technology driving successful retirement plan outsourcing

Because the field of employee benefits is data-intensive,the systems and tools that enabled plan administration to movefrom a manual to an electronic process have been worth theirweight in gold. Employers are now experiencing the beginningof an era that is further revolutionizing benefit plan adminis-tration through technological developments in web-basedapplications. Recent systems have been electronic, but stillrequire forms to be completed by employees, and data to beentered by human resource staff. Web-based systems, however,aim to be entirely paperless, with employees entering their owndata directly, and receiving their plan documents and otherinformation electronically.

This article presents an overview of web-based applications andexamines the ways in which they are vastly improving how employ-ers manage and administer their employee benefit programs.

Browser-Based Systems and Tools Systems and tools that facilitate the administration of employeebenefits have been available for years. There are products on themarket originally designed to run on a personal computer or net-work that have been modified for Internet usage. By contrast,web-based employee benefits applications are designed specificallyto run using a browser, either over the Internet or on an intranet.The software can be hosted internally by the user of the product,or externally by an application service provider, a third-party ven-dor. The use of browser-based software offers significant advan-tages over the former products in terms of functionality, flexibili-ty, and response time.

In general, benefit administration products enable employers toperform benefit plan administration tasks, which primarilyinclude gathering, maintaining, and updating employee andplan-related information. This information is gathered from anddistributed to plan participants and third-party service providers.

The software also enables appropriate individuals to summarizedata for a broad range of human resource reporting and analysisfunctions, such as:

• employment management (e.g., staffing or equal employmentopportunity compliance),

• payroll, • health and welfare benefits, • retirement benefits, • recruiting, and • compensation management.

The software programs and the supporting hardware and periph-erals that perform these functions are generally known as humanresource information systems (HRIS). The most well knownHRIS products, which are also known as enterprise resourceplanning (ERP) products, provide a combination of applications,including payroll, general ledger, and accounts payable. The ven-dors of HRIS products may be large and well established; hence,their products are known as “legacy” applications. Or they maybe younger, smaller niche companies that generally offer single-or limited-application products.

Evolving ApplicationsThe original systems and tools developed in the 1950s and 1960sran on mainframe computers and focused almost entirely on thepayroll functions. During the 1970s, with the passage of substan-tial benefits- and employment-related laws, these systems startedincorporating more human resource (HR) functions. During the1980s and 1990s, with the proliferation of personal computersand client/server networks, HR software applications started totake off. About half of all employers continue to use mainframesystems for payroll and HR administration. Within this group ofemployers, many believe updating their systems and hardwarewould be too complicated and expensive.

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BenefitsPerspectives

Current Issues in Employee Benefits

SPRING 2003 • Data Warehousing for Managing Health Plans

• The Technology Driving Successful Retirement Plan Outsourcing

Web-Based Employee Benefits Applicationsby Sharon Marshall

SPRING 2003

page 2

Benefits PerspectivesCurrent Issues in Employee Benefits

The resistance to change underscores an important facet aboutHRIS: the primary concern for most employers is the payrollfunction. Of all HR responsibilities, payroll is the most criticalfunction—it must not be disrupted, incorrect, or missed for evenone cycle or the employer faces major repercussions. For this rea-son, many employers are reluctant to overhaul a system that per-forms the payroll function well.

Nevertheless, employers remain interested in other capabilities ofHRIS, especially if those functions can benefit the organization byreducing costs and providing added value. Thus, many employershave taken a modular approach to their HRIS, using differentsoftware for various HR functions. This process has worked wellin the sense that an employer can choose the “best of breed”options for different functions. The disadvantage, however, is thatthe employer might face a combination of disjointed systems withno sharing of information and a greater amount of training need-ed by the HR staff.

The Advantages of the Internet Revolution The advent of the widespread accessibility to and usage of theInternet furthered the evolution of HRIS products. Web-based sys-tems, when correctly designed, offer nearly all the advantages of pre-vious systems while alleviating some of the burdens. In particular,the most recent web technology and data standards (e.g., HR-XML)allow data to be obtained from any format or application, and to bemodeled in any desired output format. This technology also allowsfor easy transfer of data between various users, such as betweenemployers and service providers. Furthermore, employees can accessthese systems, facilitating the distribution of important plan infor-mation and speeding up the data gathering process. Web-basedtechnology offers substantial improvements over the interactivevoice response systems that many plan sponsors are familiar with, interms of user-friendliness, accuracy, functionality, and value.

