How Many Form 5500 Do You Have to File?

Is an employer allowed to file a single Form 5500 for their Welfare Benefit Plan which provides multiple benefits under multiple insurance policies/contracts from various insurance carriers? It depends on the facts and circumstances.

If an employer provides the following benefits through the various insurance carriers, how many Forms 5500 would they be required to file? 

• Self-insurance medical benefit
• HMO provided by Kaiser
• PPO provided by Anthem
• Dental provided by CIGNA
• Vision provided by VSP
• Life insurance and AD&D provided by Unum
• Long-term and short-term disability provided by Reliance

ERISA

Employee Retirement Income Securities Act, (ERISA) generally requires employers to file an annual report on Form 5500 for each welfare benefit plan covering at least 100 participants.  With respect to health and welfare plans, ERISA does not specifically define what constitutes a “plan”.  Rather, ERISA defines the types of benefits that trigger ERISA coverage (e.g., health, life, accident). 

For the first time in the 2005 Form 5500 filing instructions, the DOL discusses the issue of whether the plan sponsor has established one or more plans for Form 5500 reporting purposes.

A plan sponsor can offer benefits through various structures and combinations, such as, a plan sponsor could create (i) one plan providing major medical benefits, dental benefits and vision benefits, (ii) two plans with one providing major medical benefits and the other providing self-insured dental and visions benefits, or (iii) three separate plans.  

The DOL states that you must review the governing documents and actual operations to determine whether welfare benefits are being provided under a single plan or separate plans.

The fact that you have separate insurance policies for each different welfare benefit does not necessarily mean that you have separate plans.  Some plan sponsors use a “wrap” document to incorporate various benefits and insurance policies into one comprehensive plan for Form 5500 reporting.

Welfare Benefit Plans

Welfare benefit plans are required to be evidenced by a written plan document meeting the requirements of §402(b) of ERISA.  In the absence of a legal written plan document, the insurance policy/agreement covering the welfare benefit acts as the plan document or “governing document”.  When a plan sponsor has no plan document that incorporates the various benefits and insurance policies into one single comprehensive plan (a “wrap” document) and provides various benefits through insurance with separate carriers/policies, multiple plans can exist creating multiple Form 5500 filings. 

In the absence of a “wrap” document, assuming all benefits have 100 or more employees enrolled on the first day of the plan year, the above employer would be required to the following Forms 5500:

• 501 - Health Plan that includes the self-insured medical benefit as well as the HMO and PPO benefits provided by the Kaiser and Anthem contracts
• 502 - Dental Plan provided by the CIGNA Dental contract
• 503 - Vision Plan provided by the e VSP contract
• 504 - Life insurance and AD&D provided by the Unum contract
• 505 - Long-term and short-term disability provided by the Reliance contract

The self-insured medical, HMO and PPO benefits can be filed together, even though the medical benefits are provided under separate contracts because it is the same benefit, medical.

If Cigna provided both dental and vision benefits, then both benefits could be filed under a single plan. However, if in subsequent plan years, the benefits are provided by separate carriers, then two separate Forms 5500 would be required to be filed.

The same rules would apply if a Unum contract provided life, AD&D as well as long-term and short-term disability. One Form 5500 would be required to include all the benefits provided under the Unum contract.

If an employer has a “wrap” document in place that incorporates the various benefits and insurance policies into one single comprehensive plan, then only one Form 5500 would be required to be filed. 

How Many Forms?

Determining the number of Forms 5500 required to be filed is based on the specific facts and circumstances of the employer, the benefits provided and the insurance carriers providing the benefits.

Amy Boyd, CPA, CEBS

Amy is a Partner with the 5500Tax Group, Inc. She has 25 plus years of experience working with qualified plans as well as welfare benefit plans. Prior to co-founding the 5500Tax Group, she was Senior Manager with the Ernst & Young Human Capital Practice.

