2021 Annual Conference

The Miami Beach Golf Club
2301 Alton Rd,
Miami Beach, FL 33140

7:00 Breakfast
8:30 Start
12:30 Awards & Luncheon

SOUTH PALM COURT
Join your friends and colleagues on the patio for our annual welcome reception featuring dinner and refreshments.

Grand Ballroom East

Sean McGarvey
President, North America’s Building Trades Unions
Chairman, NCCMP Board of Directors

Hon. Kamala Harris
Vice President, United States of America

Hon. Martin Walsh
Secretary of Labor, U.S. Department of Labor

Hon. Don Graves
Deputy Secretary of Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce

Hon. Gordon Hartogensis
Director, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Michael Scott
Executive Director, NCCMP

• Presentation: Director Hartogensis Keynote

Grand Ballroom East

In March of this year, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer. This legislation provided a lifeline to the most deeply troubled multiemployer plans in the form of a Special Financial Assistance Program established at the PBGC to provide one-time, non-repayable grants to troubled plans. In July, the PBGC issued an Interim Final Rule detailing how the legislation would be implemented. This session will review the legislation and the PBGC’s interim final rule, and will discuss the implications for both deeply troubled multiemployer plans and the system as a whole.

Paul Green
Attorney, Mooney Green Saindon Murphy & Welch

Jason Russell
Senior Vice President and Actuary, Segal

• Presentation: Overview and Impact of the American Rescue Plan Act for Multiemployer Plans

Panelists will discuss asset allocation challenges and opportunities for plans receiving the Special Financial Assistance provided in the American Rescue Plan Act.

MODERATOR:
Michael Scott
Executive Director, NCCMP

PANELISTS:
John DeMairo
President and CEO, Segal Marco Advisors

Jared Gross
Managing Director, JP Morgan

Paul Joss
Director, Client Portfolio Manager within LDI, BlackRock

Danielle Singer
Portfolio Manager, Invesco

• Presentation: Strategies for Investment of SFA Assets

Panelists will discuss multiemployer plan trustees’ role as stewards of participants’ retirement assets in an environment where there is an increased focus on ESG considerations. This includes evaluating and quantifying (1) general ESG considerations in selecting investments, (2) investments that also drive “S” considerations such as employment among a plan’s unionized workforce, and (3) “G” oversight options including legal remedies to recoup investment losses when a corporation’s actions impair a plan’s investment.

MODERATOR:
Erin Hutson
Director of Corporate Affairs, LiUNA

PANELISTS:
Sarah Hughes
Head of Sustainability, North America, Schroders

Darren Robbins
Partner, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd

Brian Hale
Senior Vice President and COO, Ullico

• Presentation: Asset Stewardship in an ESG World

At ease – Boxed lunches available in Grand Foyer

In recent years, private equity has come to play an increasingly important role in the portfolios of multiemployer pension fund portfolios. However, like other asset classes, private equity has its own advantages and disadvantages and requires careful consideration by trustees. This session will consider in depth case studies of the outcomes of certain private equity portfolio companies through this lens, and will propose some possible ways forward to arrive at responsible private equity investing for multiemployer trustees.

Monte Tarbox
Executive Director of Investments, NEBF Investments

John Elliot
Partner, NEPC

Michael Monroe
Chief of Staff, NABTU

• Presentation: Responsible Private Equity

This session will address compliance issues of interest to retirement and health plan sponsors, and is intended to provide an informal forum for trustees and plan professionals to address a range of current issues relevant to plan administration. Among other issues, panelists will lead discussions on: COVID testing and payment, health reimbursement arrangements, recent guidance on overpayments, and Treasury guidance on the non-special financial assistance aspects of the American Rescue Plan Act.

Kathy Bakich
Senior Vice President, Health Compliance Practice Leader, Segal

Michael Powers
Partner, O’Donoghue & O’Donoghue

• Presentation: Contemporary Compliance Issues

Grand Ballroom East

Grand Ballroom East

Michael Scott
Executive Director, NCCMP

This session will discuss the current status of legislation that could impact multiemployer health plans, including efforts to control the rising cost of prescription drugs, recent requests for information with regard to a possible future public option, and the recent Executive Order on vaccines.

Carolyn Smith
Counsel, Alston & Bird

• Presentation: Update on the Current Status of Health Legislation

The No Surprises Act established protections against surprise billing by out-of-network providers and requires that participant cost sharing for emergency services be limited to the amount they would pay if care had been rendered by an in-network provider. In July, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury jointly released an interim final rule (IFR) to implement many of the provisions of the No Surprises Act. This session will discuss the status of the regulations, NCCMP’s efforts on behalf multiemployer health funds, and current issues and resolutions funds are experiencing as they put the requirements of the IFR into place.