One primary advantage of the web-based products is that theyreplace the historical methods of employee benefit administrationwith a nearly paperless system. In so doing, they have decreasedcosts and processing time, while increasing data accuracy and con-sistency. A return on investment calculation provides a compellingargument to justify upgrading to a web-based system. HR employ-ees spend approximately 55%-75% of their time delivering servic-es, including processing paperwork, answering employee ques-tions, interacting with service providers, and maintaining data.The balance of their time is spent on proactive tasks such as devel-oping employee recruiting and retention strategies, corporatestrategic planning, or performing other value-added tasks.Companies that have implemented web-based administration sys-

tems experience a reduction in the cost of communications andpaperwork, a reduction in HR staffing, and an increase in employ-ee satisfaction with their benefit plan.

An additional advantage web-based systems offer is timely updatesto a benefit plan. A significant source of unnecessary cost—onethat plan sponsors are often unaware of—comes from delayed cov-erage updates for terminated employees who should no longer becovered by the benefit plan. These costs can be substantial foremployers with high turnover rates.

Whether an employer uses a third-party’s web-based technology ordevelops its own system, certain key concerns will guide them asthey consider web-based administration systems and applications.

• Security—Most people’s greatest concern in performing businessover the Internet is the security of the information being sent.

• Time—Many employers are concerned about the amount oftime needed to develop and implement a new system, especiallyif the product is to be developed in-house.

• Cost—Employers must weigh the cost of converting to a newsystem against the projected potential savings.

• Internet access—For many employers, only a small percentage oftheir employee base has Internet access, either at home or atwork. In other companies, most employees do not use comput-ers and the companies have no corporate intranet. As a result, aweb-based system has little value or appeal.

• Learning Curve—Some employers express concerns about thetime and effort necessary to train their administrative staff on anew system and to teach employees how to effectively use aself-service system.

Employers that overcame their concerns about the issues listedabove and implemented a web-based system are generally satisfiedwith the results, experiencing reduced administrative costs andpositive feedback from their employees.

Current and Future Applications A current trend in employee benefits is toward “consumer-driven”products, with many individuals asking for more control overtheir choices of products and services. Employers have designedbenefit programs with employee choice in mind, offering cafeteria-style arrangements, self-directed 401(k) retirement plans, and,more recently, healthcare plans that give employees flexibility and

Benefits Perspectives

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control over their medical benefits selections. In all of these areas,however, the provision of employee control requires a greaterunderstanding of the benefits offered. To gain this understandingand to give employees the information needed to make sounddecisions, easy access to large amounts of up-to-date informationis necessary. Web-based benefits applications can provide thisimportant resource.

Quality-of-care issues also are increasingly being considered inhealth benefits programs. There is a strong movement, particularlyat the federal level, to identify, measure, and communicate theexistence of quality in medical care. Many of the nation’s largestemployers are also examining such data in their efforts to selectappropriate healthcare providers for their networks. Underlyingthese efforts is the encouragement for consumers to purchasemedical care based not just on price, but on the quality of theservice as well. As price/quality information is gathered and sum-marized, it will then need to be communicated to the generalpublic in a way that is useful and easy to understand. Web-based

employee benefits applications are making the dissemination ofsuch large amounts of constantly changing data possible.

ConclusionWeb-based employee benefits applications have gained a strongfoothold in the market and are constantly improving. Althoughtheir acceptance has been relatively slow and gradual, thoseemployers that implemented the products experienced positiveresults, including return on investment; employee acceptance; dataaccuracy; and improved transaction speed. Current trends in newbenefit plan products and concepts further support the need forand value of web-based tools. The future looks bright for web-based employee benefit products for some time to come.

SPRING 2003

Sharon Marshall is an associate actuary in Milliman’s Denver office.

This article was peer reviewed by consulting actuary Steve Eschbach,

also of the Denver office.

Data Warehousing for Managing Health Plansby Douglas L. Bourlier

Because health benefits can represent a significantportion of total employee compensation, employers face ongo-ing challenges to provide the most appropriate plan designwhile balancing the need to spend their benefits dollars mostefficiently. With health benefits expenses increasing at double-digit rates, timely access to accurate, current informationbecomes increasingly crucial for employers to successfully man-age their health benefits programs and to get the most effectivereturn on each benefits dollar spent.

