September 8, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode of Risky Benefits, Derrick Daniel, Vice President of Large Market at TASC, explores how innovative benefit solutions can boost ROI, engagement, and care outcomes. Derrick highlights TASC’s leadership as the nation’s largest privately held benefit account TPA, serving 80,000+ clients including the federal government.
Key insights include TASC’s universal benefit account platform that unifies multiple benefit accounts, the My Cash program for faster reimbursements and financial flexibility, and differentiated HSA and VEBA strategies. Derrick also explains how TASC’s unique revenue models keep pricing competitive.
The episode offers a clear look at how TASC delivers comprehensive, forward-thinking benefit administration.
To listen in and subscribe to more episodes, visit our website: fbmc.com/podcast.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Hey, thank you for listening into Risky Benefits, a podcast
that informs you on all thingsbenefits.
We've got a saying around here,benefits isn't your main
business.
It's ours.
marketing-production_1_07-1 (00:17):
Hey everyone.
Thank you for listening to RiskyBenefits.
the podcast where we dive intothe complex world of employee
benefits, healthcare innovation,and everything in between.
Today we have Derek Daniel fromTask.
We are here to explore howforward thinking organizations
can embrace controlled riskbenefit packages to boost ROI
(00:38):
engagement and care outcomes.
That is a mouthful.
That said why don't we juststart by.
Introducing Derek who is herewith task, and we're gonna learn
a lot about task today.
If you're listening to this, youmay know who that is and if you
don't, cool.
It's gonna be a goodconversation, so we'll know.
Yeah, definitely.
(00:59):
Let's start with welcomingDerek.
Derek thank you for coming on.
And maybe before we get startedwhy don't you just tell us a
little bit about yourself.
absolutely.
And before I get started withthat intro, I thought we were
just a flex TPA, but you made itsound a lot more than you know
what?
I think we do, but a little bitabout myself.
I've been in the industry forroughly about 20 years, dealing
(01:19):
predominantly with largeemployers from the flex side to
the broker side, to theenrollment side, and all points
in between.
I've done this for a while, soI'm very.
Used to how these type ofemployers operate, I do bring a
certain core competency at task.
I was able to take someexperience I actually got here
at FBMC and bring it over thereand help grow their large market
(01:40):
team.
So, dealing with some of thesepublic and private employers,
and especially some of thesemore complicated procurements,
you get used to phrases like,hurry up and wait.
And with hurry up and wait.
You know, that's just somethingthat is old hat for me.
And then they say, hurry up andgo again.
But that's a little bit aboutmyself.
A little bit about the companytask.
We are the largest privatelyheld benefit account TPA in the
(02:02):
us.
We have over 80,000 clients.
Uh, often when I mention 80,000clients, people think I'm
pulling their leg, but trust me.
We turn nothing down but ourcollar, we take them from sole
proprietorships all the way upto the federal government, who
is our largest employer withabout 4 million eligibles.
You guys might be familiar withthe Office of Personnel
Management.
They have been in the newslately.
OPM, that is our largestemployer.
(02:23):
But really everyone in betweenfrom major Fortune 500 companies
to state governments, cities,counties, school districts, et
cetera.
We practice both on the privatesector and commercial side.
Very cool.
Wow.
So let's start by talking aboutdefinitions.
You mentioned briefly hurry upand wait.
Yep.
Can you expand on that a littlebit?
(02:44):
So, hurry up and wait.
That's something that it's notgermane to just public sector,
but you'll often see it wherethey'll release a procurement.
And they might release it inJuly with an award in September
or November, right around openenrollment.
And so this whole time you'vehad four months to punter.
I submitted the proposal.
If I didn't get it there, I'mdisqualified.
But now that I have it overthere are, they're going to
(03:06):
afford me the same luxury ofbeing timely and evaluating that
response.
Understanding there's a big dog,they're gonna do what they do.
And once they finally make thataward, now you have a couple of
months before they go live.
And now it's no longer hurry upand wait, it's hurry up and go.
So that's something we're usedto in our team.
I've conditioned tasks to beready for that.
(03:26):
So our deployment my ability toprovide delivery assurance
management ensures that we meetall our go live dates on target.
Very cool.
I mean, I think it's kind offunny, Derek, in the consulting
world, when we talk to our ownconsultants, you know,
consultants within the industry,a lot of people have a tendency
to avoid the public sectorbecause of those factors.
(03:49):
Absolutely.
Right.
So it's obviously makes you feelbetter when you know somebody
does it all the time and they'rekind of used to that.
The next question we wanted toask revolved around innovation.
Mm-hmm.
And I know that's a bigbuzzword.
Um, it's one that we love hereat FBMC.
It's part of our, uh, our kindof cultural belief statements,
(04:09):
our values.
Um, how does task innovate?
Uh, maybe, maybe talk a littlebit through that and, uh.
You know, from admin to decisiontools or education campaigns,
maybe just kind of elaborate onthat for us.
Yeah, absolutely.
So that's a great question, uh,innovation because everyone
talks to talk, but are youreally walking the walk?
(04:30):
Well, at task, we notice, youknow, in our space dealing with,
you know, benefit accounts likeHSAs, hra, FSAs, lifestyle
accounts.
Then you have, uh, continuationaccounts or continuation
services, Cobra retiree billing,direct bill, leave of absence.
Uh, typically withadministrators like us, they're
on separate disparate systems,so there is a silo between the
(04:52):
benefit accounts and thecontinuation accounts.
Well, we did notice that gap inthe market because we had
several systems ourselvesthrough different acquisitions
we made, but we were able totake.
All those separate systems,consolidate them into one
universal benefit account thathas all the continuations, so
the cobra, the direct bill, andthe FSAs, HSAs, HRA lifestyle
(05:14):
accounts on the same platform.
Meaning that you get thattechnology continuum where
you're not dealing with one.
Login for this.
One, login for that.
If you wanted to see your Cobra,it's the same.
Uh.
Platform that you use for theFSA.
So even for the employees,they're used to the look and
feel and for the employer groupsand even the consultants and
brokers, they don't have toworry about separate logins or
(05:36):
single sign on to this.
Everything's there in one, onespace and we've taken something
that's really in the e-commercerealm and applied it to the
benefits realm with endless al.
Very people that are listeningwho have never heard of task
Yeah.
TASC are probably thinking, whoare you and what do you do now?
Absolutely.
As you said, you guys have a tonof customers who a lot of people
(05:59):
do know, but for those whodon't, could you just real quick
tell everybody who is task, whatis that, TASC, and what do you
guys do?
Yeah, absolutely.
So, task, uh, and our officialname, total Administrative
Services Corporation.
Uh, if you want to kind of thinkabout this and kind of put us in
the box, which no one likes tobe in a box, but think about
(06:19):
FSAs, HSAs, hra, Cobra, uh,leave of absence retiree
billing.
So not a medical TPA.
But the other type of TPA, whenI say the other type of TPA, I'm
seeing that very affectionatelybecause we're very good at what
we do, uh, with the number ofclients we have throughout the
nation.
Uh, you could stack our clientlist up against anyone.
(06:40):
When you think about over eightstate governments, uh, we have
half of the, uh, top 10 largestschool districts.
Uh, we have Fortune 50companies.
Uh, so.
Definitely, uh, you think aboutFlex and HSAs cobra, that's when
you bring in task.
We have a very, uh, goodmid-market program for
(07:01):
mid-market employers.
For smaller employers, we havewhat we call our micro biz, and
for large market we have ourlarge market teams.
And then when you think aboutsome of these larger
conglomerate or enterprisesolutions, we have an enterprise
division, so we're able toserve.
Every size of employer with thatsame white glove concierge
treatment that they wouldexpect.
(07:21):
Uh, we provide accountmanagement.
We do the administration fromthe EDI electronic data
interchange.
So we, uh, do the file exchangeswith the different, uh, bin
admin systems, enrollmentsystems, payroll providers.
We also pay the claim.
So when you think aboutsubmitting the reimbursement,
getting reimbursed, we do that.
We collect the premium paymentsfor the cobra, the retirees, the
(07:42):
direct bill, the leave ofabsence.
One thing that most TPAs in ourspace, uh, do not, uh, have as
part of their package is an FMLAsolution.
We actually do a family medicalleave, a administration, and we
have our own proprietary FMLAsystem that we utilize.
So we kind of run the gamut ofsome of those ancillary benefits
that you think of that supportsome of the core benefits that,
(08:05):
uh, FBMC, uh, traditionallyconsults on with its clients.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
So soup to nuts.
Yeah.
Yes.
And I, like I say, soup to nuts.
I'm not really sure how soup.
Ghost to nut or how that works.
So no, you are in the rightplace because our owner uses it
all the time.
Okay.
So, so that's one of hisfavorite phrases, odd phrase.
Yeah, our owner, uh, we're tolook that one up.
(08:25):
Alright.
Which is, uh, uh, another pointI like to talk about just real
quick.
So we're in the industry, Ithink back, uh, Rick, when we
were running around doing these,we had, you know, 12, 15
competitors.
There's been a lot ofconsolidation, a lot of venture
capital money in the industry,and that's kind of dwindled
down, you know, the majorcompetitors into just a, just a
few.
One great thing about task iswe've never been sold, uh, the
(08:47):
same ownership family.
We started at our origin.
That's still our ownershipfamily today, the Raky family.
So we were tasked yesterday.
We're task today will be tasktomorrow.
You don't have to worry aboutany type of court to change with
tasks being out for sale orbeing bought up, which we have
experienced with a lot of our,uh, newer sales where we're
taking over for a company thatwasn't the initial award winner.
(09:08):
And so when they had thatculture clash, of course
service, uh, did decline, andthen they went out to bid for a
new administrator.
And when there's confusion inthe market, then that definitely
benefits us.
Awesome.
Okay.
Okay, so you said endless aisle.
What does that mean?
Can you tell us about thatconcept?
So endless aisle, and this iswhere, you know, if I was able
to call my own shots, I'll havea picture of our, uh, kind of
(09:31):
table of accounts appear righthere.
But just think of your oldperiodic table from grade school
and instead of elements, thinkof different benefit accounts.
So your traditional tax favoraccounts, of course you have the
FSAs, HSAs, hras, commuter, uh,things of that nature.
But now let's think of morelifestyle oriented accounts.
Let's think of a, uh, petinsurance account.
(09:52):
Let's think of a workflowsaccount, a virtual home office
account.
Uh, let's think of a wellnesstracking account.
A wellness incentive account.
I just named like five or sixadditional accounts.
Currently we have over 50accounts built on this platform.
In addition to the traditionaland the continuation, the COBRA
retiree billing.
But what this is to us, abenefit account has three main,
(10:14):
uh, components.
Uh, three common denominators.
It's, uh, money in which istypically some type of payroll
deduction, whether from theemployee or employer.
Then you have a, a request formoney, which is usually the
claim.
Hey.
Pay me back, and then you havemoney out, which is the
reimbursement.
