Don’t Forget to Distribute Group SPDs by March 1

The distribution deadline for your cooperative’s 2017 Group Benefits Program summary plan description (SPD) and summary of material modifications (SMM) documents is March 1, 2017. All of the necessary steps, along with checklists for both distributing and acknowledging distribution of your notices and a list of 2017 SPD and SMM updates, are available on the Employee Benefits website.

Here are some tips to help you complete this process:

1. Compare your SPDs to the elections you made in the Benefit Plan Rating and Renewal feature of the Employee Benefits website to be sure the provisions you chose for each plan and subgroup are correctly reflected.
2. Review the electronic distribution rules. These rules describe how you must deliver employee benefit plan disclosure notices to your plan participants.
3. Review who must receive the SPDs and SMMs.

For additional details on this process, refer to Distribute Your Group SPDs by March 1 in the January 18 issue of I&FS Weekly.

Other general requirements
You must also tell all employees why the SPDs and SMMs are important, how they will be provided and how they can request a free paper copy (if you use an electronic distribution method). You must provide the free paper copy to anyone who wants it within 30 days of the request date, regardless of how they originally received the notice.

If you have questions as you review and distribute your SPDs and SMMs, contact the group compliance team at 866.673.2299, option 7, or email us at group.compliance@nreca.coop.