This article describes data warehousing, a strategy that self-insuredemployers can use as a cutting-edge management tool to measurebenefits costs, compare costs to benchmarks, test the effects ofbenefit design changes, and have the information readily at handto monitor program performance. Data warehousing can be usedby employers that either perform benefit claims managementthemselves or use a third-party administrator (TPA), and canextend to welfare benefit programs such as dental, disability, andworkers’ compensation.

What Is a Data Warehouse?A data warehouse is a central repository of data designed to putinformation into the hands of people who are making strategicfinancial and operational decisions. Data warehousing has been

around for many years as a general data management tool. Mostinformation technology professionals are at least familiar withthe concept and have probably worked in some way with a datawarehouse. Many companies use data warehouses to keep infor-mation about their operations, but extending this concept totheir employee benefits plans is not yet common.

A successful data warehouse is made up of several components. Atypical architecture is shown in Figure 1 on page 4.

The central component is the database itself, which:

• collects data from multiple sources (e.g., multiple TPAs, pharmacybenefit managers, and self-managed claims from different locations);

• translates collected data to a consistent format (e.g., a health-care provider identified as “XYZ” on one system and “123” onanother is assigned one identifier for all data);

• balances the need for current information with stable results byscheduling updates weekly or monthly;

• reconciles to company financial, human resources, and benefits systems;

SPRING 2003


• stores data in sufficient detail to permitaccess to and analyses of individual bene-fit claims; and

• has sufficient security to meet the privacyrequirements of the Health InsurancePortability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

A data warehouse also includes compo-nents that support:

• acquisition of data from multiple sourcesand the transformation of data into aconsistent format for the central database;

• summarization and classification of datafor activities such as comparisonsagainst benchmarks;

• storage of commonly used analyticresults in summary tables or small databases that are known as“data marts”; and

• production of standard executive summaries and detailedreports, as well as investigational tools for drilling into detailsand for ad hoc analysis.

Because a data warehouse maintains the information used in analysesand decision-making, the tools to access the data and the structure ofthe data tables must be user friendly and understandable, and thedata must be accurate, timely, and readily available.

Health Plan Data WarehousingSuccessful self-insured health plans share several common charac-teristics, including:

• constant monitoring and assessment of costs and utilization;

• a willingness to make program changes when needed (e.g.,implementation of disease management programs, plan designmodifications, etc.);

• strong utilization and case management programs;

• selection of healthcare providers based on the relative values ofquality and optimized costs; and

• targeted contracting with healthcare networks or providers fordeep discounts.

A well designed and implemented data warehouse for health bene-fit plans provides access to credible, quality data that supportemployers’ efforts in each of those areas. In addition, a well-designed data warehouse offers an efficient way for employers toaddress the following business issues surrounding self-insuredemployee benefits programs.

• Performance monitoring—Data warehousing promotes theperiodic review of benefit plan costs, with the goal of spottingcostly trends early. It also is used to monitor the performanceof contracted healthcare providers and administrative vendors,such as TPAs and pharmacy benefits managers, as well as theperformance of the plan sponsor’s internal claims paymentprocesses. Data warehousing provides the information neces-sary to audit claims payments, including, for example, correctamounts paid; application of proper fee schedules; payment ofclaims for eligible plan participants only; application of cor-rect cost-sharing provisions; enforcement of insurance subro-gation clauses; proper coding by healthcare providers; andfraud and abuse checking. Documenting compliance with theDepartment of Labor’s claims payment and processing stan-dards also is readily achievable via data warehousing.

• Benefits design—Data warehousing provides plan-specific histori-cal data that employers may use for benefits program design,including analysis by employee group, line of business, groupingsof benefits designs, and retiree programs. In addition, it can pro-vide essential data for: labor negotiations, refining employee cost-sharing provisions; evaluating provider network coverage andcosts; and designing of coverage tiers.

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BA S I C H E A LT H A N D W E L FA R E D ATA WA R E H O U S E A R C H I T E C T U R E


SPRING 2003

• Projections—Data warehousing can be used to support modelingof expected costs of changes to the benefit plan design and toproject changes in covered employees and beneficiaries and theimplications of such changes on expected future costs.

• Benchmarking—Through data warehousing, an employer maycompare actual utilization of healthcare services and per-mem-ber-per-month claims costs to external benchmarks. Thesebenchmarks should be adjusted for geographic area, specificbenefit plan features, and the demographics of covered employ-ees and beneficiaries. Having all detailed data available allows anemployer to make comparisons in the aggregate and by suchdivisions as group, line of business, facility location, etc.