Everything else that happenstakes place behind the scenes
and usually dealing with pre orpost-tax and tax code.
(10:34):
We take care of that for theemployer and the employee where
they don't have to worry aboutit.
For us, a benefit account issimple.
We can build benefit accounts ina matter of a day.
You know, just, just tell uswhat's the reimbursable item.
And really the only limitationis your imagination.
We can put anything on ouruniversal benefit account, hence
the name.
And that's what the Endless Owlconcept.
We're able to continually adddifferent accounts, uh, to this
(10:57):
Endless Owl platform.
And it's pretty much we can goand it's.
They're for perpetuity.
You can just keep addingdifferent accounts.
So, and you know what I wannaknow about that work clothes
account.
Uh, we have some, with some ofour manufacturing, uh, clients
where they can, uh, the employeecan set aside money to go out
and purchase, uh, uniforms orwork clothes or even work tools.
So, uh, we can get as granularor as wide as you want.
(11:20):
We understand a bunch of these,uh, benefits have merchant
category codes and most often wecan put that on our debit card
and we can stack as manyaccounts on that.
Card using separate purses as weneed it, we can establish an
order of depletion, some type ofcoordination of benefit to
decide which one pays first.
If there are some, uh, benefitaccounts that kind of, uh, you
know, stack up on top of eachother, but we're able to use
(11:40):
that same, uh, kind of processand, uh, program or configure
our platform.
That's the great thing about ouruniversal benefit account.
It is, uh, totally configurable,uh, and we're able to configure
it based on any plan design.
The client, consultant brokermay have.
So I'm not sure I'm following onall of that.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm just gonna ask a coupleof follow up questions.
Absolutely.
Um, okay.
(12:01):
So when you say a universalendless aisle, universal
benefits platform programmm-hmm.
Is, is that what you, what doyou call it?
Uh, universal benefit account.
Universal benefit account.
So I'm envisioning in my head,like I go to a web address.
Mm-hmm.
And as a participant.
And when I go to that webaddress, I'm not just seeing tax
(12:23):
favorite accounts orH-S-A-F-S-A-Q-T-P, uh, or cobra.
I'm also seeing other benefitsshowing up in there.
Uh, absolutely that's the way itwas designed.
Uh, we have what we call a, atuba.
We have a bunch, we're big onacronyms at task, but that's a
task universal benefit accountwhere some employers may just
give their employees, let's justsay, a thousand dollars.
(12:44):
And a menu of benefits to, tochoose from.
And they can divide it up prepost tax.
It might be a tuition repaymentaccount, a student loan, uh,
account, uh, it could be acrisis account.
Uh, so any type of thing likethat we're able to build on the
platform.
Now you can limit what youremployees see, so if you only
want it, you know, traditionalaccounts or maybe one just catch
(13:04):
all lifestyle account, we candefinitely do that.
But if you wanted that fullexperience where we would sell
pretty much UBA, what we calluniversal benefit account.
We can have a menu of accountsand for at a certain threshold,
an employer can have as manyaccount offerings as they wanted
to offer to their participants.
All built into the package.
Well, I guess what I'm trying tofigure out is, is I enroll
(13:26):
mm-hmm.
At my place of employment and Ihave medical, dental, vision.
Let's say I have universal lifelong, let's say I've got cancer,
short-term disability, long-termdisability, and then I've got
the F-S-A-H-S-A, the taskoptions.
Yep.
How do, how do, if I enroll ina, in a, a plethora of those
(13:47):
options mm-hmm.
And then I select the task, FSAoption.
Yes.
How does that Okay, so what wetransfer our employer as the
consultant, my employer's goingto transfer that information.
We're gonna transfer thatinformation to task.
Task is gonna create a universalaccount.
(14:07):
Mm-hmm.
Now how I'm not, I'm not gettingfrom, from that point to what
you're describing.
Okay.
So can you walk me through that?
So think of it, let's just, uh,let's think of something that's
routine and customary foreveryone.
Let's say an FSA, you can enrollthrough task, you can enroll
through the employer.
If you guys have, I know youguys have your own enrollment,
uh, system that you can, uh,deploy in the market, right?
(14:30):
And so we can have that, uh,FSA, but we can also have.
Let's just call it a lifestyleaccount.
Most of our competitors, theydon't get that granular with
breaking down workflows, accountwork, tools, accounts.
They just call it a lifestyleaccount and they can make it
whatever they want to.
For simplification, let's justcall ours a lifestyle account.
We can have that bevy oflifestyle accounts on there as
options for the employee toenroll in.
(14:52):
If they do enroll in it, thenuh, the information will get
exchanged depending on thesophistication of the employer,
either through some type of dataexchange, or they can do a
direct upload in our platform.
It's a separate enrollment.
Uh, it, it's a separateenrollment, uh, unless the
employer just wanted to give itto everybody.
So some employers.
Pretty much a, a lifestyleaccount is just a glorified HRA.
(15:12):
It may, it may not have healthcomponents to it, but when the
HRA, you can play mathscientists with it.
Yeah.
You can pretty much design anHRA to work any way you want to.
I'm not suggesting that for theaudience, because it makes it
hard to administer and put it onthe card.
When you look at, you know,co-insurance and all these other
stuff, it's like a definedbenefit.
In essence, the employer issaying, we're setting aside X
amount of funds.
(15:32):
Mm-hmm.
For each person.
To go onto to the task accountand select how you would like to
utilize those funds, uh,post-tax, uh, most often, uh,
those are post-tax when youthink about most of your
lifestyle accounts, uh, there,and I won't geek out with impute
income's and all that otherstuff.
Yeah.
But, you know, there are somethings that happened behind the
scenes that are a littledifferent than some of your
traditional accounts.
(15:53):
There was some, uh, furtherclarification on a few of those,
uh, lifestyle benefits, uh, withthe recent legislation that just
passed at the.
Point in time of this taping.
It might be a little older, butwith the, uh, one big beautiful
bill, they did provide furtherclarification on a couple of
those lifestyle accounts.
Uh, one big thing we're big onis, uh, giving accounts, uh,
what we do for the federalgovernment.
(16:13):
That's the largest charitablegiving campaign in the world.
We're the administrator for theGive back program, which allows
employees to use our platform tofind whatever that 5 0 1 c that
they want to, uh, go ahead andYep.
Contribute to through ourplatform.
And we do that for the federalgovernment.
So then are you pulling that outof on a payroll deduction basis?
(16:34):
Correct.
So that they can do thosedonations?
Yes.
Do you also provide some formof, uh, tax.
Reporting on that so that theycan give it to their accountant
at the end of the year for taxpurposes.
They, they do get the taxreporting and we actually have,
uh, you know, lobbyists on thehill trying to make this a
pre-tax, uh, thing.
So where would be that wouldcool.
Yeah.
Uh, what we would call a, uh,flexible giving account.
(16:56):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
So that's great.
We've been lobbying for it, youknow, we, we do it for OPM.
We think it's a great benefit ifyou research task that's TASC.
Probably the first thing that'llcome up is just what we do as
far as philanthropy.
We're real big on giving back,not just to uh, our community
where we're headquartered, butto the community where our
clients are served.
(17:16):
And so, uh, that's just onething that's built into our
ethos.
Very.
I love that, Derek.
That's super cool, man.
Thanks for sharing.
Yeah.
So real quick, I looked up soupto nuts.
Okay.
The origin, so it's frommulti-course meals.
Came from the 19th century wherethey began with soup and ended
with nuts.
They didn't start with nuts.
Nope.
Like I feel like began withsoup.
An airplane.
(17:37):
They always bring the nutsfirst.
I was thinking something withcars.
I don't know why, but, yep.
Soup to nuts.
Nuts.
Our last.
Apparently.
Why would you do that?
I a pallet cleanser.
I don't know.
That's so fascinating to me.
So this is the part of thepodcast I can carve out and send
to my owner.
I can't send him the wholething.
Then I feel like it's anevaluation going on, then I'm
being judged.
(17:57):
This is in it, my brother, thisis in it.
So hey listen, this is gonna begood.
Um, okay, cool.
Well, let me give you the nextquestion.
Okay.
So, um, tell us about what youguys are doing in the HSA space.
Okay.
You know.
Obviously the HRA space is, Imean, highly committal Yes.
(18:18):
On the employer side, right?
Yes.
Because they're funding,essentially that effort.
HSA space.
I, as an individual employee,you can elect it.
Yeah.
I love it.
Mm-hmm.
Because I think, I think,honestly, when I think through
Derek.
Long-term care.
Mm-hmm.
To me, NHSA is the, the way, away to fund long-term care.
(18:39):
Right?
It's a financial investment toolthat has tax favored components.
It rolls over, I can assign itto my wife as a beneficiary.
Yes.
Uh, there's a lot of reasons whypeople should focus on this.
Now, I get.
That people freak out about thehigh deductible health plans.
Yes.
That tied to them.
Um, but, and I'm sure you cankind of maybe elaborate on this,
(19:01):
there are a lot of waysemployers, uh, with the help of
people like task can create itin an advantageous way that,
that, that reduces any risk thatsomebody perceives that they're
taking on.
Absolutely.
Doesn't always get rid of it,but it helps mitigate some of
it.
Maybe talk to us, like talk tous about what you guys are doing
in that space.
Absolutely.
And you're right about that.
There are certain subsets outthere in the market.
(19:24):
Uh, sometimes it's, uh, based ongeography, but they're not, uh,
big proponents of the HSA.
We get it.
You talked about being a, uh,pathway to long-term care.
Um, I would actually challengethat a little bit because, uh,
HSAs often we think about thehealthy individuals.
Mm-hmm.
And really when you're thinkingabout services tasking offer,
and you're thinking more sotoward long-term care.
(19:46):
I may say, let's look at thatVeeva route that funded HRA,
which is, you'll see often forretirees or kind of, uh, those
OPE type benefits.
Yeah.
Uh, and we actually offer thatas well.
And so I'll kind of distinguishthat when I talk about our HSAs.
But what we're doing in the HSAmarket, uh, we do understand.
There's a lot of money in HSAs.
There's a bunch of assets,there's interest, you know,
(20:09):
there's investments.
Uh, and so what we've decided todo to take the financial
valuation out of it, we areproviding all HSAs free of
charge to our clients.
Zero fees, so we're not chargingany fees.
Of course, you're gonna ask me,well, Derek, how do you make
money?
We make money off the cashbalance on the assets, so the
interest on the assets, butwe're placing HSAs for$0.
(20:30):
So now you don't have to worryabout your participants
employees paying because we'renot gonna nickel and dime them
with banking fees.
Uh, oftentimes you might seeother administrators, they may
say$0 on the admin fee.
But every transaction theemployee does,'cause it is a
personal bank account.
They're getting charged, they'regetting charged a withdrawal
fee, or they're getting chargedto, uh, a transfer fee.
(20:50):
Uh, some, some TPAs in ourspace, they actually charge
investment fees.
We don't do that.
