November 6, 2009

HR Fact Friday: Survey Finds Service Requirements for Joining 401(k) Easing

Filed under: Benefits,Retirement — Tags: , , , , , — Paul @ 10:18 am

Employers are improving access to their 401(k) plans, according to a survey released Wednesday, November 4.

The Hewitt Associates Inc. survey of 300 midsize to large employers found that 74 percent of 401(k) plans do not have a service requirement, up from 61 percent in a comparable survey Hewitt conducted in 2007.

In addition, looking at plans with employer matching contributions, 56 percent of plans in 2009 did not have any service requirements for participants to receive the match, up from 44 percent in 2007.

On the other hand, 10 percent of employers have suspended their matching contributions during the past two years, the survey found.

Employers continue to move away from investing matching contributions exclusively in company stock. Just 17 percent of employers do so, down from 23 percent in 2007 and 45 percent in 2001.

That downward trend coincided with the collapse of one-time energy giant Enron Corp.

Enron matched employees’ deferrals exclusively with company stock and barred employees until age 50 from divesting those shares, leaving thousands to watch helplessly as the value of their shares plunged to virtually nothing.

The survey found a big increase in the number of employers offering an automatic enrollment feature.

Such programs are geared to those employees—typically new hires—who don’t indicate whether they want to enroll in their employer’s 401(k) plan. With automatic enrollment, those employees are enrolled unless they specifically object.

In 2009, 58 percent of employers offered automatic enrollment, up from 34 percent in 2007 and 19 percent in 2005. Of those employers using automatic enrollment, 69 percent default employees into a target-date fund, up from 50 percent in 2007.

The funds are so named because the investment mix is adjusted over time, with a more aggressive allocation for funds with retirement target dates further in the future and more conservative asset allocations for retirement dates that are closer.

A summary of the survey, “Trends and Experience in 401(k) Plans,” is available online at www.hewitt.com.
Source: Jerry Geisel of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management

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August 21, 2009

HR Fact Friday: COBRA Enrollment Doubles After Launch of Subsidy Program

Filed under: COBRA — Tags: , , , , , — Paul @ 6:54 am

Enrollments in COBRA (health continuation coverage) rose from less than 20% to nearly 40%  since the U.S. government enacted a new subsidy program, according to a report by Hewitt Associates, a consulting firm.

Signed into law in February 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provides for a 65% subsidy for COBRA continuation premiums for up to 9 months for workers who have been involuntarily terminated. To qualify for the subsidy, individuals must have a qualifying event for COBRA coverage that is the employee’s involuntary termination during the period beginning September 1, 2008 and ending December 31, 2009.

Hewitt looked at COBRA enrollment activity for 200 large employers both before and after the enactment of the program. From March 2009 to June 2009, monthly COBRA enrollment rates for Americans eligible for the subsidy averaged 38%, up from 19% for the period of September 2008 through February 2009.

Hewitt estimates that without the subsidy, the average worker would spend $8,800 a year in COBRA healthcare costs. With the subsidy, the average worker would spend about $3,000 a year.

Source: HR.BLR.com 8/19/2009

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March 6, 2009

HR Fact Friday: Survey Finds Nearly 20 Percent of Employers Plan to Drop Health Benefits

Filed under: Insurance — Tags: , , , , , , , — Paul @ 11:15 am

A sign of the troubled times is that most new HR related survey data tends to fall on the negative side. Here is the latest case in point and it is sobering news indeed for employees of small businesses who currently have the option of enrolling in an employer provided health benefit plan.

Nineteen percent of employers responding to a new Hewitt Associates survey are planning to stop offering health benefits over the next three to five years, nearly five times as many as the 4 percent that said they were planning an exit strategy last year.

For those employers planning to continue to provide health benefits, keeping employees healthy has become the primary workforce issue in 2009, up from the number 2 position in 2008, according to Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Hewitt’s survey, “The Road Ahead: Emerging Health Trends 2009.”

(more…)

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