• Financial performance—Data warehousing supports an employ-er’s financial review of benefit plans, including claim lag studies,development of completion factors, reserve analysis, estimationof claims incurred but not reported, and the adequacy of stop-loss insurance levels (i.e., the dollar amount beyond whichinsurance will cover claims).

Details on the DataData to warehouse ultimately must be comprehensive, and thusextensive. By having all available data to review and analyze, a plansponsor will have the information necessary to scrutinize patternsand trends in business applications.

However, most employers will find a phased approach to gatheringdata more manageable and efficient than attempting to collect allpossible data at once. For example, an employer typically startswith employee and beneficiary data, such as plan enrollment anddisenrollment. Information on healthcare providers, including whothey are and their applicable fee schedules, also will be essentialprimary data. Medical claims data for employees and dependentsshould be added from all internal and TPA systems, beingextremely careful that the rules under HIPAA regarding individualprivacy are complied with and that the appropriate “business asso-ciate” agreements are in place.

Once the warehouse is populated with this basic information andreconciled to the company’s financial and human resources sys-tems, data from other health and welfare programs should beadded. This can start with dental or vision care plans if they arenot part of the medical plans. Depending on data availability, anemployer may then add data from workers’ compensation, long-term disability, short-term disability, paid time off, and other pro-

grams. Other data that can be added include premiums collectedfrom employees and medical management information, includingreferrals and authorizations.

Finally, administrative information can be added, such as callcenter and payroll details for the claims processing staff. Thisinformation is particularly useful for employers that adminis-ter their own claims processing, for it helps them to deter-mine the efficiency of their operation and make comparisonsto administrative benchmarks.

Implementing a Data WarehouseImplementing a data warehouse is a strategic management deci-sion. To be successful, a data warehouse initiative must be support-ed by senior management because it requires not only technologyinvestment, but also a commitment to the company’s operationaland strategic direction. Unsuccessful data warehouses are expensivefailures and are largely due to having limited senior managementsupport or being treated as a technological-only initiative.

A data warehouse may be implemented either as an outsourced oran in-house function. When outsourced, the database and all asso-ciated tools are hosted by an application service provider and areaccessed remotely, usually through the Internet. The advantage ofthis approach is that the plan sponsor does not need to invest inadditional infrastructure and staff to support system maintenanceand upgrades. With an in-house operation, the plan sponsor ownsall the hardware and software, and controls all system operations.Both approaches should offer the flexibility to accommodate indi-vidual plan sponsor data and reporting needs.

ConclusionA data warehouse system can be an effective management tool forefficiently running health and welfare benefits plans and is espe-cially suited for employers with 1,000 or more employees. By put-ting all relevant information—from high-level summaries to lineitem detail in the hands of strategic decision makers—the datawarehouse produces immediate results.

There is a maxim that states, “You can’t manage what you can’tmeasure.” A data warehouse provides the means to measure.

Douglas L. Bourlier is an actuary and healthcare technology consultant

in Milliman’s Seattle office. This article was peer reviewed by Kent J.

Sacia, a healthcare technology consultant, also of the Seattle office.

Benefits Perspectives

SPRING 2003


Corporate America has chosen to outsource a number ofnoncore business processes, from payroll to information technolo-gy. But nowhere are the advantages of outsourcing clearer than inthe area of retirement plan administration. As more employerscontemplate hiring a specialized provider for all retirement planservices, new technologies are dramatically changing the wayproviders structure services to plan sponsors and participants.

This article examines some of the business and technological chal-lenges that lead companies to outsource, discusses the range ofservices available, and provides a technology platform checklist ofkey ingredients that plan sponsors and participants view as essen-tial to the success of total retirement outsourcing (TRO).

Technology Challenges for Plan SponsorsRetirement plans thrived along with the rest of the economy inthe 1990s. Today, however, falling financial markets have evapo-rated asset-based fees traditionally used to pay for recordkeepingservices and retirement plan funding concerns have been raised,creating significant pressure on plan sponsors to:

• contain the mounting costs of retirement plans;

• expand participant access and educational tools; and

• comply with changes in federal laws and regulations applicableto retirement plans.

In each of these areas, plan sponsors are responding with technol-ogy solutions.