Of course, some mutual funds dohave a fee, and if it is, the,
uh, participant is made aware ofthat prior to investing.
But let's, uh, continue downthat path with, uh, HSAs and,
uh, Vivas.
So, uh, most administrators inour space.
They have one fund lineup forinvestment, and you will see no
(21:11):
delta or variance between whenthey sell Aviva to when they
place an HSA.
Well at task, we understandyou're looking at employees who
are at different spectrums oftheir employee life cycle.
Uh, the viba participants areeither retired or saving or
getting ready to retire, wherethe HSAs, uh, participants tend
to be a little more healthier.
We don't think one fund lineupkind of, uh, would benefit, you
(21:34):
know, both.
It's not a one size fits allapproach.
So we have a custom lineup.
For our Viba employers versusour HSA employers, where we're
able to put some custom funds inthere based off of whatever type
of, uh, risk they want toassociate with their investment,
whether moderate, uh, a littlemore aggressive or very
conservative, or if you justwant to guaranteed rate of
(21:55):
return, you keep it in your cashaccount.
We're gonna pay, uh, eachparticipant's, uh, 25 basis
points regardless of what theyhave in cash.
They could have$1, they couldhave, uh,$2,000 in there, but
they're getting that, uh, 0.25 aPR on their cash account.
So that's a great thing there.
And of course, if they play theplay the market, then uh, of
course we can't make any, uh,any guarantees of what's gonna
(22:16):
happen.
That's kind of at their ownrisk.
However, what we do.
We provide the maximum amount ofindependent research available
to those participants.
When you think about things suchas an investment toolkit, a
Morningstar report, uh, eprospectus, uh, what we do, we
utilize, uh, char, uh, Charlesswab a retirement technology
system to allow, to give themaccess to those investment
(22:38):
accounts.
They wanna go out and again,play the market, but they can
just treat it like atraditional, uh.
Tax favored account, uh, andjust let the assets build up on
their cash account and they'regetting those 25 basis points,
uh, that that's guaranteed to'em.
So with the HSA, I do think it'sa, a great thing.
Uh, I've noticed, uh, somequestions on some of your past
podcasts about, you know, what'sa little bit overrated in the,
(23:00):
in the industry.
I think with, sometimes withHSAs, especially this message is
being driven by some of thelarger medical carriers, is
that.
Technically they're integrated.
You know, integrated is a veryloose term.
What does that necessarily mean?
Just because we're not alignedwith a carrier doesn't mean we
don't integrate with all thecarriers just like they do.
So I think oftentimes you'll,you'll hear that, and that's a
(23:21):
barrier to someone coming in,getting an HSA that's decoupled
from the medical carrier.
But one of our value edges isthat we, uh, are carrier
agnostic.
Uh, if you have this carriertoday.
And next year you have thiscarrier.
We'll work with both of them.
We often see, and I think we'vehad some uh, cases with you guys
where one carrier left and theytook their ball and went home.
(23:43):
With, with tasks, you don't haveto worry about that.
We'll work with anyone.
We play nice in the sandbox withall carriers out there.
Uh, as far as integrations areconcerned, we integrate with
anybody who will integrate withus and uh, you know, that's what
you see with the HSAs.
Again, that's a trend that'sgoing, uh, with the
administration.
There is a renewed push on HSAs,so we do see it becoming more
prominent with more employersoffering the HSA and it's
(24:04):
definitely something where we'vetaken kind of that financial
decision out as far as adminfees are concerned.
But when you just really thinkabout a great product, we
utilize an independent, uh,advisor for the investment and
investment advisor, and they goin and look at the fund lineup
quarterly, uh, any fund that'sunderperforming gets, gets put
on the watch list.
If it underperforms for, uh,multiple quarters, we're gonna
(24:26):
go ahead and replace it.
But that is independent of tasksjust to keep the integrity of
those benefits.
So, thank you guys.
So, so maybe.
We've, we've, we've thrown some,uh, acronyms out there.
Mm-hmm.
So maybe let's just take asecond, um, for those that are
listening, uh, HSA Yep.
Health Savings Account.
Okay.
And Viva?
(24:48):
Voluntary Employee BenefitsAssociation.
Okay.
And you're saying Veeva is, aremore relevant to people who are
retiring or heading towardsretirement.
I, I, that's the way I would useit in Veeva.
You would hear it called in.
Again, it depends on geography.
Some people call it a Veeva.
You might hear retiree healthsavings accounts attached.
They call it a funded HRA.
FHRA.
(25:09):
When I was, uh, here at, uh,FBMC, we used to call it an
investment, HRA.
There are several differentnames in it, but with the viba,
uh, all, if it's public sector,you'll hear it as a Section one
15 Trust.
So several different names, butusually employer funded.
Uh, employer funded has to beemployer funded the well.
The Veeva, you can have severaldifferent types of, uh,
contributions, whether sickleave, uh, you can get pretty
(25:31):
creative, but it is governed by,uh, the IRS.
So there are certain guidelinesyou have to play with, but you
can get pretty creative.
You can use it as a severancepackage.
Uh, and I won't.
Geek out on Vivas because thatis a complicated, uh,
conversation, but, uh, it is,uh, taken from the employee, but
there's certain parameters asfar as what the employer can do,
(25:51):
treating everybody the same withthe Viva and, uh, how you choose
to distribute any type of, uh,you know, contributions.
Earlier I said QTB.
Yeah, QTB, which is, uh, a termI learned here at FBMC.
FBMC may be the only, uh, TPAthat still uses it, but
qualified transportationbenefit, AKA commuter benefits,
AKA parking and transitbenefits.
(26:12):
AKA, the bike benefit went offthe table and it's no longer
pre-tax.
Uh, we were, it was gettingready to get sunset and come
back in, but I think they justprovided some clearer, uh,
definition on it with the, uh,recent legislation.
And then FSA flexible spendingaccount.
That's the one that it's kind ofuse it or lose it with the, with
the exception of what?
$500 rollover?
(26:32):
Um, about six 50 now, maybe alittle bit higher with this open
enrollment.
And that is a importantdistinction.
Yeah.
Use it or lose it used to be abarrier for people
participating.
Yeah.
And now, whatever that carryoveris, if your, uh, employer, uh,
or client, you know, offers acarryover, not just the, uh,
grace period provision.
And employees should at leasthave that amount because it's
(26:54):
gonna carry over from year toyear regardless.
So even if you didn't do thefull maximum amount, which if,
uh, you know your situation canafford it, I would always
advocate to take it to the maxbecause you're gonna have those
expenses and it's just not goingto the doctor.
There are so many things you canspend FSA funds, uh, on and it
continues to open up.
I mean, I've seen some, uh,recent changes as far as some.
(27:16):
Uh, electrical equipment, uh,that can, uh, do some monitoring
that you can use it on.
Right.
But there's so many things youcan use it on, but at least
elect up to the carryover amountof your employer because you
could never lose that money.
Well, and as an employer, FICAsavings are fica.
You get the FICA savings.
Absolutely.
As an employee, there's so manyacronyms.
Haika, when you were res whenyou were responding to the
(27:38):
acronym question, you said AKA.
Okay.
Three times.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Anyway, just we all know I,okay.
If you wanna bring it home inthe airport, traveling here,
there was an AKA, uh,convention, which is some, are
you serious?
Oh, that's funny.
So, so everyone was walkingthrough the airport with their
pink and green on, this is Bupa.
Yes.
Not as.
(28:01):
So funny.
Well, so the only other one Iprobably didn't throw out, and
there are more, uh, but theDFSA, the, the D-C-F-S-A, some
people call it dcap, uh,dependent care, FSA one.
Now there's one acronym that,uh, really this, I'm gonna throw
this one at you.
Uh, guys, we've talked aboutHRA.
Okay, so, uh, what does HRAstand for Health Reimbursement
(28:21):
Arrangement?
Most people think account, somepeople say agreement, but Rick,
you get the, uh, hero cookiefor.
So, but yeah, most people thinkaccount, but, but you're right.
Uh, which we know, uh, you know,if you're score at home is a,
uh, group medical plan people,people are lumping into an FSA,
but it's much more than that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, I there, I mean, honestly.
(28:41):
All of these are beautifularrangements for employers to
have in place for i a savings toreduce tax liability even for
the individual employee.
Right?
Yeah.
I mean, these are things thatare smart.
And actually one of the thingsyou said, Derek, which I think
is a brilliant idea, is look, ifyou know what the rollover
amounts are, at a minimum dothat at a, at a minimum, right?
(29:04):
Yep.
You're, you're helping out theemployer from a FICA
perspective.
Um, you're, you're helping outyour own tax liability, um, and
you're not gonna lose it, andyou're most likely going to use
it.
You're going to use it if youhave a kid with braces or who's
gonna, you're going to blowthrough that so fast.
If you're with tax, call me,I'll tell, you'll tell you how
(29:25):
to use that money.
Yeah.
Um, so anyway.
Okay, great.
I, I didn't wanna like take toomuch time, but I just wanna make
sure people listening'cause,'cause you know we, when you're
going through life and you sitdown to enroll, you may see
something that says FSA and Idon't even know how good a job
that some employers out there doit, do it communicating.
What is that?
(29:45):
Not at all.
You'll see participation ratesanywhere, right?
10, 15%.
The DCF is a.
Usually it's 2%.
Yeah.
Um, and they just raised theactual, uh, maximum for the
first time since the eighties onthe, uh, D-C-F-S-A, you know,
news flash, it went from 5,000to 7,500, on which it should
because it's so expensive.
It's so expensive.
Spending 11, 12,$13,000 a yearmore for, for, uh, daycare
(30:08):
expenses.
It's well behind inflation.
So, you know, it should be a lothigher.
Well, daycare, are you going?
It's only 11.
I know.
I, well, well, fortunately forme, we didn't have to do that.
Daniella has.
Has taken that on for thefamily, but.
I know it's, it's more way moreexpensive than what the
allotment is.
It's way more expensive.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And back in the day, it used tobe all paper, uh, with tasks you
(30:29):
can actually pay for yourdependent care, FSA with the
task card if the, uh, daycareprovider accepts the card.
So that kind of takes some ofthat, you know, filing those
manual claims out of it.
Uh, and I understand that we'renot just talking to, uh,
mid-size and large employers.
But we have an affinity for thesmaller employers.
So you might hear things like aErra or a i a, which these are
some of the things that arethere.
(30:50):
It's coming out more.
Yeah.
It, it's coming out more.
And we're starting to hear a lotof talk about the IRAs for some
larger employers now, as it'sdefinitely a way for, you know,
employers to put some controlback into the employee's hand as
how they spend their, uh, youknow, their benefit money.
Yeah.
There's a lot of.
Interesting nuances thatemployers probably don't know.
And I, when I, I have alwaysbeen asked like, well Rick, uh,
(31:14):
okay, I'm a small employer, isan HSA really appropriate for
me?
What's interesting is, is Ithink companies like task, and
you can correct me if I'm wronghere, probably put a very high
emphasis on smaller employers.
