Newsletter

In an effort to assist members who have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic the Board of Trustees are permitting participants who need to make fourth quarter self-payments to do so over three (3) even and consecutive monthly installments.

Vanguard, in partnership with Financial Engines, will be sending a free, independent and personalized evaluation report of your Money Purchase Plan and Trust portfolio. Specifically, the report will show how much income your portfolio will generate in retirement and make suggestions as to how you may be able to do better.

As outlined within the Funds announcement letter of September 4th, effective, January 1, 2021, the Lake County Indiana NECA–I.B.E.W. Health and Benefit Plan is converting its medical and prescription drug plans for Medicare-eligible participants into the following:

The Board of Trustees of the Lake County Indiana NECA – I.B.E.W. Health and Benefit Plan recently performed and completed a proposal process to select a new third-party administrator to replace both Benefit Plan Administrators (BPA) and Paylocity. The Board considered proposals from a number of potential partners.

From March 16th, 2020 through March 20th, 2020 Paylocity will be performing necessary upgrades to improve their systems. During this time, participants debit cards as well as their ability to electronically submit claims will be temporarily suspended.

Whenever you update your contact information within either the Paylocity, SavRx, Teledoc, Grand Rounds or Vanguard, please make certain that you provide the Fund Office with those updates as well.

Effective March 1, 2020, the following improvements have been made to the S.U.B. Fund.

Travelers who are referred out on or after March 2, 2020 and subsequently meet the $1,200 eligibility requirements of the Plan will be permitted to receive only the same S.U.B. Fund benefits that are offered to Local 697 members and participants.

The following improvements were made to the Money Purchase Plan and Trust.

Many participants erroneously think that once they retire or stop working for a Local 697 signatory employer, they must withdraw their Money Purchase Plan and Trust account. Since 2019, this has not been true. Participants can keep their Money Purchase Plan and Trust accounts within the group Plan for as long as they like, including after the age that the law requires minimum distributions to be made.