GENERAL SESSION 1
When Health Meets Wealth: Reshaping Retirement and Healthcare Programs with an Eye on the Future
Speaker: Brad Kimler, Senior Vice President, Fidelity Investments
Sponsored by: Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Texas & Financial Engines

How will the increasing costs of retirement and health care and the diminishing availability of retiree medical benefits affect an employee's ability to successfully fund retirement? How will this challenge affect an employer's work force and bottom line? The ever-escalating cost of retirement and healthcare benefits continues to challenge how organizations think about their human capital investments. Expenditures to minimize vs. resources to support? Brad Kimler will share a provocative view on the future of benefits and help you develop a new strategic outlook and fiscal framework to best balance and fund your employee benefits programs in today's global economy.

BREAKOUT SESSION 1 (Track 1)
What Happened to My Stock Fund? Alternative Approaches to the 401(k) Investment Lineup
Speakers: John Sturiale, Director of Investments, Schwab Corporate Services, Ron Albahary, Merrill Lynch

In the 1990's, choosing core investment options was relatively simple and seemingly risk free as all boats rose with the tide. Today it is clear that the markets are behaving differently. In this session the speakers will explore alternative approaches and methods including:
Analyzing a lineup's overall diversification
Target-year retirement funds
Pension income or hybrid investment options

BREAKOUT SESSION 1 (Track 2)
Will HSAs be the Cure-all for an Ailing Health Care System?
Speakers: Justine Goode, Product Development Manager, Uniprise, Roger Marietti, Director, Benefits Administration, Temple Island

Health Savings Accounts, or HSA's, give employers and employees new opportunities to leverage consumerism in healthcare. However, with those opportunities come new challenges around benefits design, communication, acceptance and implementation. In this session, you will learn how HSA's are changing the healthcare and benefits landscape as an increasing number of companies start offering high deductible plan with HSA's. You will also hear about the experiences and lessons learned from an "early adopter" company that started offering an HSA plan to employees in 2004.

BREAKOUT SESSION 2 (Track 1)
Moving Your Retirement Plan Ahead - The Evolving 401(k) Plan
Speakers: David Altimont, Sr. Vice President, Lockton Dunning Benefit Company, John Doyle, Director of Education, T. Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services, Donna Strong, Manager of Benefits, The Beck Group

Many plan sponsors today concede that in general, pure self-direction and participant education has not been effective. What can companies do to ensure that retirement benefits are truly being realized? This session will discuss some alternatives that providers and plan sponsors are using to overcome this challenge including:
Target Retirement Funds - the newest "mapping" option at conversion
The new "self-managing" 401(k) plan
The new Focus on Savings versus Investments

BREAKOUT SESSION 2 (Track 2)
Designing Pharmacy Benefits that Protect The Social Contract
Speaker: Robert F. Nease, Jr., Ph.D., Vice President, Applied Decision Analysis, Express Scripts

This interactive session will focus on how the pharmacy benefit is reaching a crucial stage: costs continue to rise - often faster than the health benefit generated - but opportunities for cost shifting to the member are limited. Dr. Nease will set the stage for integrated solutions by exploring the inevitable gravitational pull towards a more efficient design and use of the pharmacy benefit. Questions we'll explore together include:
Do members' feelings of entitlement run deep, or are there opportunities for change?
When it comes to paying for the pharmacy benefit, who should pay… and for what?
What is it worth to have a dynamic and progressive approach to the pharmacy benefit?
How do members react to changes in their pharmacy benefit?

BREAKOUT SESSION 3 (Track 1)
Non-qualified Compensation Strategies in the Current Environment
Speakers: Elizabeth Drigotas, Deloitte & Touche, LLC, Jerry Zimmerman, Manager, Employee Benefits, Chevron Philips Chemical Co., Linda Wilkins, Partner, Locke, Liddell & Sapp, LLP

With the new regulations in place, what are companies doing to their non-qualified retirement benefits? The discussion will address the following questions:
What can companies do in light of the new regulations?
Should I be altering my firm's deferred compensation strategy?
What are some real-world solutions?

BREAKOUT SESSION 3 (Track 2)
High Performance Provider Networks: Moving from Theory to Practice
Speakers: Joseph Woods, Vice President of Operations, Humana, Inc., Jeffrey Kang, MD, MHP, Sr. Vice President, Medical Strategy and Policy, Cigna Healthcare, Carl King, Regional President of Health Care Delivery, Aetna, Inc.