We do more so than people wouldrealize because they need it
probably more than, than sayother people.
That's our bread and butter.
Right.
And when I think about that,it's like.
(31:35):
I don't think people realizethat take a small employer, as
long as the small employeroffers a high deductible health
plan, whether an employee takesthat or not, it it.
You cannot take it, but still beeligible for the health savings
account.
Absolutely.
All that has to actually happenis the employer has to offer it.
Yeah.
So, and we can do an auto open,even just on the, uh, high
(31:57):
deductible health planemployees.
I don't know that people reallytruly understand some of those
nuances, which someone likeDerek could cue you up on.
But as an employer, if you'relistening to this, you know, if
that didn't cause you to say,huh, because in small.
Employers.
Obviously recruiting new peopleand retention Yes.
Is one of the hardest thingsthey've got.
Going and having big budgets forbenefits packages is also
(32:20):
complicated.
Yes.
So, you know, those types ofthings are important for people
to understand because it's a wayfor you to get strategic about.
Okay, how do I, how do I createa more compelling benefits
package?
So that's just a little nuggetI'll throw out there for anyone
listening to, to, to maybe drawsome more people towards Derek.
Um, that said, let's, you know,I know Kyle has the next
(32:40):
question.
Yeah.
So I know we, we've talked abouta lot, but do you have anything
else that task is doing thatdifferentiates you?
Yeah, that's where I, I reallylike to roll my sleeves up so
every company comes in and theytalk about, you know, innovation
and this and that, but whatreally differentiates us, what's
something that we do that no oneelse, uh, on the planet does.
(33:02):
And that's what we call my cash.
This allows me to definitivelystate that task pace claims
faster than anyone else in themarket within a matter of hours
as opposed to days, and we makedirect deposit seem old school.
Now, I know that's a, uh, kindof big, grandiose statement, but
let me explain what my cash ishistorically for
A-H-S-A-F-S-A-H-R-A TPA aliketask.
(33:25):
When someone submits a manualclaim, they get reimbursed
either as a direct deposit or apaper check in the mail.
Mm-hmm.
With that task, we take that astep further.
We're able to take that samereimbursement that you would
normally get as a direct depositor a paper check and put it back
on that task debit card.
And so with that, um, you mightpause, I ask a couple up my
nose.
Okay.
Okay.
(33:45):
I thought I had you, both of youguys kept doing this.
I just feel like I have a boogercoming out my nose.
Okay.
Alright.
I was like, whoa, time out here.
Okay.
Alright.
You gonna punch me back in?
So at that's gonna be in it.
Okay.
I think I manifested now Richbeen doing it for, I was like,
(34:05):
wow, look at my nose and, and Ihave my phone right here looking
at my face like I don't see it.
But that's.
With the my cash, we're able totake that, uh, we're able to,
let's, let's get the train backon the tracks here.
We're able to take that outtapocket reimbursement, put it
right back on that same debitcard that you would normally use
(34:26):
to house your payrolldeductions, but on a separate
cash purse called My Cash.
So now we've taken that$25 bu.
Put it back on the card.
It's not co-mingled with thepayroll deductions.
So everything's on the up and upas far as compliance.
But now with that$25 only, youcan go out and spend it on
anything at the gas station, at,uh Publix, at Walmart, wherever
(34:46):
you might go, e-commerce at therestaurant.
Uh, and the way to kind of bringit home, let's just use a real
life scenario.
So let's say you're at CVS orWalgreens.
Uh, you're purchasing yourprescription, you are using your
tax favorite account, your FSA.
Flexible spending account oryour health savings account to
make that purchase for theprescriptions.
But you know, they get you withthose impulse buys, you'll see a
Snickers bar, a uh, Coca-Cola,Sprite.
(35:09):
Let's say you get that Spriteand you have it up there.
Typically an employee would haveto pay for the prescriptions
with one card and then pay forthat, uh, other thing with their
own money, whether cash oranother debit card or credit
card.
Well, with my cash.
Remember the card is a smartcard, so it's smart enough to
determine that, okay, theSnickers bar should come from
the mike ass bucket, and theprescription should come from
(35:31):
the F-S-A-H-S-A eligible, uh,payroll deductions.
It's all done on one swipe.
The participant doesn't have todo anything unique at the point
of sale.
Swipe it and forget it.
It's all itemized at the pointof sale for the participant.
Now I have to ask you a questionmm-hmm.
Because you know, the listenersare, are, are thinking what I'm
thinking.
Mm-hmm.
Is there some kind of tie totheir personal bank account in
(35:51):
case there aren't any fundsunder the My cash?
Like what happens if, if theydon't, if they buy that?
Mm-hmm.
Candy thing.
And, and they don't have moneyon it.
It sounds like a foreign objectto Rick.
I know.
Rick Candy.
I don't eat those candy.
Rick goes to the to Brady, uh,church.
So what are we doing?
(36:12):
Yeah.
Eating a grass flavor bark.
So.
I don't have, you know, becauseit doesn't go nuts.
It's a bag, cashier.
Okay, there you go.
What happens?
Okay, so, so what happens?
So it's not tied to the bankaccount, but it will exhaust
that, that balance.
So let's say you purchasedsomething that was$10 and you
only have$5 in my cash.
(36:33):
So, um, most point of salesmachines are able to just
determine and exhaust it.
Some, uh, employee needs to knowhow much is on their account and
say, well just run it for fiveand I'll pay the rest.
Now, what you're describing,Rick, is something that's, uh,
very interesting.
Uh, you should get with our, uh,chief, uh, biz dev because we
actually have a.
Card decline protection, uh, onour roadmap.
And, uh, it gets us closer to abank.
(36:55):
So there's some differentregulations involved.
Okay.
Where we could tie it to apersonal bank account as almost
a third payer.
That way you don't have those,uh, embarrassing dings or I'm
gonna throw something out there.
Mm-hmm.
And it's gonna sound crazy, butdo what Starbucks does.
Right, like a, like Starbucksapp, all you do is you take
money and you put money on that,on that card.
(37:16):
And so that's what we're, we'relooking at.
But here's what happens is isStarbucks just taking all that
money that's sitting there andthey're investing and making
interest off of it.
And so Starbucks is killing itbelow the line.
Economics, there you go.
Other fee revenue.
But what happens is, is thereason it works is because
they've created a a pointsystem.
So I get free stuff after somany purchases unless I'm
(37:38):
willing to let my money sithere.
And so we're working on, uh,currency converters, uh, we're
working on Apple, Google Pay.
Uh, so there's some things thaton our roadmap.
Yeah, uh, we see it with thetracking.
Uh, we're, uh, back office for afew of those.
Uh, big wellness tracking whereyou earn points and you can
spend it not just on health andwelfare type deals, but also on.
Shoes from certain stores andthings like that.
(37:59):
So that is something that, uh,we are working with the, uh, you
know, technology to incorporateinto our universal benefit
account.
But no, that was, I mean, wehave something called my cash
too, that we're coming out withwhere we'll pay the
participants' interest on thatcash balance.
You mentioned the other feerevenue, Rick, of course, we're
sitting on money, so we're gonnaget paid.
Yeah.
But this allows us to proposevery employer friendly admin
(38:21):
fees.
I talk about the$0 on the HSAs,right?
Typically, I think you guys knowfrom us quoting, we will rarely
lose on price.
Uh, there may be a, you know,someone may have a better
proposal than us, or they mayhave a better experience with a
particular employer, but, butwith the pricing, because of the
other fee revenue, then we'reable to be made whole and hit
our margins without necessarilypassing that on to the employer
(38:43):
as an admin fee or actually tothe participant because we're
not gonna charge them.
Okay.
Alright, it's time for ourlightning round.
Woo.
So, task me anything you've gotfive seconds or less to answer
each.
Okay.
Task me Anything.
Get it?
Okay.
I'm, I'm still catching up.
Uh, all right.
So who's No mustard?
Are you asking the questions?
(39:04):
We can go back.
Okay.
So ready task.
I'm sorry guys.
All right.
I'm, I'm there.
Task me anything.
Let's go, let's go.
Biggest compliance buzzword of2025 So far.
Biggest complain?
Uh, ICRA.
Okay.
I mean, I don't know, I couldn'tsay pop, but we sell a bunch of
pop plans if you want pop.
(39:24):
And you want your, uh, is thatlike a soda, like a coat premium
only plan?
Right?
How that, alright, which benefittrend is overplayed?
Which, uh, I think I talkedabout that with the, uh, HSA
integrations and with themedical carrier, I think it's
overplayed and over emphasized.
Okay.
All right.
Um, favorite thing about tasksTech stack?
(39:45):
Um, the endless Owl concept inthe My Cash Employees question
you hear all the time.
Employees question.
Um, where's my money at?
They, they, they think we arekeeping their money.
Yeah.
You go out there like, we keepyour money.
It's, it's ruthless familydirect, by the way, finish the
(40:08):
sentence.
Great Benefits are like.
Ooh.
I had to self-police myself.
Great.
Benefits are like, uh, waking upon Christmas Day.
Okay, I like that.
Good.
Save.
Christmas of July.
Open enrollment is one word.
Question mark in one word.
What two?
(40:29):
Good times because we get paidfrom participation.
So anytime we get a chance toraise participation, that's a
good thing around these parties.
Okay.
Wellness perk you personallywant in your benefits package?
Uh, gym benefit Really?
How good is that benefit?
They better pay my whole annual,Jim, you know what I'm saying?
Gimme$150.
(40:49):
That's the, uh, that's the plan.
Design that half a month.
FSAs or HSAs.
Pick one for a desert island.
Uh, that's HSAs.
Okay.
More flexible, like yoga on abeach.
Anyway, what's next in benefits?
One wild prediction.
Ai ai.
(41:10):
Yeah, definitely.
For sure.
Alright, well Derek, this hasbeen fun.
Uh, absolutely save one lastquestion for you.
Alright.
Is there anything else you wantour listeners to know?
Um, what I want your listenersto know is that, uh, I'm gonna
turn it around just to let themknow.
I think FBMC is a great company.
You guys, uh, have always, uh.
Selected the best, uh, vendorchoice, uh, for your clients.
(41:35):
Uh, we see some brokers, someconsultants out there in the
market playing favorites.
Uh, we don't see that with FBMC.
There've been cases where we'veproposed we didn't win.
We do understand it'll go out tobe it again, or you'll do it
direct marketing.
So I just want the, uh,listeners to know that if this
is your first time or if you'vebeen sitting on the fence and
been thinking about whether ornot you should get F-B-M-C-A-A
chance.
Believe me, their tenure withtheir clients and their
(41:58):
persistency rates are betterthan anyone else in the
industry.
And I'm just thankful you guysallowed me to come up here and
talk about tasks.
So thank you.
This was great.
I look forward to possibly doingit in the future again.
Thank you, Derek.
I appreciate you coming.
Uh.
Thank you to our listeners.