Zinc is a versatile metal that offers many advantages to product development and manufacturing, yet many products designers and engineers are fully aware of these benefits. Zinc die casting is an optimal choice for the right casting. Dave Magner, Vice President of Sales, and Marketing at Deco Products talks with us to understand when zinc is a good choice and how it impacts both product design as well as manufacturing and profitability.

What is Zinc Die Casting and how is it different from other types of metal casting?

Zinc die casting is very similar to other forms of metal die casting. The diecasting process, regardless of the metal, you usually have a mold that can split in half, and you shoot the metal into the two halves as they're pressed together. You let the metal solidify, and then you split the two halves apart and have to extract the part. And then from there you're going to have some excess material as the material flows through and solidifies. And we call that a runner or the gate or the overflow. And so that has to be trimmed off. And then that might be the functional part. It may be that simple, but from there, often there may be some secondary operations that one would need to do to make that part per print and per the specific specifications for the application.

The Differences Are:

Lower Melting Point

Zinc has a lower melting point than other metals like aluminum or steel. The difference in using zinc
it generally runs quicker because it does solidify quicker with the lower melting temperature. Zinc is much more tolerant for varying wall thicknesses because the zinc cools at a more constant rate, even in a thinner and a thicker wall. And so, you'll get a better surface finish with a zinc part.

Zinc is Heavy

Zinc is a heavy material and very dense material. If the weight is a parameter that that design engineer is really factoring in for fuel efficiencies and other reasons, zinc is not going to be the first choice of material. But there are times where weight and the perception of heavier material give the end user a very premium feel. So, there'll be automotive applications where the door handle will be made out of zinc, even though it weighs a little bit more. The perceived value is so much better. You'll see that in a luxury car. Same thing with windows, right? Yeah. The hardware aspect is so important where the value and the perceived value is so much higher on a zinc part, both because it feels better, and it looks better.

Zinc is More Fluid When Casting

Zinc also can fill a mold easier than other metals, so finer design features can be put into the mold both for a better look and reduce the cost of having to machine the details into the part.

Zinc is Less Abrasive

Zinc is less abrasive than aluminum or steel, this means the molds used to die cast the part have less wear and tear and last longer. In fact, a zinc die cast mold will last ten times longer that a steel mold.

Designing & Manufacturing with Zinc

When you're working with a design engineer, there are two sides of the coin that need to worry about. One is, should the part be made out of zinc or not? If zinc is the material in the diecasting process is a strong candidate, then it's a matter of looking at that design and balancing the requirements of the design, the geometry, the testing requirements, things of that nature with what's manufacturable.

This is a real collaborative effort, because sometimes designers will add a feature where we'll ask, well, can that feature be slanted? Or what we call, can we add draft to that? Because we want that part to be less blocky and have filets and be tapered in a lot of ways, what we call draft, so that the part falls out of the tool much more easily. That improves the surface finish of the part and ultimately the quality of the part from day one, but then also the tool life and the quality of that part a year later, even ten years later.

Secondary Operations with Zinc

We talk a lot about the casting process, but then there are secondary processes that are important to add functionality or make the part ready for assembly. That could include machining, adding taft holes, could be powder coating or other decorative or non-decorative corrosion protection finishes. And then just the assembly process. A lot of Deco's background is in the hardware, whether it's window, door. And you can think about the different mechanisms that one could use. Zinc on windows and doors. And when we talk about the door, the egress or ingress access system needs to be something that functions really well, is strong, but also has this great perceived value.

Dave Magner is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Deco Products.

www.decoprod.com

The Truth You Need To Know About 30 Day Collagen Supplement Challenges

There's a lot of people out there promoting 30-day collagen supplement challenges to help with joint pain and in a previous discussion we talked about the collagen rebuilding process and what was involved to help joint pain. We want to know, is it possible to see results in 30 days or is it just marketing hype?

 Dr. Kramer explains that when a person experiences collagen loss due to osteoporosis or some other situation, that means that the cartilage has been damaged to such an extent that you're hitting the nerves that are embedded in the cartilage. And then when you start having motion, those nerves send a signal which is pain, which is telling you that there's something amiss, there's something not working quite right in your cartilage.

