address positive outcomes while keeping costs in check. Topics include:

• Diabetes drug management and obesity drugs
• Impact of Rx legislation
• How artificial intelligence is being used in Rx
• Misaligned incentives and the pharmaceutical supply chain
• Specialty drug cost management
• Biosimilar and gene therapy update
• Medical specialty pharmacy
• Strategies to reign in pharmacy cost.

The SECURE 2.0 Act was passed in 2022 to incent and promote retirement savings. Trustees and administrators need to understand the key provisions of the legislation to be sure they are in compliance. This session will focus on:

• Overview of the SECURE Act from 2019 and SECURE 2.0 Act
• Age requirements
• Annuities and RMDs
• Penalties
• Participant notices and plan reporting
• Overpayments.

The rate of suicide is now at its highest level since 1941, and suicide is a leading cause of death for those between ages 10 and 34. However, with risk identification and the right resources and support, many suicides can be prevented. In this session, we will explore how—across industries and roles—we have the ability to spot warning signs of someone in distress, and we have an opportunity to provide education about suicide prevention, connect individuals to appropriate interventions and improve our overall mental well-being. Topics include:

• The latest suicide trends and their impact on our communities
• Risk factors including health factors such as depression and substance use disorder, and environmental factors such as grief and other stressful events
• How employers can play an active role in supporting employees' mental and emotional health to prevent suicide
• Resources and interventions to reduce suicide.

This session will help you understand the complex issues associated with withdrawal liability. It presumes a basic understanding of the topic as the session will feature a discussion on:

• Using separate assumptions for funding and withdrawal liability calculations
• Complete/partial withdrawal liability
• Trustee options
• Accounting and auditing issues (receivables)
• New PBGC regulations
• Court cases
• Legal issues.

Are you prepared for the next crisis? How would you protect your employees, your data, your physical assets, your clients and your reputation? A crisis management plan is a must-have in the world we live in. This session will address:

• Components of a crisis management plan
• Policies you should have
• Checklist of issues to consider
• Communications plan
• Training your leaders and team to execute.

This session will focus on helping you understand what you should be doing with respect to cybersecurity, including:

• DOL guidance
• Assessment and penetration testing
• Dealing with a breach
• Insurance coverage and claims
• Third-party vendors to assess risk.

This session will consider how technology is impacting benefits and the tools available to plan sponsors and participants, including:

• Artificial intelligence
• Social media
• Devices, apps and interactive tools
• Self-service platforms
• Data analytics.

Close out your conference experience immersed in a discussion around artificial intelligence (AI). This session will consider how AI is impacting the economy, consumers and the job market. With a focus on the opportunities and challenges AI presents in the benefits world and in our daily lives, this session presents ideas to explore and consequences to look out for as this technology continues to expand.