If any of you have anyquestions, please contact us or
look for information on ourhomepage@www.fbmc.com.
(42:20):
I'm gonna take a wild guess thatit's www.tc.com online.com.
Oh goodness.
There it is.
TSC online com.
It's some other TCS out there,so that's okay.
Somebody stole the domain name,different acronym.
Just wanna make the plug for youand remember.
To listen and subscribe on anypodcast app.
Hey, thank you for listening into Risky Benefits, a podcast
that informs you on all thingsbenefits.
We've got a saying around here,benefits isn't your main
business.
It's ours.
marketing-production_1_07-1 (00:17):
Hey everyone.
Thank you for listening to RiskyBenefits.
the podcast where we dive intothe complex world of employee
benefits, healthcare innovation,and everything in between.
Today we have Derek Daniel fromTask.
We are here to explore howforward thinking organizations
can embrace controlled riskbenefit packages to boost ROI
(00:38):
engagement and care outcomes.
That is a mouthful.
That said why don't we juststart by.
Introducing Derek who is herewith task, and we're gonna learn
a lot about task today.
If you're listening to this, youmay know who that is and if you
don't, cool.
It's gonna be a goodconversation, so we'll know.
Yeah, definitely.
(00:59):
Let's start with welcomingDerek.
Derek thank you for coming on.
And maybe before we get startedwhy don't you just tell us a
little bit about yourself.
absolutely.
And before I get started withthat intro, I thought we were
just a flex TPA, but you made itsound a lot more than you know
what?
I think we do, but a little bitabout myself.
I've been in the industry forroughly about 20 years, dealing
(01:19):
predominantly with largeemployers from the flex side to
the broker side, to theenrollment side, and all points
in between.
I've done this for a while, soI'm very.
Used to how these type ofemployers operate, I do bring a
certain core competency at task.
I was able to take someexperience I actually got here
at FBMC and bring it over thereand help grow their large market
(01:40):
team.
So, dealing with some of thesepublic and private employers,
and especially some of thesemore complicated procurements,
you get used to phrases like,hurry up and wait.
And with hurry up and wait.
You know, that's just somethingthat is old hat for me.
And then they say, hurry up andgo again.
But that's a little bit aboutmyself.
A little bit about the companytask.
We are the largest privatelyheld benefit account TPA in the
(02:02):
us.
We have over 80,000 clients.
Uh, often when I mention 80,000clients, people think I'm
pulling their leg, but trust me.
We turn nothing down but ourcollar, we take them from sole
proprietorships all the way upto the federal government, who
is our largest employer withabout 4 million eligibles.
You guys might be familiar withthe Office of Personnel
Management.
They have been in the newslately.
OPM, that is our largestemployer.
(02:23):
But really everyone in betweenfrom major Fortune 500 companies
to state governments, cities,counties, school districts, et
cetera.
We practice both on the privatesector and commercial side.
Very cool.
Wow.
So let's start by talking aboutdefinitions.
You mentioned briefly hurry upand wait.
Yep.
Can you expand on that a littlebit?
(02:44):
So, hurry up and wait.
That's something that it's notgermane to just public sector,
but you'll often see it wherethey'll release a procurement.
And they might release it inJuly with an award in September
or November, right around openenrollment.
And so this whole time you'vehad four months to punter.
I submitted the proposal.
If I didn't get it there, I'mdisqualified.
But now that I have it overthere are, they're going to
(03:06):
afford me the same luxury ofbeing timely and evaluating that
response.
Understanding there's a big dog,they're gonna do what they do.
And once they finally make thataward, now you have a couple of
months before they go live.
And now it's no longer hurry upand wait, it's hurry up and go.
So that's something we're usedto in our team.
I've conditioned tasks to beready for that.
(03:26):
So our deployment my ability toprovide delivery assurance
management ensures that we meetall our go live dates on target.
Very cool.
I mean, I think it's kind offunny, Derek, in the consulting
world, when we talk to our ownconsultants, you know,
consultants within the industry,a lot of people have a tendency
to avoid the public sectorbecause of those factors.
(03:49):
Absolutely.
Right.
So it's obviously makes you feelbetter when you know somebody
does it all the time and they'rekind of used to that.
The next question we wanted toask revolved around innovation.
Mm-hmm.
And I know that's a bigbuzzword.
Um, it's one that we love hereat FBMC.
It's part of our, uh, our kindof cultural belief statements,
(04:09):
our values.
Um, how does task innovate?
Uh, maybe, maybe talk a littlebit through that and, uh.
You know, from admin to decisiontools or education campaigns,
maybe just kind of elaborate onthat for us.
Yeah, absolutely.
So that's a great question, uh,innovation because everyone
talks to talk, but are youreally walking the walk?
(04:30):
Well, at task, we notice, youknow, in our space dealing with,
you know, benefit accounts likeHSAs, hra, FSAs, lifestyle
accounts.
Then you have, uh, continuationaccounts or continuation
services, Cobra retiree billing,direct bill, leave of absence.
Uh, typically withadministrators like us, they're
on separate disparate systems,so there is a silo between the
(04:52):
benefit accounts and thecontinuation accounts.
Well, we did notice that gap inthe market because we had
several systems ourselvesthrough different acquisitions
we made, but we were able totake.
All those separate systems,consolidate them into one
universal benefit account thathas all the continuations, so
the cobra, the direct bill, andthe FSAs, HSAs, HRA lifestyle
(05:14):
accounts on the same platform.
Meaning that you get thattechnology continuum where
you're not dealing with one.
Login for this.
One, login for that.
If you wanted to see your Cobra,it's the same.
Uh.
Platform that you use for theFSA.
So even for the employees,they're used to the look and
feel and for the employer groupsand even the consultants and
brokers, they don't have toworry about separate logins or
(05:36):
single sign on to this.
Everything's there in one, onespace and we've taken something
that's really in the e-commercerealm and applied it to the
benefits realm with endless al.
Very people that are listeningwho have never heard of task
Yeah.
TASC are probably thinking, whoare you and what do you do now?
Absolutely.
As you said, you guys have a tonof customers who a lot of people
(05:59):
do know, but for those whodon't, could you just real quick
tell everybody who is task, whatis that, TASC, and what do you
guys do?
Yeah, absolutely.
So, task, uh, and our officialname, total Administrative
Services Corporation.
Uh, if you want to kind of thinkabout this and kind of put us in
the box, which no one likes tobe in a box, but think about
(06:19):
FSAs, HSAs, hra, Cobra, uh,leave of absence retiree
billing.
So not a medical TPA.
But the other type of TPA, whenI say the other type of TPA, I'm
seeing that very affectionatelybecause we're very good at what
we do, uh, with the number ofclients we have throughout the
nation.
Uh, you could stack our clientlist up against anyone.
(06:40):
When you think about over eightstate governments, uh, we have
half of the, uh, top 10 largestschool districts.
Uh, we have Fortune 50companies.
Uh, so.
Definitely, uh, you think aboutFlex and HSAs cobra, that's when
you bring in task.
We have a very, uh, goodmid-market program for
(07:01):
mid-market employers.
For smaller employers, we havewhat we call our micro biz, and
for large market we have ourlarge market teams.
And then when you think aboutsome of these larger
conglomerate or enterprisesolutions, we have an enterprise
division, so we're able toserve.
Every size of employer with thatsame white glove concierge
treatment that they wouldexpect.
(07:21):
Uh, we provide accountmanagement.
We do the administration fromthe EDI electronic data
interchange.
So we, uh, do the file exchangeswith the different, uh, bin
admin systems, enrollmentsystems, payroll providers.
We also pay the claim.
So when you think aboutsubmitting the reimbursement,
getting reimbursed, we do that.
We collect the premium paymentsfor the cobra, the retirees, the
(07:42):
direct bill, the leave ofabsence.
One thing that most TPAs in ourspace, uh, do not, uh, have as
part of their package is an FMLAsolution.
We actually do a family medicalleave, a administration, and we
have our own proprietary FMLAsystem that we utilize.
So we kind of run the gamut ofsome of those ancillary benefits
that you think of that supportsome of the core benefits that,
(08:05):
uh, FBMC, uh, traditionallyconsults on with its clients.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
So soup to nuts.
Yeah.
Yes.
And I, like I say, soup to nuts.
I'm not really sure how soup.
Ghost to nut or how that works.
So no, you are in the rightplace because our owner uses it
all the time.
Okay.
So, so that's one of hisfavorite phrases, odd phrase.
Yeah, our owner, uh, we're tolook that one up.
(08:25):
Alright.
Which is, uh, uh, another pointI like to talk about just real
quick.
So we're in the industry, Ithink back, uh, Rick, when we
were running around doing these,we had, you know, 12, 15
competitors.
There's been a lot ofconsolidation, a lot of venture
capital money in the industry,and that's kind of dwindled
down, you know, the majorcompetitors into just a, just a
few.
One great thing about task iswe've never been sold, uh, the
(08:47):
same ownership family.
We started at our origin.
That's still our ownershipfamily today, the Raky family.
So we were tasked yesterday.
We're task today will be tasktomorrow.
You don't have to worry aboutany type of court to change with
tasks being out for sale orbeing bought up, which we have
experienced with a lot of our,uh, newer sales where we're
taking over for a company thatwasn't the initial award winner.
(09:08):
And so when they had thatculture clash, of course
service, uh, did decline, andthen they went out to bid for a
new administrator.
And when there's confusion inthe market, then that definitely
benefits us.
Awesome.
Okay.
Okay, so you said endless aisle.
What does that mean?
Can you tell us about thatconcept?
So endless aisle, and this iswhere, you know, if I was able
to call my own shots, I'll havea picture of our, uh, kind of
(09:31):
table of accounts appear righthere.
But just think of your oldperiodic table from grade school
and instead of elements, thinkof different benefit accounts.
So your traditional tax favoraccounts, of course you have the
FSAs, HSAs, hras, commuter, uh,things of that nature.
But now let's think of morelifestyle oriented accounts.
Let's think of a, uh, petinsurance account.
(09:52):
Let's think of a workflowsaccount, a virtual home office
account.
Uh, let's think of a wellnesstracking account.
A wellness incentive account.
I just named like five or sixadditional accounts.
Currently we have over 50accounts built on this platform.
In addition to the traditionaland the continuation, the COBRA
retiree billing.
But what this is to us, abenefit account has three main,
(10:14):
uh, components.
Uh, three common denominators.
It's, uh, money in which istypically some type of payroll
deduction, whether from theemployee or employer.
Then you have a, a request formoney, which is usually the
claim.
Hey.
Pay me back, and then you havemoney out, which is the
reimbursement.
Everything else that happenstakes place behind the scenes
and usually dealing with pre orpost-tax and tax code.
(10:34):
We take care of that for theemployer and the employee where
they don't have to worry aboutit.
For us, a benefit account issimple.
We can build benefit accounts ina matter of a day.
You know, just, just tell uswhat's the reimbursable item.
And really the only limitationis your imagination.