Kathy Bakich
Senior Vice President, Health Compliance Practice Leader, Segal

Ed Kaplan
Senior Vice President, Health Practice Leader, Segal

• Presentation: Implementation of the No Surprises Act

Grand Ballroom East

Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) requires that plans’ benefits for mental health and substance use disorder benefits be offered in parity with medical/surgical benefits. In April, the Department of Labor, Department of HHS and Treasury Department issued FAQs in response to amendments to MHPAEA that were enacted as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. This session will discuss the legal and regulatory requirements under MHPAEA and how plans may implement them, as well as some common issues that plans have face.

Aruna Vohra
Senior Consultant, Horizon Actuarial Services

• Presentation: Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act

Social, physical, and economic inequalities in areas such as housing stability, food security, access to transportation, employment status, income level, race, ethnicity and education level drive disparities in healthcare outcomes. This session will examine the impact and cost of these kinds of inequalities, and will discuss ways in which multiemployer health plans can address these inequalities to achieve better healthcare outcomes for participants and more cost effect solutions for plans.

Joanna Balogh-Reynolds
Senior Consultant and Director of Clinical Consulting, Segal

• Presentation: Social Determinants of Health for Multiemployer Plans

Michael Scott
Executive Director, NCCMP

ACCEPTANCE:
Hon. Nancy Pelosi
Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives

Hon. Chuck Schumer
Majority Leader, U.S. Senate

Variable benefit plans continue to draw increasing interest as trustees consider how best to ensure that plans become and remain well funded in the face of volatile investment returns. One important factor for trustees to consider is how best to protect and stabilize the benefits of plan participants. This session will discuss questions that trustees should ask as they consider a variable approach, and will consider a number of approaches to protecting participant benefits taken by multiemployer plans that have converted to variable benefit plan designs.

Kelly Coffing
Principle and Consulting Actuary, Milliman

• Presentation: Participant Protections in Variable Benefit Plans

As always, one of the most important aspects of this conference is the ability to contribute to the conversation your in-depth knowledge and experience regarding the issues you are facing. This session offers you the opportunity to raise those issues, and to leverage the knowledge of the group to see how others are confronting them.

MODERATOR:
Paul Green
Attorney, Mooney Green Saindon Murphy & Welch

A perennial favorite, this workshop provides an opportunity for you to participate in an open dialogue with representatives of the various regulatory agencies with jurisdiction over our plans regarding the most important topics you are facing.

You bring the issues. They bring the answers.

MODERATOR:
Paul Green
Attorney, Mooney Green Saindon Murphy & Welch

PANELISTS:
Julie Cameron
Manager, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

John Ginsberg
Assistant General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Karen Grisz
Division Manager, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Janet Laufer
Senior Technical Reviewer, Employee Benefits, Exempt Organizations, and Employment Taxes
Office of Associate Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service

Amber Rivers
Director, Office of Health Plan Standards and Compliance Assistance, U.S. Department of Labor

Harlan Weller
Actuary, Office of Tax Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Grand Ballroom East

Michael Scott
Executive Director, NCCMP

This session provides an opportunity for the agencies with jurisdiction over our plans to update members of the multiemployer community on activities on their agenda affecting our plans.

MODERATOR:
Mariah Becker
Director of Research and Education, NCCMP

PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTEE CORPORATION
John Ginsberg
Assistant General Counsel, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

PENSION BENEFIT GUARANTY CORPORATION – SPECIAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
Karen Grisz
Division Manager, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Julie Cameron
Manager, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
Janet Laufer
Senior Technical Reviewer, Employee Benefits, Exempt Organizations, and Employment Taxes
Office of Associate Chief Counsel, Internal Revenue Service

Harlan Weller
Actuary, Office of Tax Policy, U.S. Department of the Treasury

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Amber Rivers
Director, Office of Health Plan Standards and Compliance Assistance, U.S. Department of Labor

• Presentation: PBGC Update - John Ginsberg

• Presentation: PBGC Update - Karen Grisz

• Presentation: PBGC Update - Julie Cameron

This is your chance to raise any topics or questions that you would like to discuss with the NCCMP or your colleagues and peers that you did not hear addressed during the formal program.

MODERATOR:
Mariah Becker
Director of Research and Education, NCCMP

Michael Scott
Executive Director, NCCMP