The Main Cause of Cartilage Loss

Number one is age. As you get older, sometimes the mechanism for rebuilding the cartilage is slower than the mechanism that is destroying naturally and if the damage is greater than the ability to repair the damage, your joint cartilage gets thinner and exposes your nerves and it becomes painful. That's a signal that your cartilage. You either have to slow down the use there and have the cartilage get caught up or you have to tell the cartilage to speed up and keep growing because you have more activity.

Why is 30 days not enough time for this to do the job right?

There are 3 main reasons why 30 days is not enough to really rebuild cartilage in a joint.

The first step is to send a signal to the joint to start rebuilding the collagen. Collagen molecules have the ability to trigger the process to start rebuilding and replacing cartilage in a joint. The damage has not only thinned the amount of cartilage but the friction of bone on bone has created a pitted surface. Step one is to fill in the pits so that the surface is smooth which may take a minimum of 30 days. Next you need to create a thick pad of collagen on your bone between 5-6 cm thick. That is your shock absorber, so you have to have a collagen sheath on both sides to absorb shock in the joint. In the third month, it has to start lubricating the pads and the joint again. So, you have two smooth surfaces with a lubricant that will take 90 days, minimum. It could take as much as 120, but you will get there.

What should a consumer look for or be aware of in selecting an effective collagen supplement?

Understand that type 1 and 3 type collagen supplements are usually made from fish or fish by products which are not a effective as type 2 collagens. We make type 2 bovine collagen supplements because it offers the best results. Any collagen that is water soluble “mix in in a glass of water” has significantly reduced the ability to trigger the molecule to trigger the rebuilding process and thus will take much longer or not at all.

How is your Bovine type 2 Collagen Different.

 Some companies take a cow hide from Brazil, stick it in acid and make it soluble and dry it. You can call it collagen, but it's been extremely reduced in effectiveness, it’s damaged collagen that you're taking in.

Collagen type two comes from another part of the animal. We use collagen from the trachea of cattle because it is strong and is a fibrous molecule, and it's flexible. It also has the ability to move back and forth, being very flexible. And that's what you want to find when you have, like, a joint. Most joints are flexible, and you'd like to see the ability that movement in the joint doesn't cause pain.

Summary

 There are many more areas we can discuss but the fact is that all the medical evidence and information is available on our website. We should also mention that are supplements are made in the United States and use only bovine collagen from slaughterhouses in the US. Our product is regulated by several agencies including the FDA to strict standards for quality. We also maintain extremely high traceability standards to know where all of our ingredients come from.

Many Thanks to Dr. Allen Kramer, President of SB-Edge Collagen Supplements

www.sb-edge.com 

How Collagen Helps with Joint Pain

43 million Americans are affected by joint pain. That's almost 16% of the population. Much of this pain is due to the result of aging and as a result, many adults are looking for ways to deal with joint pain.

Dr. Allan Kramer, PhD was born and raised on a farm in Northwest Iowa where he earned his degree in chemistry and math then attended Kansas State University where he earned his degree in Organic Chemistry. Dr. Kramer. He spent most of his life developing animal vaccines. His work also allowed for the success of the company in producing swine vaccines for the agricultural sector.  Additionally, there were projects related to Chondroitin Sulfate and hormone isolation, both of which allowed him to form Sioux Biochemical and SBEDGE a bovine collagen manufacturer.

Dr. Kramer explains that the majority of joint pain is the result of injuries or aging. Join pain affects our ability to be mobile, to walk and move around and affects the cartilage in our joints. Cartilage is a web that is formed in the joint and is flexible and durable. As time goes by, we put a lot of stress on our joints which reduces the amount of cartilage which in turn creates friction and thus pain. Arthritis is another factor that affects our joints and is an immune reaction where your body is fighting against itself by attacking your joints and the cartilage in your joints. Loss of cartilage is the main reason for pain.

