Compliance Services

Aon Hewitt helps companies effectively manage HR-related risk and compliance issues. Our dedicated teams of experts offer a variety of highly specialized services that delve deeply into technical topics, keeping clients on the right side of the issues.

We offer professional services in a variety of areas including:

• Claims and Appeals Management 
• Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) Administration 
• Qualified Medical Child Support Order (QMCSO) Administration 
• Form 5500 Preparation 
• Financial Statement Preparation 
• Power of Attorney (POA) and Legal Guardianship (LG) Administration 

Claims and Appeals Management

Decisions about claims can be challenging and time-consuming for HR departments—especially if there are insufficient resources to manage the process within the plan's ERISA-compliant time frames.

Aon Hewitt's Claims and Appeals Management team provides companies of all sizes with a staff that's trained and experienced in making claims determinations. Using guidelines based on your plan's own rules and drawing on research gathered from Aon Hewitt's proprietary systems, applicable plan provisions, summary plan descriptions, call recordings, and other sources, the Claims and Appeals Management team makes timely and accurate first-level determinations, while carefully protecting participant privacy.

With Aon Hewitt's Claims and Appeals Management team, you can:

• Reduce time spent by HR staff on your claims and appeals
• Provide unbiased and consistent benefit determinations that are well-documented
• Help ensure that your plan's ERISA-compliant time frames are satisfied.
• Protect participant privacy and confidentiality
• Use the team's research and documentation to assist with any second-level appeals where a fiduciary decision is required
• Use Claims and Appeals Management team reports to track issues and trends

Aon Hewitt's Claims and Appeals Management team handles issues for all types of benefit plans, including health and welfare, retirement, disability and spending accounts. Team members are knowledgeable analysts with vast experience in claims processing and customer service. With a wide variety of clients and nearly 4 million participants, the Aon Hewitt Claims and Appeals Management team associates efficiently process thousands of claims each year.

Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) Administration

In addition to the employee's financial and emotional upheaval, divorce is also complicated and time-consuming for HR staff charged with reviewing a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) to assign all or part of a participant's retirement benefit to an alternate payee.

Aon Hewitt's QDRO Administration services offer a standardized, streamlined process that enables companies to reduce the administrative burden on the HR staff. Our expert QDRO team reviews court orders quickly, objectively and accurately in accordance with client-specific requirements. Advantages of QDRO Administration include:

• Reduced HR involvement in employees' divorce issues, freeing up valuable time for strategic initiatives
• Availability of preapproved court orders, enabling participants to minimize their attorneys' fees
• Improved possibility of first-time qualification as a result of our user-friendly Web-based tool—QOCenter.com—where model orders can be completed online
• Availability of online order tracking, allowing participants, alternate payees and attorneys to check the progress of their order's qualification at any time
• Easy-to-understand written communications provided to the parties at regular stages of the process

Aon Hewitt's QDRO team serves hundreds of companies and reviews thousands of QDROs each year. Team members are dedicated, full-time experts that include paralegals with deep expertise in QDRO Administration.

Qualified Medical Child Support Order (QMCSO) Administration

Qualified Medical Child Support Orders (QMCSOs) and National Medical Support Notices (NMSNs) are ERISA-governed court orders that require a company to enroll an employee's eligible child(ren) in group health coverage.

The QMCSO and NMSN process includes:

• Determining whether the order fully complies with federal rules and the terms of the employer's individual plan(s)
• Identifying the type of coverage in which to enroll the child(ren)
• Determining the maximum amount of deductions that can be taken from the employee's paycheck under state law
• Enrolling the child(ren) with an approved QMCSO or NMSN with coverage
• Communicating to the various parties (employee, custodial parent, attorneys, state agencies) regarding whether an order is approved or denied and keeping them clearly informed of next steps

Child support issues create emotional and financial distractions for employees. For HR, the process of reviewing QMCSOs and NMSNs is time-consuming and complicated. If a determination is flawed or untimely, it may result in a child being improperly denied court-ordered coverage. This, in turn, can result in financial exposure or legal problems for the employer.

