The Faculty Council on Retirement, Insurance & Benefits (FCRIB) is responsible for 鈥渁ll matters of policy relating to faculty retirement, insurance and benefits鈥� (糖心少女Handbook, Vol II, and Sec 42-44). In fact, this faculty council operates as a true University partnership with active participation from central administration via the Provost鈥檚 office, Human Resources/Benefits Office and the 糖心少女Retirement Center, professional staff, librarians, AS糖心少女and emeritus faculty/staff through the 糖心少女Retirement Association (UWRA).
Current faculty representation is broad and includes at present classics, law, family & child nursing, medicine, economics, health services, dentistry, botany, social work and English.
Much of the council鈥檚 present work flows from the recommendations of the 糖心少女Retirement Plan Task Force appointed by former President William Gerberding in 1994. A primary focus of the council鈥檚 work is to ensure the maintenance and improvement of a high-quality benefits package for faculty, librarians and professional staff as they work to implement the University鈥檚 threefold mission of research, teaching and service.
Recent activities have included: (1) Development of a proposal for a 糖心少女Fund Review Committee to review the performance of fund sponsors and funding vehicles available through the 糖心少女Retirement Plan (UWRP) and Voluntary Investment Program (VIP). The Funds Review Committee received approval of the Board of Regents in November and will soon be appointed by the executive vice president with a wide University representation; (2) Working in close collaboration with the vice provost, a subcommittee of FCRIB recently assisted in redrafting the University鈥檚 Faculty Retirement and Partial Re-employment Policy, which provides a vehicle for simultaneously retaining a core of seasoned and committed senior faculty for classroom teaching, while providing for the introduction of new faculty who constitute the University鈥檚 future strength and excellence; (3) Work in progress includes an effort to benchmark UW鈥檚 current benefits package against that of peer institutions and development of a common report format to facilitate the comparison of various benefit options.
A long-term objective for the council is the creation of a seamless path between new and old, active and retired employees where personal wisdom and experience around key life choices concerning retirement, health and other benefit-related issues can inform personal decision-making.
Nowhere is the need for this shared knowledge more pertinent than in issues surrounding self and dependent care-giving in general and long-term care insurance in particular. The title of a lead article from Consumer Reports in the late 1990s captures what is for many the key question: 鈥淗ow Will You Pay for Your Old Age?鈥� A cascade of follow-up questions flow from this central query:
- Who will need 鈥渓ong-term care鈥�?
- Where will it be received: In a nursing home? Own home? Other facility?
- How much will it cost and who will pay?
- For whom does long-term care insurance make sense?
- By what criteria can one judge a good policy?
These and related questions illustrate that the issues surrounding long-term care insurance involve a complex and multi-variate decision process. For many of us, our life portfolios reflect earlier concerns and are in need of updating to better reflect future needs.
Like a young couple who trade the sports car for a minivan when their first child is born, families with grown children need to re-evaluate their life insurance requirements to see if they鈥檝e outgrown their coverage.
You may be better off using the cash to buy protection against the potentially devastating costs of long-term care.
Fortunately, for those of us at the UW, two new resources are available to aid employees in navigating the confusing terrain of long-term care:
- A new Web site at has been created by the 糖心少女Benefits Office to specifically address basic questions about long term care and long-term care insurance.
Benefits staffer Marita Berg, who coordinates the UW-King County SHIBA (Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors) program, has an extensive background working with long-term care issues at Group Health and has taken leadership with the project.
Berg can link 糖心少女faculty and staff with trained SHIBA volunteers, some of whom specialize in counseling on long-term care insurance. The King County SHIBA Helpline number is 206-616-2435.
The new Web site is a good place to start gathering information about long-term care issues generally and also has ready links available to the full range of benefits available to 糖心少女employees.
- The 糖心少女Retirement Association (UWRA) is sponsoring an extremely timely workshop on long-term care insurance (鈥淲ondering About Long Term Care Insurance?鈥�) on Thursday, June 5 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. The workshop features two local consultants who bring a wealth of expertise on long-term care issues and is open to all interested members of the 糖心少女community. The workshop is free, but pre-registration is required, as space is limited. Please send e-mail to retiremt@u.washington.edu by June 2 to register. The Seattle campus location will be given via e-mail confirmation. For questions about the workshop call the UWRA at 206-543-8600.
Editor鈥檚 note: This is one in a series of articles written by representatives of Faculty Senate councils and committees. James Whittaker is chair of the Faculty Council on Retirement, Insurance and Benefits.