Containing retirement plan costsDeclining interest rates and three years of weak investment mar-kets have threatened the balance sheets, income statements, andcash flows of defined benefit pension plan sponsors. The financialstrains come at a time when regulatory compliance and employeecommunications have grown increasingly complex, making planredesign and cost containment very difficult.

In the defined contribution plan arena, many plan sponsors haveseen the death of “free recordkeeping” as asset-based serviceproviders exit the market, citing stagnant investment growth and

participant demands for full disclosure of all plan-generated revenue-sharing dollars and plan expenses. This quick exit has left manycompanies struggling to change recordkeepers and convert adminis-trative systems in the transfer to a new provider. Problems also areencountered with flawed data maintained by the exiting provider.

Expanding participant access and educationRetirement plan conversions, along with their associated blackoutperiods, to new administrative systems or vendors are among the hotbuttons for today’s participants. So-called “weekend conversions,”once viewed as a miracle, are now becoming the standard as mostproviders attempt to limit the amount of time a participant is deniedthe ability to make plan transactions. These conversions createintense pressure for technology flexible enough to meet this demand.

Years of negative returns drive participant demand for customizededucation and proactive communication to help make the best ofa bad situation. Plan participants are asking for these capabilitiesacross a variety of channels, including the Internet, voice responsesystems, and call centers. Web-based retirement planning educa-tion tools have been transformed from optional add-ons to essen-tial features as plan sponsors seek to provide clear and thoroughexplanations about retirement plan participation and the basics ofinvesting. Furthermore, participants expect a call center agent tohave the technology to view what they see on the participantwebsite and quickly retrieve any communications (e.g., quarterlystatements) distributed to participants.

Complying with new federal regulationsA flood of recent laws is affecting all types of retirement plans.After the onslaught of systems changes resulting from the 2001 taxlaw (EGTRRA), new requirements flowed out of last year’sSarbanes-Oxley Act. This law, among other things, mandated noti-fications during certain blackout periods, imposed restrictions oninsider trading of publicly traded companies, and prohibited loansto executives. The unusually short, 60-day compliance windowfrom the date of the law’s enactment to its effective date providedlittle time to change systems to accommodate these provisions.

Some retirement plan compliance challenges result from regula-tions issued in other benefits areas. For example, the privacyrestrictions applicable to health plan information under the

The Technology Driving SuccessfulRetirement Plan Outsourcingby Craig Burma

SPRING 2003

page 7


Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)affects a plan sponsor’s employee data contained in humanresource information systems (HRIS). Among other HIPAA-mandated changes, the requirements restricting the use of anemployee’s Social Security number are rippling through retire-ment plan administrative systems and driving technology to cre-ate other unique identifiers for employee records.

TRO Services TRO refers to the hiring of a specialized provider to handle andoversee the administration of the complete range of plans in acompany’s retirement program. In the simplest example, aprovider handles both the company’s 401(k) plan and traditionaldefined benefit or cash balance plan. With continued globaliza-tion and industry consolidation, however, companies often inherit multiple retirement plans with a multitude of eligible par-ticipant groups and complex benefit formulas. Hospitals andnonprofit organizations add a range of other plans, including403(b) and 457 plans. Additionally, executive deferred compensa-tion plans may be administered in a TRO arrangement.

An effective TRO provider offers plan sponsors measurableadministrative efficiencies and enhanced flexibility, generatingcost savings and improved communications among the sponsor,its other service providers, and plan participants.

Administrative efficiencies Any administrative success story in TRO starts with an integratedtechnology platform capable of processing transactions across the fullspectrum of available retirement plans. Traditional recordkeeping sys-tems—legacy mainframe systems built around one type or size ofplan—have been challenged to adapt to the flexibility TRO demands.

More modern systems take a holistic approach to retirement planadministration. Using a unified database means one payroll fileupdates all plan data, resulting in clean and accurate data fortimely year-end reporting. Plan sponsors engaged in TRO pro-vide participants a unified website containing customized educa-tion materials on all plans, and thereby raises the level of aware-ness of the options available. An integrated technology platformprovides call center representatives the information to answer allparticipants’ retirement questions and fulfill requests for plancommunications or other transactions.

Administrative efficiency, however, is only one piece in the TROpicture. Other common services in TRO include: an open invest-ment platform; automated custodial services; customized partici-pant education; participant services; proactive compliance; andconsulting and actuarial services (see Figure 1).