Aon Hewitt's QMCSO Administration service offers a standardized, streamlined process that helps ensure accurate and timely QMCSO administration. Our experienced team of professionals reviews the order and approves or denies it within 15 business days. When an order is approved, the team coordinates the process of adding the child(ren) to the appropriate coverage with the client's benefits administration team. The service also includes the cutting-edge website QOCenter.com, a user-friendly tool that allows parties to manage orders online. QOCenter.com provides informational resources and, in addition, functionality that lets parties draft orders online, reducing their attorney fees. QOCenter.com also enables parties to track the status of any order currently under review.

Aon Hewitt's QMCSO team serves a wide variety of companies of all sizes in all industries and reviews more than 30,000 QMCSOs and NMSNs each year. The team is made up of dedicated, caring experts with deep knowledge of the rule-bound QMCSO and NMSN processes. The team delivers friendly, professional and consistent administration that minimizes HR involvement in employees' divorce and related personal issues, freeing up time to focus on strategic activity.

Form 5500 Preparation

Most organizations that offer employee retirement and welfare benefit plans are required to file a Form 5500 each year—a time-consuming, highly specialized task that internal HR staff often lacks the time or expertise to complete. Moreover, penalties can be steep—$1,100 each day a filing is late.

Aon Hewitt's Form 5500 Preparation service is provided by a dedicated team of experts who offer a high degree of knowledge and commitment to timely, consistent and accurate filings.

With Aon Hewitt's Form 5500 Preparation, you get:

• Signature-ready Forms 5500 and all related attachments for defined benefit, defined contribution and health and welfare plans (except audited financials)
• Summary Annual Reports for each plan, including an electronic version
• Extension preparation (Form 5558)
• Filing guidance to minimize penalties for delinquent filings in accordance with the Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program
• Management of data collection from multiple sources
• Response on your behalf to Internal Revenue Service or Department of Labor inquiries for prepared filings
• Expert consulting to ensure accurate and complete filings

We serve hundreds of clients with thousands of filings each year, giving us the exposure and experience to deal with a wide range of unique situations. Our breadth of knowledge also reduces the time your staff spends gathering data for filings—which further boosts the efficiency and cost effectiveness of this resource-intensive task.

Financial Statement Preparation

All employee benefit plans with more than 100 participants must submit a financial statement and audit report along with the annual Form 5500—or face penalties that easily run $100,000 or more for each plan. Compiling the information needed is highly technical, specialized and extremely time consuming.

Aon Hewitt's Financial Statement Preparation team can perform the majority of the preparation and audit work for you. Not only does this save a huge amount of time and effort for your staff and auditors, but our services help you file complete and accurate financial statements on time, every time, significantly reducing your risk of penalties.

Our best practices solution:

• Follows a proven process for managing financial statement preparation from start to finish
• Serves as auditor contact as issues arise, relieving your HR staff from these time-consuming and technical questions
• Applies up-to-date knowledge on current required reporting changes
• Charges lower fees than a typical CPA firm

Members of Aon Hewitt's Financial Statement Preparation team specialize in benefit plan accounting, including defined benefit, defined contribution and health and welfare plans, as well as VEBA trusts. We prepare nearly 200 benefit plan financials annually for a wide variety of clients.

Power of Attorney (POA) and Legal Guardianship (LG) Administration

A fully administered POA and LG process serves both employers and employees well.

Many organizations lack a streamlined approach for dealing with the influx of POA and LG requests they receive each year. And, while a simple request for a change in control might not seem to be critically important, to the employee or their designee looking to make decisions on health care, pension, 401(k) accounts, life insurance or guardianship, that simple request takes on a great deal of significance for the affected employee.

Aon Hewitt's POA/LG Administration team gets right down to business, providing fast, accurate processing of all incoming requests. We are able to do this so quickly and effectively because:

• We have a dedicated POA/LG review team, well versed in each client's specific requirements.
• We have a well-defined process surrounding implementation, processing and communications so administration proceeds smoothly and with purpose.
• We have tools specifically designed to support these administrative tasks.
• We communicate current status levels as appropriate, in writing, to participants and agents.
• We have a defined charge per request, making administration costs easy to account for and budget.

Our review team is staffed with experienced experts. We also benefit from internal legal and research resources with extensive experience in HR-related law.

POA and LG-related customer service is provided through existing benefits centers and is fully integrated with existing benefits administration.