OPEB, COLI and Post-Retiree Needs

Safe Harbors

At the same time steps are being instituted to curtail COLI, there is an ever-increasing need to fund for employee medical care and post-retirement medical expenses. The use of COLI and the new Health Savings Accounts (“HSA”) can provide a robust funding vehicle. Since 1996, a pilot program has made Medical Savings Accounts (“MSA”) available to small businesses and the self-employed. Because of the many restrictions, only about 70,000 people have these accounts. A U.S. Treasury Department ruling in 2002 allowed large companies to establish Health Reimbursement Arrangements, and at last count, 1.5 million employees had enrolled. However, these accounts are also unreasonably restricted. Flexible Spending Accounts (“FSA”) offer consumers the chance to withhold funds tax free for medical care. These funds have a use-it-or-lose-it feature that requires employees to forfeit unused funds to employers at the end of the year. This forfeiture provision encourages employees to waste money on unnecessary care and makes most people apprehensive about depositing money except when they can precisely predict their future medical needs. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, signed by President Bush, affected planning starting after Dec. 31, 2003 with two powerful tools that can coordinate and expand COLI.