WEBINAR

13:00 – 14:00 (GMT) |  Wednesday 4th December 2024

The burden of Insurance Premium Tax combined with consistently escalating annual costs for insured group PMI policies has prompted a significant increase in larger employers establishing a self-funded trust to fund and deliver private medical treatment benefits for their employees. These trusts do not incur IPT, but can qualify for the same benefit in kind treatment as insured schemes, so can be financially more efficient than an insured arrangement.  They have other advantages that can benefit the employer and its employees, including, in many cases, far greater control over costs and benefits than a third party product can deliver.

Setting up a self-funded trust correctly requires care, with professional input often sought to ensure the documentation is suitable and that claims administration arrangements are appropriate. Once established, it is also critically important to establish good quality governance procedures. The trust will form an integral part of the employee wellbeing programme but, without good oversight into claims and results, could fail to capitalise on its economic and structural advantages over insured products. A full understanding the health and wellbeing of employees is key to the success of the trust. Some of this will be informed by the claims experience through the trust but on its own will not provide the actionable intelligence to improve employee wellbeing and in turn mitigate the cost pressure from increasing claims.

In the webinar, group risk benefits expert Kevin Gude from Keystone Law and Mike Tyler from Fruitful Insights will guide you through best practice to help your organisation optimise the benefits of using an employer-funded trust.

They will cover:

• Advantages of employer-funded trusts
• Is the trust documentation fit for purpose
• Governance – ideal roles of sponsor and trustee board
• Creating bespoke benefit designs
• Understanding and managing risk
• Impact of increasing claim costs
• Challenges of anti-selective withdrawals from younger/healthy employees
• Using additional data sources to inform employee wellbeing issues
• Consider the prevalence and impact of various health conditions in the employee population

By attending the webinar, you will be able to check your status against best in class practices and establish priority areas for improvement to ensure that your medical benefits trust remains financially efficient and effective in supporting the overall wellbeing of your workforce.