2023 Annual Employee Benefits Conference Session Schedule

Your ability to connect with others is critical to your success personally and professionally. It can be challenging though when we work with people who come from different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.

In this session, Hoan Do will teach you:

• The number one reason that causes disconnect between people
• Why one method of motivation works for one person but not another
• How to communicate in a way that will connect and get through to anybody.

• Importance of preventive care/early detection
• Impact of new treatment options
• Plan design considerations
• Improving outcomes, health equity and cost
  • Expertise gap and health outcomes
  • Value of data-driven interventions and remote second opinions
  • New model of collaboration between community and academic medicine

Review the latest accounting and auditing technical guidance, including:

• How to present financial statements
• Related parties/parties-in-interest
• Lease standards
• SAS142—Audit evidence.

• Understanding and identifying plan and workforce needs
• Addressing participant needs and values
• Consideration of "sandwich generation" issues
• Revisiting defined benefit and contribution plan features
• Adequate income replacement

• Culture and prevention
• Training
• Benefits coverage
• Job accommodations
• Crisis response

Hear from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) about its biggest concerns, recent initiatives and outlook for the future.

• What a strong U.S. dollar means
• Hedging and managing currency exposure
• Hire a manager or hedge yourself
• Risks

• Identifying cybersecurity risks
• Making the business case for IT security
• DOL best practices
• Internal policies
• Fiduciary roles
  • Creating a breach response plan
  • What to do when vendors are not in compliance

• Scientific advancements in genetic testing and gene therapy
• Value of individualized treatment plans
• Outcomes and effectiveness

• Plan communications and recordkeeping
• Comparison/grandfathering of benefits
• Network provider disruption issues
• Administrative, implantation and compliance issues
• Governance issues

• The importance of a policy and impact of the language used
• Applying the policy in ambiguous situations
• Areas of potential concern—How good people can make poor choices
• Training new trustees
• Monitoring fellow trustees
• Best practices to adopt and enforce
• Administrator management of expenses

• Historical performance review
• Role of fixed income
• Inflation's role in equity performance

• ERISA preemption
• Fiduciary litigation
• Due diligence in plan administration
• Importance of plan language

• Why it's important to have a formal payroll audit program and matching policies
• Review payroll audit frequency and appropriate coverage to meet audit guidelines
• In-house vs. outsourced audits, cost and efficiency considerations
• Administrator's role in payroll auditing
• Should you encourage employers to self-audit?
• Issues of defined benefit vs. defined contribution payroll auditing

• Identifying cybersecurity risks
• Making the business case for IT security
• Creating a breach response plan
• Responding to taxpayer requests for participant data
• Vendor compliance issues

• Understanding the development pipeline
• Rx cost-control solutions—Variable copays, site of care, fraud control
• Considerations for specialty drugs, biosimilar solutions
• Impact of artificial intelligence (AI)

• Age requirements
• Annuities and RMDs
• Penalties
• Participant notices and plan reporting
• Overpayments

• Telehealth offerings
• Data analysis techniques
• Health price transparency initiatives
• Cloud computing in health care
• Navigating digital tools at a participant level

• Defining the elements of financial education
• Why is it important?
• Delivery options and methods
• Ways financial literacy has been incorporated into curriculum
• Health care considerations

• Market trends
• Defining consultants' acronyms and terms
• Benchmarking against other funds
  • What is the benchmark for the returns?
  • Is my benchmark appropriate?
• Investment manager performance
• Are your investments matching your policies?

• Overview of withdrawal liability
• Where/when does it apply? Are there exceptions?
• Approaches to manage withdrawal liability
• Review of experiences

Trustees and administrators can feel pressure from many powerful sources while making decisions for the fund. This session will discuss:

• Laws and regulations to help guide during dilemmas
• Ethical issues for the fund office staff
• Trustee vs. settlor functions, fiduciary responsibilities
• Participants as the beneficiaries and customers
• Outside political pressures
  • Claim appeals
  • Plan improvements/challenges.

• Composition and types of psychedelics
• Diagnosis and treatment
• Research overview

• Making the business case
• Aligning strategy
• Plan benchmarking and review
• Legal considerations
• Privacy concerns

• Historical review of capital markets
• Future outlook
• Effects on pension funding and actuarial valuations

Attend this session to learn about the Department of Labor's trends in retirement plan audits and investigations. Everything from current trends to future initiatives will be covered, as well as details on how to successfully navigate an investigation.

In a series of short debates, learn about varying considerations and perspectives on the following:

• Moving the discount rate
• Discount rates for funding vs. withdrawal liability
• Mortality rates
• Liability matching.