Welcome to Executive Notes!

Dear Plan Sponsor, We are kicking off a new communication vehicle to keep you informed of updates related to our programs, and key regulatory updates that arise from time to time. While Pension Perspective, WellNow, and Benefit News are designed to communicate with members, Executive Notes is designed for the employers who use our benefits programs. Going forward, the format will provide brief sound bites, often with links to more details. This will allow you to quickly scan for what is relevant to you. If your company doesn’t offer all of our benefits, simply skip the sections that don’t apply to you.

Whom to Call For What – The Plan Sponsor’s Lifeline We’ve reorganized ourselves to better serve you. BBT’s Relationships and Growth team of Scott Douglas and Loyce Borgmann will focus on your satisfaction with your BBT relationship, but your day-to-day needs will be cared for by our vendor partners and our Benefits team. The BBT Benefits team will serve as your escalation points if you are not satisfied with the service you are receiving from one of our vendor partners, or if you need special assistance in working with them. For day-to-day operational needs related to our Pension Plan, your primary contact will continue to be the NWPS employer help center, reached via bppemployerteam@nwpretirement.com. For day-to-day operational needs related to our insurance programs, your primary contact will continue to be insurance@cobbt.org. If your employees want a complimentary retirement readiness consultation, your primary contact is Ed Shannon at eshannon@cobbt.org.

But, what if I need to escalate an issue?

Tammy Chudy Benefits Operations: If you need special assistance with any pension or insurance operational issue in working with our processes or vendors, Tammy Chudy now directs Benefits Operations for all Benefits business lines. She has also organized her internal staff to provide you with an additional level of assistance in areas such as compliance testing support. Tammy can be reached at tchudy@cobbt.org, or 847-622-3372.

Jeremiah Thompson General Business Support: If you want to discuss a business need such as new plan designs, create more robust services and offerings for your employees, raise awareness of our benefits, or model the financial impact of changes you are considering, Jeremiah Thompson is now filling the role of Product and Delivery Channel Management. Jeremiah will provide you with periodic reporting and business review meetings. He can be reached at jthompson@cobbt.org, or 847-622-3368.

Ed Shannon Employee Education: If you would like to schedule group or individual education sessions for your staff to learn more about retirement readiness, or provide feedback on our targeted engagement campaigns that help your employees understand their pension or insurance benefits, Ed Shannon leads our Member Education and Engagement focus. Ed can be reached at eshannon@cobbt.org, or 847-622-3370.

We hope you find that these changes promote efficiency, and enable a culture of service excellence.

Best, Lynnae Rodeffer Director of Employee Benefits

What’s New for Pension Plan members? Webinar: Make the Most of Your Retirement Savings Plan June 8th, 1:00 p.m. CST This webinar is for all Brethren Pension Plan members, and will be delivered by our partner, Edelman Financial Engines. Anyone who registers will receive a recording even if they are not able to attend the event. Members will receive registration details in their annual retirement readiness evaluation communications as well. Click here to register

Annual Retirement Readiness Evaluation: Edelman Financial Engines will send your employees a series of mailings (e-mail and U.S. mail) between May 24 and June 18, to help them evaluate their retirement readiness. At the heart of this is EFE’s Retirement Evaluation — sometimes referred to as the “stoplight” mailing because of the use of a red, yellow, or green light to illustrate: The balance of aggressiveness and risk of the investments in relation to the employee’s age; Whether the employee is making good use of the employer match and finding ways to increase savings; Whether the employee is on track to have enough money for a secure and comfortable retirement. EFE will remind members about the free self-help option as well as fee-based management services. If members sign up for a fee-based service by June 18, 2021, program fees will be waived until Sept. 16. Members may cancel at any time, but fees will apply after Sept. 17, 2021, for those who remain in the program. Alert your employees to watch for this mailing and encourage them to take time to think about and act on the advice from EFE.

Pension Plan Handbook: You can access our most recent Brethren Pension Plan Handbook on our new website here. The Handbook summarizes our legal plan document in plain language. It’s divided into easy-to-follow sections with helpful headlines, a linked table of contents, and is enhanced with graphics to help your employees understand their Pension Plan and distribution options. There is even a glossary to help with understanding terminology.

What’s New With Insurance? Medical Plan COVID-19 Waivers: For those using our medical plan, Brethren Medical Plan is waiving the deductibles for inpatient treatment (through in-network providers) of COVID-19, as well as for the use of telemedicine through 6/30/21. We are currently assessing if that date will be extended and will keep you informed. The Goal of Going Paperless: Brethren Insurance Services is working on a solution to offer online open enrollment and insurance administration in the future. We will keep you posted on timelines as planning progresses.

We hope you find this update helpful, and we welcome your feedback.