Every joint has two collagen layers. The one that both movable parts are covered with collagen and that collagen is where that interaction takes place also the fact that there's a lubricant in there. By replacing collagen, it can improve the joint’s function and ability to move and reduce pain.

Collagen needs to be stimulated. We do have the method to repair the collagen, but they need to be stimulated by another product and what we are using today is we're looking at bovine collagen. It does trigger an immune response. It starts in the gut and the gut then tells us to go to the joints and it starts the mechanism of remaking the collagen that is being lost. There are cells there that have to be stimulated. Again, we do have the method to repair the collagen, but it has to be told that it should repair it and make more.

Hear the Entire Podcast Below:

Solar Array Batteries Use a Network To Talk With The Grid!

As more and more companies look to solar energy for power many new challenges come along that need a solution for it to all work. In this case The Rock River Lumber and Grain Company had installed solar panels to help reduce energy costs. After installing their solar panels, they decided to a battery array to both store energy as well as sell power back to the utility grid but in order to do that it needed to securely connect with the utilities network.

How Twin State Got Involved

Enter Twin State Technical Services company located in Davenport, Iowa. Rock River Lumber and Grain were already a client of Twin State Technical Services providing IT and networking services. They explain the situation and Jake Thompson, a network engineer works with them to solve a series of challenges and ultimately create a network that gets them access to the internet so they can send power out over the utility grid.

 Jake Explains that the company installed the solar panel in Prophetstown, Illinois where they are headquartered. The project was one of the largest of its in Whiteside County at the time.

 They have a grain facility out in Sterling that operates as a rail terminal where they offload all their grain. They put the solar system in to offset their energy costs and get some energy for themselves. About two years after the installation Moxie and recommended installing a battery backup array we can install on your site. The solar panels can charge those batteries during operation. When the grid needs power, it can pull that energy off the batteries in a stored format pushing it out to all the local residences, businesses, to the grid.

 In order to do that, someone has to come into the network and say, hey, I want that power, and that you do that over the Internet to communicate what is needed and what is available and to track all the actions.

Challenges

The challenge s included the size of the property, which was very large, multiple buildings all around an active rail yard. The solar array was at one end, the battery was in the middle, and they had to be connected somehow to the DMark, which is where we send our Internet out to the world. The way we did that, we had to mount devices called Point to point. It basically is a wireless connection between where we want to send data to the solar panels or to the battery backups. You just mount this radio antenna up as high as you can so there's no interference, and you point it as close as you can.

We worked with one of the solar panels to look at that data, and then we had to run another point to point to the other end of the property to look at the batteries. When we can see the data the n we can get it out to the internet.

We had some firewall changes and policies that we had to put in place so that we could have security on it. No outside world could get into it, only the organization that wants to control those batteries and those were put in place as well.

Jake Thompson is a Network Engineer for Twin State Technical Services : Twin State Technical Services

Focus on Customer’s Needs & Problems and How It Helped Sells Yard Sign Stakes

Our podcast on Delighting Your Customers and how focusing on Customer’s Needs & Problems Helps Sells Yard Sign Stakes is an inspiration discussion about growing a business and surviving the COVID pandemic and supply chain disruptions.

Jon Gainer is the President and owner of Stake World a manufacturer of lawn sign stakes. Most of us would think, what difference could there be in a wire frame that you stick in the ground to hold a sign up. But Jon saw that his customers had needs and problems and how by making products that make them successful helped not only to grow is business but develop long term relationships and many repeat customers.

The podcast talks about how designs and materials were researched and developed because many of his original customers had problems and needed solutions. We also talk about not giving in to using foreign suppliers to try and keep manufacturing costs down and how by sticking to your guns helps retain current customers and win over new customers.

Many Thanks To: Jon Gainer, President and Owner: StakeWorld - https://www.stakeworld.com/

Monetizing TIF

The podcast Monetizing Tax Incremental Financing for Municipalities and Developers not only explains how TIF can be used as a tool to fund and encourage redevelopment in cities but also how it can help with unexpected costs not originally identified in the development agreement the city can use TIFF as a tool to reimburse back the developer some of those additional costs.