We can put anything on ouruniversal benefit account, hence
the name.
And that's what the Endless Owlconcept.
We're able to continually adddifferent accounts, uh, to this
(10:57):
Endless Owl platform.
And it's pretty much we can goand it's.
They're for perpetuity.
You can just keep addingdifferent accounts.
So, and you know what I wannaknow about that work clothes
account.
Uh, we have some, with some ofour manufacturing, uh, clients
where they can, uh, the employeecan set aside money to go out
and purchase, uh, uniforms orwork clothes or even work tools.
So, uh, we can get as granularor as wide as you want.
(11:20):
We understand a bunch of these,uh, benefits have merchant
category codes and most often wecan put that on our debit card
and we can stack as manyaccounts on that.
Card using separate purses as weneed it, we can establish an
order of depletion, some type ofcoordination of benefit to
decide which one pays first.
If there are some, uh, benefitaccounts that kind of, uh, you
know, stack up on top of eachother, but we're able to use
(11:40):
that same, uh, kind of processand, uh, program or configure
our platform.
That's the great thing about ouruniversal benefit account.
It is, uh, totally configurable,uh, and we're able to configure
it based on any plan design.
The client, consultant brokermay have.
So I'm not sure I'm following onall of that.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm just gonna ask a coupleof follow up questions.
Absolutely.
Um, okay.
(12:01):
So when you say a universalendless aisle, universal
benefits platform programmm-hmm.
Is, is that what you, what doyou call it?
Uh, universal benefit account.
Universal benefit account.
So I'm envisioning in my head,like I go to a web address.
Mm-hmm.
And as a participant.
And when I go to that webaddress, I'm not just seeing tax
(12:23):
favorite accounts orH-S-A-F-S-A-Q-T-P, uh, or cobra.
I'm also seeing other benefitsshowing up in there.
Uh, absolutely that's the way itwas designed.
Uh, we have what we call a, atuba.
We have a bunch, we're big onacronyms at task, but that's a
task universal benefit accountwhere some employers may just
give their employees, let's justsay, a thousand dollars.
(12:44):
And a menu of benefits to, tochoose from.
And they can divide it up prepost tax.
It might be a tuition repaymentaccount, a student loan, uh,
account, uh, it could be acrisis account.
Uh, so any type of thing likethat we're able to build on the
platform.
Now you can limit what youremployees see, so if you only
want it, you know, traditionalaccounts or maybe one just catch
(13:04):
all lifestyle account, we candefinitely do that.
But if you wanted that fullexperience where we would sell
pretty much UBA, what we calluniversal benefit account.
We can have a menu of accountsand for at a certain threshold,
an employer can have as manyaccount offerings as they wanted
to offer to their participants.
All built into the package.
Well, I guess what I'm trying tofigure out is, is I enroll
(13:26):
mm-hmm.
At my place of employment and Ihave medical, dental, vision.
Let's say I have universal lifelong, let's say I've got cancer,
short-term disability, long-termdisability, and then I've got
the F-S-A-H-S-A, the taskoptions.
Yep.
How do, how do, if I enroll ina, in a, a plethora of those
(13:47):
options mm-hmm.
And then I select the task, FSAoption.
Yes.
How does that Okay, so what wetransfer our employer as the
consultant, my employer's goingto transfer that information.
We're gonna transfer thatinformation to task.
Task is gonna create a universalaccount.
(14:07):
Mm-hmm.
Now how I'm not, I'm not gettingfrom, from that point to what
you're describing.
Okay.
So can you walk me through that?
So think of it, let's just, uh,let's think of something that's
routine and customary foreveryone.
Let's say an FSA, you can enrollthrough task, you can enroll
through the employer.
If you guys have, I know youguys have your own enrollment,
uh, system that you can, uh,deploy in the market, right?
(14:30):
And so we can have that, uh,FSA, but we can also have.
Let's just call it a lifestyleaccount.
Most of our competitors, theydon't get that granular with
breaking down workflows, accountwork, tools, accounts.
They just call it a lifestyleaccount and they can make it
whatever they want to.
For simplification, let's justcall ours a lifestyle account.
We can have that bevy oflifestyle accounts on there as
options for the employee toenroll in.
(14:52):
If they do enroll in it, thenuh, the information will get
exchanged depending on thesophistication of the employer,
either through some type of dataexchange, or they can do a
direct upload in our platform.
It's a separate enrollment.
Uh, it, it's a separateenrollment, uh, unless the
employer just wanted to give itto everybody.
So some employers.
Pretty much a, a lifestyleaccount is just a glorified HRA.
(15:12):
It may, it may not have healthcomponents to it, but when the
HRA, you can play mathscientists with it.
Yeah.
You can pretty much design anHRA to work any way you want to.
I'm not suggesting that for theaudience, because it makes it
hard to administer and put it onthe card.
When you look at, you know,co-insurance and all these other
stuff, it's like a definedbenefit.
In essence, the employer issaying, we're setting aside X
amount of funds.
(15:32):
Mm-hmm.
For each person.
To go onto to the task accountand select how you would like to
utilize those funds, uh,post-tax, uh, most often, uh,
those are post-tax when youthink about most of your
lifestyle accounts, uh, there,and I won't geek out with impute
income's and all that otherstuff.
Yeah.
But, you know, there are somethings that happened behind the
scenes that are a littledifferent than some of your
traditional accounts.
(15:53):
There was some, uh, furtherclarification on a few of those,
uh, lifestyle benefits, uh, withthe recent legislation that just
passed at the.
Point in time of this taping.
It might be a little older, butwith the, uh, one big beautiful
bill, they did provide furtherclarification on a couple of
those lifestyle accounts.
Uh, one big thing we're big onis, uh, giving accounts, uh,
what we do for the federalgovernment.
(16:13):
That's the largest charitablegiving campaign in the world.
We're the administrator for theGive back program, which allows
employees to use our platform tofind whatever that 5 0 1 c that
they want to, uh, go ahead andYep.
Contribute to through ourplatform.
And we do that for the federalgovernment.
So then are you pulling that outof on a payroll deduction basis?
(16:34):
Correct.
So that they can do thosedonations?
Yes.
Do you also provide some formof, uh, tax.
Reporting on that so that theycan give it to their accountant
at the end of the year for taxpurposes.
They, they do get the taxreporting and we actually have,
uh, you know, lobbyists on thehill trying to make this a
pre-tax, uh, thing.
So where would be that wouldcool.
Yeah.
Uh, what we would call a, uh,flexible giving account.
(16:56):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
So that's great.
We've been lobbying for it, youknow, we, we do it for OPM.
We think it's a great benefit ifyou research task that's TASC.
Probably the first thing that'llcome up is just what we do as
far as philanthropy.
We're real big on giving back,not just to uh, our community
where we're headquartered, butto the community where our
clients are served.
(17:16):
And so, uh, that's just onething that's built into our
ethos.
Very.
I love that, Derek.
That's super cool, man.
Thanks for sharing.
Yeah.
So real quick, I looked up soupto nuts.
Okay.
The origin, so it's frommulti-course meals.
Came from the 19th century wherethey began with soup and ended
with nuts.
They didn't start with nuts.
Nope.
Like I feel like began withsoup.
An airplane.
(17:37):
They always bring the nutsfirst.
I was thinking something withcars.
I don't know why, but, yep.
Soup to nuts.
Nuts.
Our last.
Apparently.
Why would you do that?
I a pallet cleanser.
I don't know.
That's so fascinating to me.
So this is the part of thepodcast I can carve out and send
to my owner.
I can't send him the wholething.
Then I feel like it's anevaluation going on, then I'm
being judged.
(17:57):
This is in it, my brother, thisis in it.
So hey listen, this is gonna begood.
Um, okay, cool.
Well, let me give you the nextquestion.
Okay.
So, um, tell us about what youguys are doing in the HSA space.
Okay.
You know.
Obviously the HRA space is, Imean, highly committal Yes.
(18:18):
On the employer side, right?
Yes.
Because they're funding,essentially that effort.
HSA space.
I, as an individual employee,you can elect it.
Yeah.
I love it.
Mm-hmm.
Because I think, I think,honestly, when I think through
Derek.
Long-term care.
Mm-hmm.
To me, NHSA is the, the way, away to fund long-term care.
(18:39):
Right?
It's a financial investment toolthat has tax favored components.
It rolls over, I can assign itto my wife as a beneficiary.
Yes.
Uh, there's a lot of reasons whypeople should focus on this.
Now, I get.
That people freak out about thehigh deductible health plans.
Yes.
That tied to them.
Um, but, and I'm sure you cankind of maybe elaborate on this,
(19:01):
there are a lot of waysemployers, uh, with the help of
people like task can create itin an advantageous way that,
that, that reduces any risk thatsomebody perceives that they're
taking on.
Absolutely.
Doesn't always get rid of it,but it helps mitigate some of
it.
Maybe talk to us, like talk tous about what you guys are doing
in that space.
Absolutely.
And you're right about that.
There are certain subsets outthere in the market.
(19:24):
Uh, sometimes it's, uh, based ongeography, but they're not, uh,
big proponents of the HSA.
We get it.
You talked about being a, uh,pathway to long-term care.
Um, I would actually challengethat a little bit because, uh,
HSAs often we think about thehealthy individuals.
Mm-hmm.
And really when you're thinkingabout services tasking offer,
and you're thinking more sotoward long-term care.
(19:46):
I may say, let's look at thatVeeva route that funded HRA,
which is, you'll see often forretirees or kind of, uh, those
OPE type benefits.
Yeah.
Uh, and we actually offer thatas well.
And so I'll kind of distinguishthat when I talk about our HSAs.
But what we're doing in the HSAmarket, uh, we do understand.
There's a lot of money in HSAs.
There's a bunch of assets,there's interest, you know,
(20:09):
there's investments.
Uh, and so what we've decided todo to take the financial
valuation out of it, we areproviding all HSAs free of
charge to our clients.
Zero fees, so we're not chargingany fees.
Of course, you're gonna ask me,well, Derek, how do you make
money?
We make money off the cashbalance on the assets, so the
interest on the assets, butwe're placing HSAs for$0.
(20:30):
So now you don't have to worryabout your participants
employees paying because we'renot gonna nickel and dime them
with banking fees.
Uh, oftentimes you might seeother administrators, they may
say$0 on the admin fee.
But every transaction theemployee does,'cause it is a
personal bank account.
They're getting charged, they'regetting charged a withdrawal
fee, or they're getting chargedto, uh, a transfer fee.
(20:50):
Uh, some, some TPAs in ourspace, they actually charge
investment fees.
We don't do that.
Of course, some mutual funds dohave a fee, and if it is, the,
uh, participant is made aware ofthat prior to investing.
But let's, uh, continue downthat path with, uh, HSAs and,
uh, Vivas.
So, uh, most administrators inour space.
They have one fund lineup forinvestment, and you will see no
(21:11):
delta or variance between whenthey sell Aviva to when they
place an HSA.