"Provider tiering" is an innovative cost management strategy that health plans are introducing to employers to help curb skyrocketing health care costs and promote consumerism among employees. The theory behind this strategy is that employees will receive better health care at a lower cost from providers who have met certain criteria for clinical performance and efficient use of health care resources. Incentives are often employed to steer participants to "high performance" hospitals and physicians, and in some cases, high performing providers receive preferential pricing or benefit tiering. Join this session for a lively discussion of real world application of economic, quality and outcomes data by leading health plans in configuring optimal provider networks for employers.

GENERAL SESSION 2
Economic and Political Impact on The Stock Market in 2005 and Beyond
Speaker: Paul W. Greenwell, Principal, Luther King Capital Management Corporation

What is the outlook for the stock market in 2005 and beyond? Paul Greenwell, an Investment Manager and Principal with Luther King Capital Management will discuss both the economic and political factors that may affect bond and equity prices including:
The impact of interest rates, inflation, tax policy, and inflation on corporate profits and stock market valuations
The impact of the return of President Bush for four more years
How the market typically reacted during second terms and what may be different this time around
The social and demographic changes in America, implications for the two-party system in the United States, and whether this will be positive or negative for bond and equity prices

GENERAL SESSION 3
Optimizing Your Resources to Improve Vendor Management: Creating Stronger Vendor Partnerships
Speakers: Tammy Schoenert, Manager, Benefits Plan Design, H-E-B Grocery Company, Brent Bannerman, IE-Engine, Inez Seaney, Watson Wyatt & Co., Alisa Martin, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas

IE-Engine, H-E-B Grocery Company, Watson Wyatt and BCBS share a case study that shows you how to…
Collaborate on a single technology platform to streamline processes
Automate data and vendor management to partner more effectively
Create Partnerships among your vendors for maximum success
Partner with your Vendors through strategic alliances

BREAKOUT SESSION 4 (Track 1)
Fiduciary Liability and Responsibility in the Current Environment
Speaker: Olena Berg-Lacy, Board Member, Financial Engines, Inc., former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor

As a plan sponsor there is an inescapable reality - fiduciary responsibility. In the post-Enron environment, fiduciary issues have taken on a more prominent role in the discussions of every retirement plan committee. The speakers in this session will focus on some of the related questions that seem to be high on the minds of benefits professionals today.
Personal liability as a fiduciary
Employer stock liability - potential remedies
Fiduciary considerations with respect to investment advice and self-directed accounts - is the risk higher or lower?

BREAKOUT SESSION 4 (Track 2)
ExxonMobil's "Back to Basics" Strategy for Health Care Cost Containment
Speaker: George A. Brugnoli, Ph.D., Project Manager, Partners in Health, Exxon Mobil Corporation

In the face of continuously rising health insurance premiums, employers are under increasing pressure to find effective ways to control their health care expenses. New cost containment strategies, such as consumer-directed health plans and tiered provider networks, keep surfacing, but the jury is still out as to whether these strategies actually deliver on their promises. In this session, you will learn about ExxonMobil's "back to basics" approach to addressing the fundamental drivers of rising health care costs. Expect to gain a broader perspective on key factors that contribute to the company's total health care costs over time, a better understanding of ExxonMobil's strategic benefits decisions that impacted employees' behavior and their use of health care services, and a comprehensive view of the company's partnerships with service providers to deliver quality services consistent with ExxonMobil's corporate strategy and culture.

GENERAL SESSION 4
Making Benefits Positive Rewards...Again
Speaker: Dennis Ackley, President, Ackley Associates

"Wow! What a great reward!" That's how most employees' would react to an $18,000 new car -employers' average annual cost for benefits. Unfortunately, most employees are not satisfied with their benefits. That's an impediment to building a high-performing workforce - plus a poor return on the investment. Are some benefit communication tactics causing the problem?

In this session you will learn innovative and effective ways to:
Describe benefits as rewards-what they're intended to be.
Communicate the real value of benefits (not just the cost).
Use meaningful, consumer-oriented benefit communication techniques.
Involve employees in controlling health plan costs.
Set communication measures that matter-to improve the effectiveness of recruiting, retaining, and rewarding high-performing employees.
Show how your benefits "walk" your culture and brand "talk."