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November 11, 2016 at 11:25 AM
Any efforts RB Lewis Insurance Agents & Brokers has made to educate its group benefits clients could influence how the incoming Trump administration approaches insurance and benefits issues.
The Mineola, New York-based benefits firm has helped provide the insurance for the benefit plans Donald Trump’s main, New York City-based company offers its employees.
RB Lewis set up a stop-loss insurance arrangement for the president-elect’s Trump Payroll Corp. in 2013, according to a review of the plan’s 2013 Form 5500 filing. The same benefits firm has also helped Trump Payroll with other types of insurance benefits, such as group long-term care insurance.
Benefit plan sponsors use Form 5500 filings to report on their activities to the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Labor. Trump company Form 5500 filings and other companies’ Form 5500 filings are available on the website of FreeErisa.BenefitsPro.com. (Users have to sign up for accounts to get access to the filings, but basic accounts are free.)
Efforts to reach Trump Payroll, RB Lewis and Donald Bender, the Woodbury, New York, accountant who signed the Trump Payroll filings reviewed were not successful. But Trump Payroll appears to be the entity that handles employee benefits for Donald Trump’s main company, the Trump Organization.
In the state company registration database, both the Trump Organization and Trump Payroll list their main address as 725 Fifth Ave, New York City, and both list Donald Trump as a contact person.
The Trump Payroll Corp. Health Benefit Plan reported that it was a multiple-employer plan that had 100 participants at the beginning of its plan year and 95 at the end.
For some purposes, the federal government has defined a “small employer” to be an employer with 50 or fewer employees. For other purposes, including Affordable Care Act compliance, the government has set, or tried to set, the cutoff, at 100 employees. The fact that, at least in 2013, Trump Payroll was near the cutoff could mean that Donald Trump, or at least his closest benefits advisor, is acutely aware of the concerns of employers near the cutoff. Trump and his benefits advisors could also be sensitive to the concerns of sponsors of small self-insured plans.