Well at task, we understandyou're looking at employees who
are at different spectrums oftheir employee life cycle.
Uh, the viba participants areeither retired or saving or
getting ready to retire, wherethe HSAs, uh, participants tend
to be a little more healthier.
We don't think one fund lineupkind of, uh, would benefit, you
(21:34):
know, both.
It's not a one size fits allapproach.
So we have a custom lineup.
For our Viba employers versusour HSA employers, where we're
able to put some custom funds inthere based off of whatever type
of, uh, risk they want toassociate with their investment,
whether moderate, uh, a littlemore aggressive or very
conservative, or if you justwant to guaranteed rate of
(21:55):
return, you keep it in your cashaccount.
We're gonna pay, uh, eachparticipant's, uh, 25 basis
points regardless of what theyhave in cash.
They could have$1, they couldhave, uh,$2,000 in there, but
they're getting that, uh, 0.25 aPR on their cash account.
So that's a great thing there.
And of course, if they play theplay the market, then uh, of
course we can't make any, uh,any guarantees of what's gonna
(22:16):
happen.
That's kind of at their ownrisk.
However, what we do.
We provide the maximum amount ofindependent research available
to those participants.
When you think about things suchas an investment toolkit, a
Morningstar report, uh, eprospectus, uh, what we do, we
utilize, uh, char, uh, Charlesswab a retirement technology
system to allow, to give themaccess to those investment
(22:38):
accounts.
They wanna go out and again,play the market, but they can
just treat it like atraditional, uh.
Tax favored account, uh, andjust let the assets build up on
their cash account and they'regetting those 25 basis points,
uh, that that's guaranteed to'em.
So with the HSA, I do think it'sa, a great thing.
Uh, I've noticed, uh, somequestions on some of your past
podcasts about, you know, what'sa little bit overrated in the,
(23:00):
in the industry.
I think with, sometimes withHSAs, especially this message is
being driven by some of thelarger medical carriers, is
that.
Technically they're integrated.
You know, integrated is a veryloose term.
What does that necessarily mean?
Just because we're not alignedwith a carrier doesn't mean we
don't integrate with all thecarriers just like they do.
So I think oftentimes you'll,you'll hear that, and that's a
(23:21):
barrier to someone coming in,getting an HSA that's decoupled
from the medical carrier.
But one of our value edges isthat we, uh, are carrier
agnostic.
Uh, if you have this carriertoday.
And next year you have thiscarrier.
We'll work with both of them.
We often see, and I think we'vehad some uh, cases with you guys
where one carrier left and theytook their ball and went home.
(23:43):
With, with tasks, you don't haveto worry about that.
We'll work with anyone.
We play nice in the sandbox withall carriers out there.
Uh, as far as integrations areconcerned, we integrate with
anybody who will integrate withus and uh, you know, that's what
you see with the HSAs.
Again, that's a trend that'sgoing, uh, with the
administration.
There is a renewed push on HSAs,so we do see it becoming more
prominent with more employersoffering the HSA and it's
(24:04):
definitely something where we'vetaken kind of that financial
decision out as far as adminfees are concerned.
But when you just really thinkabout a great product, we
utilize an independent, uh,advisor for the investment and
investment advisor, and they goin and look at the fund lineup
quarterly, uh, any fund that'sunderperforming gets, gets put
on the watch list.
If it underperforms for, uh,multiple quarters, we're gonna
(24:26):
go ahead and replace it.
But that is independent of tasksjust to keep the integrity of
those benefits.
So, thank you guys.
So, so maybe.
We've, we've, we've thrown some,uh, acronyms out there.
Mm-hmm.
So maybe let's just take asecond, um, for those that are
listening, uh, HSA Yep.
Health Savings Account.
Okay.
And Viva?
(24:48):
Voluntary Employee BenefitsAssociation.
Okay.
And you're saying Veeva is, aremore relevant to people who are
retiring or heading towardsretirement.
I, I, that's the way I would useit in Veeva.
You would hear it called in.
Again, it depends on geography.
Some people call it a Veeva.
You might hear retiree healthsavings accounts attached.
They call it a funded HRA.
FHRA.
(25:09):
When I was, uh, here at, uh,FBMC, we used to call it an
investment, HRA.
There are several differentnames in it, but with the viba,
uh, all, if it's public sector,you'll hear it as a Section one
15 Trust.
So several different names, butusually employer funded.
Uh, employer funded has to beemployer funded the well.
The Veeva, you can have severaldifferent types of, uh,
contributions, whether sickleave, uh, you can get pretty
(25:31):
creative, but it is governed by,uh, the IRS.
So there are certain guidelinesyou have to play with, but you
can get pretty creative.
You can use it as a severancepackage.
Uh, and I won't.
Geek out on Vivas because thatis a complicated, uh,
conversation, but, uh, it is,uh, taken from the employee, but
there's certain parameters asfar as what the employer can do,
(25:51):
treating everybody the same withthe Viva and, uh, how you choose
to distribute any type of, uh,you know, contributions.
Earlier I said QTB.
Yeah, QTB, which is, uh, a termI learned here at FBMC.
FBMC may be the only, uh, TPAthat still uses it, but
qualified transportationbenefit, AKA commuter benefits,
AKA parking and transitbenefits.
(26:12):
AKA, the bike benefit went offthe table and it's no longer
pre-tax.
Uh, we were, it was gettingready to get sunset and come
back in, but I think they justprovided some clearer, uh,
definition on it with the, uh,recent legislation.
And then FSA flexible spendingaccount.
That's the one that it's kind ofuse it or lose it with the, with
the exception of what?
$500 rollover?
(26:32):
Um, about six 50 now, maybe alittle bit higher with this open
enrollment.
And that is a importantdistinction.
Yeah.
Use it or lose it used to be abarrier for people
participating.
Yeah.
And now, whatever that carryoveris, if your, uh, employer, uh,
or client, you know, offers acarryover, not just the, uh,
grace period provision.
And employees should at leasthave that amount because it's
(26:54):
gonna carry over from year toyear regardless.
So even if you didn't do thefull maximum amount, which if,
uh, you know your situation canafford it, I would always
advocate to take it to the maxbecause you're gonna have those
expenses and it's just not goingto the doctor.
There are so many things you canspend FSA funds, uh, on and it
continues to open up.
I mean, I've seen some, uh,recent changes as far as some.
(27:16):
Uh, electrical equipment, uh,that can, uh, do some monitoring
that you can use it on.
Right.
But there's so many things youcan use it on, but at least
elect up to the carryover amountof your employer because you
could never lose that money.
Well, and as an employer, FICAsavings are fica.
You get the FICA savings.
Absolutely.
As an employee, there's so manyacronyms.
Haika, when you were res whenyou were responding to the
(27:38):
acronym question, you said AKA.
Okay.
Three times.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Anyway, just we all know I,okay.
If you wanna bring it home inthe airport, traveling here,
there was an AKA, uh,convention, which is some, are
you serious?
Oh, that's funny.
So, so everyone was walkingthrough the airport with their
pink and green on, this is Bupa.
Yes.
Not as.
(28:01):
So funny.
Well, so the only other one Iprobably didn't throw out, and
there are more, uh, but theDFSA, the, the D-C-F-S-A, some
people call it dcap, uh,dependent care, FSA one.
Now there's one acronym that,uh, really this, I'm gonna throw
this one at you.
Uh, guys, we've talked aboutHRA.
Okay, so, uh, what does HRAstand for Health Reimbursement
(28:21):
Arrangement?
Most people think account, somepeople say agreement, but Rick,
you get the, uh, hero cookiefor.
So, but yeah, most people thinkaccount, but, but you're right.
Uh, which we know, uh, you know,if you're score at home is a,
uh, group medical plan people,people are lumping into an FSA,
but it's much more than that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, I there, I mean, honestly.
(28:41):
All of these are beautifularrangements for employers to
have in place for i a savings toreduce tax liability even for
the individual employee.
Right?
Yeah.
I mean, these are things thatare smart.
And actually one of the thingsyou said, Derek, which I think
is a brilliant idea, is look, ifyou know what the rollover
amounts are, at a minimum dothat at a, at a minimum, right?
(29:04):
Yep.
You're, you're helping out theemployer from a FICA
perspective.
Um, you're, you're helping outyour own tax liability, um, and
you're not gonna lose it, andyou're most likely going to use
it.
You're going to use it if youhave a kid with braces or who's
gonna, you're going to blowthrough that so fast.
If you're with tax, call me,I'll tell, you'll tell you how
(29:25):
to use that money.
Yeah.
Um, so anyway.
Okay, great.
I, I didn't wanna like take toomuch time, but I just wanna make
sure people listening'cause,'cause you know we, when you're
going through life and you sitdown to enroll, you may see
something that says FSA and Idon't even know how good a job
that some employers out there doit, do it communicating.
What is that?
(29:45):
Not at all.
You'll see participation ratesanywhere, right?
10, 15%.
The DCF is a.
Usually it's 2%.
Yeah.
Um, and they just raised theactual, uh, maximum for the
first time since the eighties onthe, uh, D-C-F-S-A, you know,
news flash, it went from 5,000to 7,500, on which it should
because it's so expensive.
It's so expensive.
Spending 11, 12,$13,000 a yearmore for, for, uh, daycare
(30:08):
expenses.
It's well behind inflation.
So, you know, it should be a lothigher.
Well, daycare, are you going?
It's only 11.
I know.
I, well, well, fortunately forme, we didn't have to do that.
Daniella has.
Has taken that on for thefamily, but.
I know it's, it's more way moreexpensive than what the
allotment is.
It's way more expensive.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And back in the day, it used tobe all paper, uh, with tasks you
(30:29):
can actually pay for yourdependent care, FSA with the
task card if the, uh, daycareprovider accepts the card.
So that kind of takes some ofthat, you know, filing those
manual claims out of it.
Uh, and I understand that we'renot just talking to, uh,
mid-size and large employers.
But we have an affinity for thesmaller employers.
So you might hear things like aErra or a i a, which these are
some of the things that arethere.
(30:50):
It's coming out more.
Yeah.
It, it's coming out more.
And we're starting to hear a lotof talk about the IRAs for some
larger employers now, as it'sdefinitely a way for, you know,
employers to put some controlback into the employee's hand as
how they spend their, uh, youknow, their benefit money.
Yeah.
There's a lot of.
Interesting nuances thatemployers probably don't know.
And I, when I, I have alwaysbeen asked like, well Rick, uh,
(31:14):
okay, I'm a small employer, isan HSA really appropriate for
me?
What's interesting is, is Ithink companies like task, and
you can correct me if I'm wronghere, probably put a very high
emphasis on smaller employers.
We do more so than people wouldrealize because they need it
probably more than, than sayother people.
That's our bread and butter.
Right.
And when I think about that,it's like.
(31:35):
I don't think people realizethat take a small employer, as
long as the small employeroffers a high deductible health
plan, whether an employee takesthat or not, it it.
You cannot take it, but still beeligible for the health savings
account.