What's New

What untamed equity is doing is to come in and monetize those future increment cash flows that we know are coming in as a reimbursement back to the developer. And generally, those are in the form of the reimbursement of property taxes that are paid by the developer. And then we look at the net present value cash flow stream and offer a lump sum loan amount based on a marginal of that net present value cash flow stream.

What Monetizing TIF Loans is really doing is adding that additional value to those payments by offering those payments to be reimbursed to the developer up front so we can fund that gap equity. It turns out to be gap equity that comes into the project because at the end of the day, we all want to get that project finished. But there are ways to obviously fund that upfront that we provide rather than having the city do it.

Many Thanks to: Emily Blaylock, President of Untamed Equity

Solving a Supply Chain Problem for Casting

Even before the challenges brough on by supply chain disruptions, Dean and Andrew Sonquist of Plas-Tech Tooling have been working with companies who are converting cast parts and components into machined ones. The current supply chain disruption is more far reaching and causing serious problems for a significant number of manufacturers across the country. Dean explains that they have had several companies recently contact them to see if it was feasible to convert several cast parts into machined parts to fill some orders.

What The Podcast Covers

The podcast explains how the process works and more importantly what factors make the process financially beneficial to a company. There are several considerations one has to look at before making the jump to machined parts over cast parts. Aesthetics, weight, and costs are primary reasons to go or not go with conversions.

What to Ask - How to Work with Your Production Maching Source

The program also explains the type of questions you need to be asking a production machining company to see if the process is the right move as well as the importance of good communications between companies so that the goals, requirements, and concerns are all covered before production begins. The process is fairly quick to set up and some prototypes can be created with a few days which means the conversion can be done relatively quickly. Some buyers are taking the opportunity to make modifications to the parts because changing a machined part is more cost effective than changing the mold for a cast part.

Many Thanks to Dean and Andrew Sonquist | Plas-Tech Tooling | www.plastechtooling.com 

What Advantages Can Zinc offer over Other Metals or Plastics?

Zinc is an element that has certain characteristics that when refined and processed is an excellent choice for making castings and coatings. Zinc offers many benefits that lend themselves to the die casting industry. Zinc is lighter in weight, offers significant reduction in wear and tear to the molds used which extends the life of the casting mold, the material itself is more cost-effective in specific applications as compared to aluminum, plastic, or most cast irons.

Zinc material is categorized by a series of alloys that when used in die casting offer an exceedingly high strength which means thinner Parts can be thinner walls on the castings can be produced. zinc also melts at a lower temperature which makes the liquid form of the metal more vicious and enables it to better fill smaller details with the mold cavity meaning it can go into tighter corners and more details compared to other materials. because zinc melts at a lower temperature it also solidifies at a much faster rate than other metals this helps reduce production time and enables more products to be made in a shorter amount of time than other metals.

Because zinc produces a better net shaped product details like threading can be directly cast into the product and thus reduce secondary operations like machining or even assembly, this helps reduce overall manufacturing costs and production time.

Zinc also offers a longer to life for the molds used in the casting in fact a typical zinc mold can last 10 times longer than an aluminum mold because zinc has fewer abrasive qualities and a lower melting temperature which does less damage to the tooling enabling it to last for a longer life cycle and reduces mold replacement costs.

When to Consider Using Zinc?

The materials used for developing a new product are selected at the design phase. This is where zinc should be considered as the material for use in manufacturing the product.

Zinc is not perfect for all applications, but it is well worth the investigation to see if it can reduce cost or improve quality or reduce the amount of secondary operations in producing a new product. The podcast is an interview with Dave Magner from DECO products (a leading zinc die caster in Iowa) that explains the advantages of zinc die casting in the manufacturing process and the types of products that zinc is best suited for. 

Many Thanks to Dave Magner | Deco Products - https://decoprod.com/

What do Metal Fabricators Do and How to Choose One!