Enhanced flexibility Plan sponsors, however, rarely hand over all of these functions toa new outsourcing provider at the same time. They often want tomaintain certain aspects of these functions either in-house orwith their existing provider(s). To meet this need, technology co-sourcing at a business process level has emerged.

Retirement technology co-sourcing securely links a plan sponsor’sHRIS, its staff, and external service providers to any or all of theretirement plan’s administrative processes through flexible web-based systems contained in the TRO provider’s recordkeepingplatform. Efficiencies produced by technology co-sourcing arehighlighted in the following scenarios.

• Scenario 1, a plan sponsor with an outside investment consult-ant—A TRO provider enables the consultant to log in to therecordkeeping system but only allows the security rights for theconsultant to manage the fund selection process, post marketanalysis reports and quarterly returns, and manage the plan’smodel portfolio allocation percentages.

• Scenario 2, a plan sponsor hires an independent actuary—ATRO provider gives the actuarial firm read-only access tosecurely extract employee data for plan valuation and reporting.

• Scenario 3, a plan sponsor reviews participants’ pension benefitpayment selection forms prior to delivery—The sponsor hasthe TRO call center’s web-based systems flag and hold certifi-cation requests made by participants. Once the plan sponsorhas logged in and reviewed forms for accuracy and complete-ness, they may be marked for distribution via mail or printedfor hand delivery to the participants.

• Scenario 4, during annual nondiscrimination testing—A planauditor logs in to the plan sponsor’s website and views a set ofreports automatically generated by the TRO provider’s system,including all the necessary information to complete year-endtesting as set forth under the Employee Retirement IncomeSecurity Act (ERISA).

Plan Sponsor

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Compliance

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Actuarial

Services

Participant

Services

Participant

Education

Plan

Administration

Custodial

ServicesInvestments

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Benefits Perspectives is published by Milliman USA’s Editorial Committee as a service to our clients.Additional copies are available through any of our offices. Articles or excerpts from this publication maybe reproduced with permission when proper credit is attributed to the firm and the author.

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The common thread in these scenarios is accessby all appropriate individuals to an integrateddata warehouse containing all retirement planinformation. The data warehouse is surroundedby a website that is secured based on the user’slog-in identifier. This security must be adaptableat the sponsor, plan, process, menu, field, andparticipant group levels.

TRO providers use co-source technology to createone website with the power of an internal adminis-trative application and sponsor-website usability.This vastly reduces the development time andincreases the capabilities available to plan sponsors.

TRO Technology Platform ChecklistTRO providers and plan sponsors list five technology keys to suc-cess in TRO.

• A scalable, flexible, and integrated technology platform contain-ing unified employee data for all retirement plans and a singlepayroll format.

• Universally accessible administration using one website foradministrators, sponsors, and external partners.

• A pervasive security model limiting access and functions basedon the user’s identification and security credentials.

• Automated transaction processing to handle the majority of multi-plan transactions through unattended calculations and file trans-fers while pinpointing and explaining errors users can correctwithout difficulty.

• Real-time workflow management presenting and using logical,clearly defined software for assigning, accepting, prioritizing,and reassigning participant and plan-based work requests.

Given the right technology platform, TRO can result in the bene-fits to plan sponsors and participants as shown in Table 1.

ConclusionOutsourcing will continue to grow in corporate America as busi-ness demands increase the call for enhanced services and effi-cient, error-free transaction processing. To meet this demand,new technologies involved in TRO improve the way providersstructure services to plan sponsors and participants.

Breakthroughs in multi-plan databases and administration, per-vasive security, automated processing and real-time workflowmanagement are on the short list of technologies important tothe success of a TRO relationship.

TA B L E 1

B E N E F I T S T O B E N E F I T S T O

P L A N S P O N S O R S P L A N PA R T I C I PA N T S

Fewer vendor relationships to manage Single website for all retirement benefits

Cost savings (internal and external) Single service center for all retirement benefits

Single payroll file for clean data Combined benefits on one statement

One website for all plan data Integrated retirement planning tools

Consolidated testing Common theme for plan communications

Streamlined procedures Increased understanding of all retirement programs

Self-service for participant transactions

Craig Burma is the director of the transactional recordkeeping center

in Milliman’s Dallas office. This article was peer reviewed by Bob

Weatherford, a consulting actuary in the Portland, Oregon office.

mailto:[email protected]

technology driving successful retirement plan outsourcing

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