Posted On: February 24, 2017 | Categorized as: Company News
Innovative is happy to announce the newest addition to our team, Jennifer Berwick. Jennifer comes to us with a diverse background in office administration and accounting. She will be working closely with Innovative's CEO, Teriann Procida, where she will look to leverage her organizational talents to help Innovative’s office run smoothly.
Posted On: February 23, 2017 | Categorized as: Company News, Employee Benefits, Health Care Reform
Quick Overview of Affordability Employers may find themselves subject to a penalty if an employee goes to the Marketplace/Exchange and obtains a premium credit, because the employer plan was not affordable or does not provide minimum value. An employee is not eligible for a premium tax credit for any month in which the employee is offered employer sponsored coverage that is affordable and offers minimum value. Affordability is measured as 9.66% for 2016 or less of household income. For purposes of determining group health affordability, many employers look to the cost of self-only coverage compared to an employee’s W-2 wages. Offering incentives to employees who waive coverage is not uncommon. Incentives can provide extra cash to employees, especially if the employee has other coverage available. Incentives also help lower plan costs. Proposed Regulations Impacting Affordability An opt-out payment may have the effect of increasing an…
Posted On: February 16, 2017 | Categorized as: Company News, Events
Last Wednesday, February 8th, the Learning Exchange at Innovative hosted YMCA Board Training for the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Burlington and Camden Counties administered by Laura Solomon of Laura Solomon & Associates. The detailed training session focused on best practices in board governance. Thank you to Laura for the wonderful session and a special thank you to Melanie Grant of Escalatus, LLC for coordinating!
Posted On: February 14, 2017 | Categorized as: Company News, Retirement Plans
On January 18, 2017 the IRS issued proposed regulations that allowed for permitted uses of plan forfeitures in a 401(k) plan. Under these proposed rules, “Qualified Nonelective Contributions, or QNCEs and “Qualified Matching Contributions” or, QMACs would be amended to allow plan sponsors to use amounts held in the plan’s forfeiture account to fund QNCEs, QMACs and safe harbor 401(k) contributions. The proposed regulation would make it easier for plan sponsors of 401(k) plans to meet the requirements for nondiscrimination for both employee salary deferral contributions and employer matching contributions. In order to satisfy the employee salary deferral contribution or employer matching contributions tests, one of the options for correcting the failed test is for the plan sponsor to make QMACs or QNECs to pass the respective tests. Existing regulations provide that employer contributions may only qualify as safe harbor contributions, QNECs, or QMACs, if they are non-forfeitable and not…
Posted On: February 9, 2017 | Categorized as: Company News, Retirement Plans
As you may know, on Friday, February 3, 2017, President Trump signed a memorandum directing the Department of Labor Secretary to undertake a new “economic and legal analysis” to evaluate the Fiduciary Rule. To the extent that the new analysis reveals any issues, the Labor Secretary is directed to publish for notice and comment a new proposed rule revising or rescinding the Rule. Although the memorandum does NOT grant a delay, as originally expected, the Acting Secretary of Labor issued a brief statement indicating that the DOL will consider its legal options to delay the applicability of the Rule. As it stands today, the Fiduciary Rule still has not been delayed. Innovative is committed to staying abreast of the current guidance available with regard to the Fiduciary Rule and will continue to monitor the regulation. We have been in contact with various service providers, most of which plan to continue…
Posted On: February 3, 2017 | Categorized as: Company News
The Innovative team continues to grow with our most recent addition to the team, Shannon Thomson. Shannon was most recently the Executive Administrative Assistant for the Sports & Entertainment department at Aramark. She is currently working on completing her degree in Business Administration at the University of Phoenix. Shannon joins the Innovative team as the Executive Assistant to Mark Sulpizio.
