• Benefits Access Unavailable—April 7
• Wespath Moving Toward Paperless Payments
• Update Forms Distributed to Participants

Benefits Access Unavailable—April 7

The Benefits Access participant account management website will be unavailable Saturday, April 7 from midnight until early afternoon, as Wespath implements enhancements.

Details about the enhancements were shared in the March 20 issue of On Board Express. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Wespath Moving Toward Paperless Payments

As shared in the Organizational Effectiveness presentation during this year’s Conference Forum, Wespath implemented mandatory direct deposit for new periodic benefit setups such as annuity and retirement income (cash installments) on April 1. By the end of the year, Wespath will eliminate paper checks for all benefit payments—annuity setups, retirement income (cash installments), periodic payments and survivor monthly benefits. However, one-time death benefit payments will still be sent via check.

This transition will result in greater security of payments, stewardship and quicker receipt of benefit payments. Communication materials are being updated to reflect the new process for benefit payments via direct deposit.

Contact your plan sponsor manager or Helen Exarhakos, managing director of Customer Service, for more information about the changes to benefit payments.

Update Forms Distributed to Participants

Wespath regularly updates the participant forms and marketing materials as changes are made to our plans and policies. Since plan sponsors often keep printed copies on hand for participants, we recommend refreshing your supplies at least quarterly to ensure that the forms provided to participants are updated and valid.

Please recycle all printed copies of the following forms to ensure that participants return valid forms to us:

• Beneficiary Designation form—form updated to indicate that retired/terminated participants can update beneficiaries online—new form currently available
• Investment Election form—form updated to reflect name change of Equity Social Values Plus Fund to the Social Values Choice Equity Fund—new form available 4/8

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