COMPANY HISTORY

The company was founded in 1959 to administer the newly created Western States Pension Plan for the Office and Professional Employees Union. Over the years the company has grown and now administers pension, health and vacation plans for building trades and teacher union members.

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MISSION STATEMENT

Our focus has never changed. We are dedicated to providing union members with personal assistance regarding their pension and health plans. Our staff averages over 15 years of experience which means they understand the needs of the participants and the details of each benefit plan.

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WHAT WE DO

Our role as Plan Manager includes administering every aspect of union benefit plans. It starts with handling the monthly payments from the employer, posting each participant’s master record, updating the health coverage eligibility, paying the service providers and professionals, issuing monthly retiree checks and supporting the Board of Trustees. There is, in fact, much more but the above are the basics.

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BENEFITS OF USING A PLAN MANAGER

Being covered by union benefit plans has several major advantages. The first is that the Board of Trustees is focused on what's best for the participants. Thus, the benefit structure and investment are built around the needs of the plan participants.

Union pension plans are powerful wealth building vehicles available only to union members. Typically, the total non-benefit costs are 1/3 of 1.0%. This is very low (efficient) and means more of the investment earnings flow to the participants.

Union health plans also allow the union members to buy health coverage using the leverage of a group. But even more importantly, the Board of Trustees can balance the needs of the participants with the reality of funding and rapidly rising health costs. This is a complex process and having a Board of Trustees that is dedicated to the union membership is the best approach.

Health plans must be managed by a company that is experienced with union benefit plans. The Board of Trustees makes the decisions but the Plan Manager and other plan professionals must implement those actions.

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WHY WE ARE DIFFERENT

We have one focus – providing personal service to our union member participants. This “personal” service is the combination of experienced personnel at our end, use of powerful technology to manage the record keeping and payments, and a close working relationship with each Board of Trustees.

It’s a little like preparing a great dinner. Every detail must be right, from the salad, to the entree, the side dishes and dessert. To provide the union member with really special personal service requires us to prepare a really great dinner.

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