Absolutely.
All that has to actually happenis the employer has to offer it.
Yeah.
So, and we can do an auto open,even just on the, uh, high
(31:57):
deductible health planemployees.
I don't know that people reallytruly understand some of those
nuances, which someone likeDerek could cue you up on.
But as an employer, if you'relistening to this, you know, if
that didn't cause you to say,huh, because in small.
Employers.
Obviously recruiting new peopleand retention Yes.
Is one of the hardest thingsthey've got.
Going and having big budgets forbenefits packages is also
(32:20):
complicated.
Yes.
So, you know, those types ofthings are important for people
to understand because it's a wayfor you to get strategic about.
Okay, how do I, how do I createa more compelling benefits
package?
So that's just a little nuggetI'll throw out there for anyone
listening to, to, to maybe drawsome more people towards Derek.
Um, that said, let's, you know,I know Kyle has the next
(32:40):
question.
Yeah.
So I know we, we've talked abouta lot, but do you have anything
else that task is doing thatdifferentiates you?
Yeah, that's where I, I reallylike to roll my sleeves up so
every company comes in and theytalk about, you know, innovation
and this and that, but whatreally differentiates us, what's
something that we do that no oneelse, uh, on the planet does.
(33:02):
And that's what we call my cash.
This allows me to definitivelystate that task pace claims
faster than anyone else in themarket within a matter of hours
as opposed to days, and we makedirect deposit seem old school.
Now, I know that's a, uh, kindof big, grandiose statement, but
let me explain what my cash ishistorically for
A-H-S-A-F-S-A-H-R-A TPA aliketask.
(33:25):
When someone submits a manualclaim, they get reimbursed
either as a direct deposit or apaper check in the mail.
Mm-hmm.
With that task, we take that astep further.
We're able to take that samereimbursement that you would
normally get as a direct depositor a paper check and put it back
on that task debit card.
And so with that, um, you mightpause, I ask a couple up my
nose.
Okay.
Okay.
(33:45):
I thought I had you, both of youguys kept doing this.
I just feel like I have a boogercoming out my nose.
Okay.
Alright.
I was like, whoa, time out here.
Okay.
Alright.
You gonna punch me back in?
So at that's gonna be in it.
Okay.
I think I manifested now Richbeen doing it for, I was like,
(34:05):
wow, look at my nose and, and Ihave my phone right here looking
at my face like I don't see it.
But that's.
With the my cash, we're able totake that, uh, we're able to,
let's, let's get the train backon the tracks here.
We're able to take that outtapocket reimbursement, put it
right back on that same debitcard that you would normally use
(34:26):
to house your payrolldeductions, but on a separate
cash purse called My Cash.
So now we've taken that$25 bu.
Put it back on the card.
It's not co-mingled with thepayroll deductions.
So everything's on the up and upas far as compliance.
But now with that$25 only, youcan go out and spend it on
anything at the gas station, at,uh Publix, at Walmart, wherever
(34:46):
you might go, e-commerce at therestaurant.
Uh, and the way to kind of bringit home, let's just use a real
life scenario.
So let's say you're at CVS orWalgreens.
Uh, you're purchasing yourprescription, you are using your
tax favorite account, your FSA.
Flexible spending account oryour health savings account to
make that purchase for theprescriptions.
But you know, they get you withthose impulse buys, you'll see a
Snickers bar, a uh, Coca-Cola,Sprite.
(35:09):
Let's say you get that Spriteand you have it up there.
Typically an employee would haveto pay for the prescriptions
with one card and then pay forthat, uh, other thing with their
own money, whether cash oranother debit card or credit
card.
Well, with my cash.
Remember the card is a smartcard, so it's smart enough to
determine that, okay, theSnickers bar should come from
the mike ass bucket, and theprescription should come from
(35:31):
the F-S-A-H-S-A eligible, uh,payroll deductions.
It's all done on one swipe.
The participant doesn't have todo anything unique at the point
of sale.
Swipe it and forget it.
It's all itemized at the pointof sale for the participant.
Now I have to ask you a questionmm-hmm.
Because you know, the listenersare, are, are thinking what I'm
thinking.
Mm-hmm.
Is there some kind of tie totheir personal bank account in
(35:51):
case there aren't any fundsunder the My cash?
Like what happens if, if theydon't, if they buy that?
Mm-hmm.
Candy thing.
And, and they don't have moneyon it.
It sounds like a foreign objectto Rick.
I know.
Rick Candy.
I don't eat those candy.
Rick goes to the to Brady, uh,church.
So what are we doing?
(36:12):
Yeah.
Eating a grass flavor bark.
So.
I don't have, you know, becauseit doesn't go nuts.
It's a bag, cashier.
Okay, there you go.
What happens?
Okay, so, so what happens?
So it's not tied to the bankaccount, but it will exhaust
that, that balance.
So let's say you purchasedsomething that was$10 and you
only have$5 in my cash.
(36:33):
So, um, most point of salesmachines are able to just
determine and exhaust it.
Some, uh, employee needs to knowhow much is on their account and
say, well just run it for fiveand I'll pay the rest.
Now, what you're describing,Rick, is something that's, uh,
very interesting.
Uh, you should get with our, uh,chief, uh, biz dev because we
actually have a.
Card decline protection, uh, onour roadmap.
And, uh, it gets us closer to abank.
(36:55):
So there's some differentregulations involved.
Okay.
Where we could tie it to apersonal bank account as almost
a third payer.
That way you don't have those,uh, embarrassing dings or I'm
gonna throw something out there.
Mm-hmm.
And it's gonna sound crazy, butdo what Starbucks does.
Right, like a, like Starbucksapp, all you do is you take
money and you put money on that,on that card.
(37:16):
And so that's what we're, we'relooking at.
But here's what happens is isStarbucks just taking all that
money that's sitting there andthey're investing and making
interest off of it.
And so Starbucks is killing itbelow the line.
Economics, there you go.
Other fee revenue.
But what happens is, is thereason it works is because
they've created a a pointsystem.
So I get free stuff after somany purchases unless I'm
(37:38):
willing to let my money sithere.
And so we're working on, uh,currency converters, uh, we're
working on Apple, Google Pay.
Uh, so there's some things thaton our roadmap.
Yeah, uh, we see it with thetracking.
Uh, we're, uh, back office for afew of those.
Uh, big wellness tracking whereyou earn points and you can
spend it not just on health andwelfare type deals, but also on.
Shoes from certain stores andthings like that.
(37:59):
So that is something that, uh,we are working with the, uh, you
know, technology to incorporateinto our universal benefit
account.
But no, that was, I mean, wehave something called my cash
too, that we're coming out withwhere we'll pay the
participants' interest on thatcash balance.
You mentioned the other feerevenue, Rick, of course, we're
sitting on money, so we're gonnaget paid.
Yeah.
But this allows us to proposevery employer friendly admin
(38:21):
fees.
I talk about the$0 on the HSAs,right?
Typically, I think you guys knowfrom us quoting, we will rarely
lose on price.
Uh, there may be a, you know,someone may have a better
proposal than us, or they mayhave a better experience with a
particular employer, but, butwith the pricing, because of the
other fee revenue, then we'reable to be made whole and hit
our margins without necessarilypassing that on to the employer
(38:43):
as an admin fee or actually tothe participant because we're
not gonna charge them.
Okay.
Alright, it's time for ourlightning round.
Woo.
So, task me anything you've gotfive seconds or less to answer
each.
Okay.
Task me Anything.
Get it?
Okay.
I'm, I'm still catching up.
Uh, all right.
So who's No mustard?
Are you asking the questions?
(39:04):
We can go back.
Okay.
So ready task.
I'm sorry guys.
All right.
I'm, I'm there.
Task me anything.
Let's go, let's go.
Biggest compliance buzzword of2025 So far.
Biggest complain?
Uh, ICRA.
Okay.
I mean, I don't know, I couldn'tsay pop, but we sell a bunch of
pop plans if you want pop.
(39:24):
And you want your, uh, is thatlike a soda, like a coat premium
only plan?
Right?
How that, alright, which benefittrend is overplayed?
Which, uh, I think I talkedabout that with the, uh, HSA
integrations and with themedical carrier, I think it's
overplayed and over emphasized.
Okay.
All right.
Um, favorite thing about tasksTech stack?
(39:45):
Um, the endless Owl concept inthe My Cash Employees question
you hear all the time.
Employees question.
Um, where's my money at?
They, they, they think we arekeeping their money.
Yeah.
You go out there like, we keepyour money.
It's, it's ruthless familydirect, by the way, finish the
(40:08):
sentence.
Great Benefits are like.
Ooh.
I had to self-police myself.
Great.
Benefits are like, uh, waking upon Christmas Day.
Okay, I like that.
Good.
Save.
Christmas of July.
Open enrollment is one word.
Question mark in one word.
What two?
(40:29):
Good times because we get paidfrom participation.
So anytime we get a chance toraise participation, that's a
good thing around these parties.
Okay.
Wellness perk you personallywant in your benefits package?
Uh, gym benefit Really?
How good is that benefit?
They better pay my whole annual,Jim, you know what I'm saying?
Gimme$150.
(40:49):
That's the, uh, that's the plan.
Design that half a month.
FSAs or HSAs.
Pick one for a desert island.
Uh, that's HSAs.
Okay.
More flexible, like yoga on abeach.
Anyway, what's next in benefits?
One wild prediction.
Ai ai.
(41:10):
Yeah, definitely.
For sure.
Alright, well Derek, this hasbeen fun.
Uh, absolutely save one lastquestion for you.
Alright.
Is there anything else you wantour listeners to know?
Um, what I want your listenersto know is that, uh, I'm gonna
turn it around just to let themknow.
I think FBMC is a great company.
You guys, uh, have always, uh.
Selected the best, uh, vendorchoice, uh, for your clients.
(41:35):
Uh, we see some brokers, someconsultants out there in the
market playing favorites.
Uh, we don't see that with FBMC.
There've been cases where we'veproposed we didn't win.
We do understand it'll go out tobe it again, or you'll do it
direct marketing.
So I just want the, uh,listeners to know that if this
is your first time or if you'vebeen sitting on the fence and
been thinking about whether ornot you should get F-B-M-C-A-A
chance.
Believe me, their tenure withtheir clients and their
(41:58):
persistency rates are betterthan anyone else in the
industry.
And I'm just thankful you guysallowed me to come up here and
talk about tasks.
So thank you.
This was great.
I look forward to possibly doingit in the future again.
Thank you, Derek.
I appreciate you coming.
Uh.
Thank you to our listeners.
If any of you have anyquestions, please contact us or
look for information on ourhomepage@www.fbmc.com.
(42:20):
I'm gonna take a wild guess thatit's www.tc.com online.com.
Oh goodness.
There it is.
TSC online com.
It's some other TCS out there,so that's okay.
Somebody stole the domain name,different acronym.
Just wanna make the plug for youand remember.
To listen and subscribe on anypodcast app.
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