On Board Express Archive || E-Newsletters || Wespath Benefits and Investments Website

Vol. XVI, Issue 17

May 1, 2017

Retirement Status Update

Wespath aims to keep annual conferences appraised of retirees’ status throughout retirement season. As of May 1, there are 971 individuals across the 56 conferences that have indicated to conference staff their intention to retire (ITR) in June or July 2017. All of these individuals have been mailed the standard retirement kit as outlined in the February 8 OnBoard Express. Benefits Access registrations have been completed by 76% of these retirees. All unregistered retirees received a mailed PIN and a phone call from the Retirement Team to help complete registration.

Completed applications have been submitted by 273 ITR’s, of which 84% (228) have completed their elections online—more than twice as many as this time last year. We thank you for your support of our initiative to utilize the more efficient online process.

Reminder letters will go out in May to those who have not yet completed their applications. The Retirement Team will follow up again in June with a phone call to those with outstanding applications.

Please contact your Plan Sponsor Manager if you would like additional details specific to retirees in your conference.

If you have questions about the 2017 retirement process, please contact:

Systems Unavailable—May 5 and 6

The Benefits Access portal for plan sponsors (including Contribution Management) will be unavailable from Friday, May 5 at 8:00 p.m., Central time through the afternoon of Saturday, May 6. During this system outage, Wespath will update the Benefits Access application to strengthen security, expand usability, streamline service and compensation and improve reporting and batch uploads. Learn more about these changes in the April 11 issue of On Board Express. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Security Changes to Benefitsolver

To align with Wespath’s organizational commitment to security, we will be masking participant Social Security numbers (SSNs) in Benefitsolver, our eligibility and enrollment system provided through Businessolver. This impacts HealthFlex, OneExchange and Virgin Pulse plan sponsors. At this time, SSN masking will impact only what is viewable on Benefitsolver screens and not administrative reporting provided through Benefitsolver.

HealthFlex plan sponsors can learn more about this change by participating in a HealthFlex plan sponsor call on either May 2 or May 4. Plan sponsors who only offer Virgin Pulse and/or OneExchange should contact Wespath with any questions at 1-800-851-2201; select option 2 (Health Team).

A notification will be sent once the change has been implemented.

Center for Health Resources Available

The Center for Health will be hosting a webinar series in 2017 titled “Tools for Better Well-Being.” The first interactive webinar, What Do You Need to Know about Prediabetes?, will help participants understand the diagnosis of prediabetes and steps to take to reverse it.

The webinar will be held Tuesday, May 9, 2017; 2:00 p.m. Central time. Please view and share the registration link.

The Center for Health has also published a new one-page resource in time for Screen Free Week (May 1-7), to encourage participants to take a break from screen time.

The printable Decrease Your Screen Time resource gives participants ideas and strategies for reducing screen time for themselves and their families.

The webinar registration and toolkit are not being sent directly to participants either electronically or via regular mail, so please share as desired. Feel free to post the documents or links on your conference or relevant websites.

Contact Leah Holzwarth at 1-847-866-5199 or with questions or comments.

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