Thursday, June 9, 2011
12:00 - 7:00 pm
The Pierre Hotel
2 East 61st Street (at Fifth Avenue)
New York, NY 10065

12:00 - 1:00 pm

Registration and lunch

1:00 - 1:15

Welcome

1:15 - 2:30

General Session: Keeping Funds Relevant in the New Economic & Political Environment

2010 brought sweeping change to our governing bodies at all levels that continues to reverberate. These changes raise a number of significant questions:

• What do these changes mean, if anything, to funds' operations and participants?
• How does the new political landscape affect compliance efforts and the anticipated additional guidance regarding the Pension Protection Act and the Affordable Care Act?
• Will there continue to be an Affordable Care Act?
• What are the prospects for further pension reform?
• What can we expect on the legislative and regulatory fronts?

Understanding government's new direction at the federal and state level will better prepare us to assist participants and their families.

Join a panel of Segal experts to discuss where we are and where we may be headed. Led by David Blumenstein, National Director of Multiemployer Consulting, with:

• Kathy Bakich, National Health Practice Compliance Leader,
• Ed Kaplan, National Health Practice Leader,
• Judith Mazo, National Research Director,
• Diane Gleave, New York Retirement Practice Leader, and
• Cathie Eitelberg, National Director, Public Sector Market.

This promises to be a lively discussion of how the new political and fiscal realities might affect us all.

2:30 - 2:45

Break

2:45 - 3:45

Breakout Sessions 1A, 1B

Breakout Session 1A: Investment Assumptions - The Long and The Short of It: Actuary V. Investment Consultant

Over the last 10 years, pension funds have struggled to meet their actuarial investment assumption, with great volatility in annual results, and with 2008 having dramatically affected virtually all plans. Yet, during this period, actuaries for most plans have not changed the actuarial assumption. Boards of Trustees are told that the investment assumption is a long term assumption, but often the actuary and investment consultant disagree on exactly what "long term" means.

Join Segal Advisors Investment Consultant Seth Almaliah, CFA, and Enrolled Actuary Virginia McGinley, FCA, MAAA, as they discuss why, despite all of the changes around us, the actuarial investment assumption often remains the same while investment results vary dramatically. And learn why the setting of the actuarial assumption is important to our plans.

Breakout Session 1B: New Ideas in Health Benefits Design and Delivery

Every year, the cost of health benefits is increasing much faster than general inflation. The prospect of contribution rates keeping pace with health care costs is daunting. To make matters worse, in the current economic environment many plan sponsors are faced with lower contribution hours and/or declining plan reserves. Unfortunately, this is the situation for many health funds.

• What tools are available to assess the factors that drive a fund's benefit costs?
• Are there plan design changes or benefit delivery changes that may slow the cost trends and improve the health of fund participants?

Join New York Health Practice Leader Dean Hatfield and Benefits Consultant Peter Bernstein as they discuss innovative strategies to control the tide of rising costs and deal with reduced income.

3:45 - 4:00

Break

4:00 - 5:00

Breakout Sessions 2A, 2B

Breakout 2A: Ever Changing Technology - New Tools

Nothing is changing as fast as technology and how we use it both at work and at home. New electronic filing and data format requirements, greater concerns about security, participants' mastery of the internet, and social networking and the like make it impossible to do our jobs effectively without state-of-the-art technology. In these difficult economic times, funds must increasingly weigh technology's ability to improve administrative efficiency and streamline participant service against its short-term and long-term costs.

Please join Administration and Technology Consultant Kevin Wolfe and Benefits Consultant Bob Ressegue as they discuss ways to improve your operations cost-effectively through the use of technology, and share recent case studies that demonstrate how technology can improve our daily lives at work.

Breakout 2B: Understanding Stop-Loss Insurance

The Affordable Care Act is changing the way funds are required to provide health benefits. Soon, most plans will have to lift, or eliminate annual and lifetime dollar limits on the "essential benefits" provided to participants and their dependents. For self insured funds that have relied on these kinds of limits to control expenses and reduce their exposure to catastrophic claims costs, new risk-management strategies will likely be required. Some funds may be considering stop-loss insurance for the first time, while others may be looking to enhance the coverage they currently have.

Please join Health Consultant Mike Tesoriero and Benefits Consultant Darrin Owens as they explore the types of stop-loss coverage your fund might need, what to look for when purchasing stop-loss, and how to avoid pitfalls and gaps in coverage.

5:00 - 7:00

Reception