Metal fabrication is the business of producing metal parts, components, and products out of metal. In business and manufacturing it is sometimes better to subcontract part of your work to a company that can more affordably produce the part or product you need. Small businesses may find they made need a shelf, rack, or cart to better run their operations and many find that generic standard products don’t solve their problem.

Enter the contract metal fabricator turning sheet metal into usable products not only requires the right set of tools and equipment but employees skilled and experienced in how to combine various operations and processes into a finished quality product. There are many factors in metal fabrication that most of us are not aware of and don’t realize the impact the create. Good metal fabricators take the time to understand not only the product you need made but how you are going to use it and make recommendations on how to best produce the item.

Some of the processes metal fabricators use include:

• Metal Cutting or Shearing
• Laser Cutting for thinner materials and Plasma Cutting for thicker materials
• Bending (using a brake press) or Stamping (a hydraulic or mechanical press that shapes metal)
• Machining (Typically CNC Machining) which removes material to make the shape or dimension accurate to the print.Painting and Powder Coating provides a protective and attractive finish to the final product.

How to Choose a Good Metal Fabricator!

As John Nelson from NSMC points out in our pod cast, you need to do your homework. Go to their websites, look up reviews on Google, and look at testimonial of clients who use them and contact them. Another key element that shows documented quality is an ISO 9001 2015 certification certificate. These certificates document that the certified company not only has met all the required quality certificates but is continually audited by an independent auditor to ensure their processes, inspections and documentation all meet the certification requirements. It’s a standard that is recognized throughout the industry and demonstrates a high level of commitment in process improvement.

A good metal fabricator should also ask you questions about what you want done, they should be able to provide an estimate and timeline for the work requested and may even offer recommended options or modifications to improve your part or product. Most contract metal fabricators employee a team of estimators who can work out all the details prior to your acceptance of the quote.

A good fabricator will also know when to say, “that’s not something we produce” and be upfront and honest. Great fabricators will understand what you need and offer alternative metal fabricators that may specialize in the process or part you are looking to have made.

Many Thanks to John Nelson, President Nelson Sales & Marketing: https://nsmc-steel-racks.com/index.html

Innovation in Grow Lights

For any small business that grow plants indoors, you know how important indoor grow lighting is to the development and growth of plants. The big challenge for most growers is to find new and better grow lights to improve growth and yield of plants while at the same time by mindful of your costs including buying and installing the lights and more importantly, the energy costs of operations.

Many growers rely on older technology simply because that’s what everybody else is using, some growers, to improve their operations and improve production, look to new technologies to help them grow their business. The technologies are diverse and each one offers pros and cons to growing plants indoors.

Before we discuss indoor grow lights, we thought it would be helpful to understand what makes a great grow light. How do pants react to light and what characteristics benefit growers as opposed to just marketing hype.

A quick Google search will quickly overwhelm one with thousands of articles, reviews, and products. We decided to talk to an expert and find out what should a grower look for in a grow light with comparisons of current technology and talk about innovations in grow lighting.

We spoke with Jeff Nall a lighting engineer and technical advisory board member for gGRO Horticulture about their innovative grow lighting system. The pod cast is very in depth and will certainly answer any questions you have regarding light and growing plants indoors.

Indoor Grow Lighting Pod Cast

Read more

What Is Small Business Talks

For over 25 years, I have worked with small businesses across the country to develop strategic digital marketing plans for their business, along the way I have met and worked with some interesting people with some great ideas or stories about how met the challenges of being a small business or marketing themselves. I created this blog and pod casts to share their stories in their own words with other small businesses to help provide solutions to challenges we all face.

These businesses range from B2B manufacturing companies to commercial retail in just about every kind of small business you can imagine. I felt it was best to let them talk about their solutions, ideas or innovations so that others can learn and benefit from their successes.

I hope you find the posts informative, enlightening, and entertaining and hope you will visit their websites listed if you like the article. I also value your comments and suggestions and encourage you to post them.  

You can also hear the accompanying podcasts at Small Business Talks Podcasts

Thank you,

Neal Rabogliatti