Open Enrollment 2020: Tying Up the Loose Ends
While the 2020 Open Enrollment period has ended, you can still make sure that you’ve tied up all the loose ends to ensure that your benefits are in place for the coming year! The following information details ways in which you can do so.
![Be sure to do one last review of all your benefits for the coming year and act now to make any updates.]()
Be sure to do one last review of all your benefits for the coming year and act now to make any updates.
Review Benefit Elections
If you enrolled in or changed any of your benefits for 2020 by the November 29 deadline, did you complete your open enrollment by clicking the “Submit” button? If you didn’t, then any new elections you may have made, might not have been processed.
To verify that all was completed properly, you can log onto www.montebenefits.com. Once on the site, find the “Quick Links” section and click on “Your Benefits Summary.” Once the summary has loaded, click on the “Future” tab to view your benefits effective for January 1, 2020.
If anything is amiss, the good news is there’s still time to make corrections. Simply call the Benefits Enrollment Center at 888.860.6166 before December 31, 2019. This includes completing the annual enrollment for the healthcare or dependent care flexible spending accounts! (You can set aside a maximum of $2,750, an increase of $50, for 2020.)
Verify Your Newly Added Dependents
If you’ve added any new dependents to your medical, dental, or vision plans, you are required to verify these dependents with Winston Financials, our dependent-verification company. Verification for your spouse may include a copy of your marriage certificate/license or the first page of your most recent tax return (1040 form). Verification for your children may include a copy of a birth certificate, affidavit of dependency, final adoption decree, or court order.
Failure to verify status of your family members will result in them being dropped from your plans —so don’t delay! You can email your documentation to mmcdepverify@winstonbenefits.com, or fax it to 732.903.1166.
Review Your Beneficiaries
When you first enrolled in our available insurance benefits, you were asked to designate beneficiaries for your basic and supplemental life insurance and for basic and supplemental accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D) insurance. If it has been a while since you last checked who those beneficiaries are, you may want to do so now. It’s as easy as clicking on the “Your Beneficiaries” tab under the “Quick Links” section of the benefits website. You can then view or edit your beneficiaries to be sure they’re up to date.
While it’s important to designate your beneficiaries for your life and AD&D coverage, it’s equally important to make sure you have designated your beneficiaries for your Einstein 403b Retirement Plan since, in most cases, that represents a significant portion of your estate.
Even if you’ve sent a form to Fidelity designating your beneficiaries, we suggest that you take the time to designate your beneficiaries online at www.403b.com. Using the website to indicate or update your beneficiaries allows you to easily review and make any necessary changes.
Why is it important to do this, even if you’ve already made your beneficiary designations? There’s one important reason in particular: Depending on when you last reviewed the information, your life situation may have changed.
Remember, whomever you’ve designated as a beneficiary will receive the proceeds from your life insurance, AD&D coverage, and your retirement plan account. Since making your designations, ask yourself: Did I get married (or divorced)? Did my spouse die? Have I remarried? Had a baby?
Any of these life situations could affect whom you choose to designate among your beneficiaries. You’ll want to be sure that your family or other important people of your choosing will receive your benefits!
A Tale of Two Websites
You may have noticed that Einstein has two benefits websites. While they sound similar, they are very different.
There’s www.mymontebenefits.com, which is where you can access Einstein benefits information, find forms, legal documents, and contacts as well as where you can link directly to websites for Montefiore/Einstein benefit providers.
And there’s www.montebenefits.com, which is where you enroll in your benefits, initiate a change in status, and verify your personal information. If you need to change any personal information, you can go to the “Self Service” icon, found under “MyWorkflow” on the Einstein intranet to update your personal information.
Know Your Limits
Make sure you are taking advantage of the pre-tax limit increases announced for 2020. If you are age 50 or will turn age 50 during 2020, the maximum you can contribute to the Einstein 403b Plan is $26,000 ($19,500 regular and $6,500 catchup). If you are under age 50, you can contribute a maximum of $19,500 in 2020.
Pre-tax commuter transit and parking limits have increased as well. You can now set aside up to $270/month to pay for commuter and parking expenses.
Posted on: Tuesday, December 17, 2019