The Pastor enters their compensation through the Clergy Financial Support Worksheet. Instructions can be found here. The pastor should also provide a copy of the CFSW to the treasurer as the treasurer may not have access to Data Services in order to see this information.

According to the Insurance Guidelines in the Conference Journal, the first premium will be deducted from their first full pay period of coverage. For example, if they start on April 23, they will not have a premium deducted until the May 1 paycheck..

Payroll deductions are based on the pastor’s health insurance election and their UMPIP election.  The pastor should provide the person at the church responsible for payroll with this information. 

CRSP and CPP should not be deducted from the pastor's payroll.

The new pastor’s compensation is provided by the District Superintendent when the appointment is made. This information is provided to the pastor and the SPRC chair via electronic or mailed letter.

The pastor should provide their elections to the church in order to have them deducted from payroll. The rates for each plan can be found on the conference website on the Health and Well Being Page.

The rates for the pastor's plans are included in the 2023 Pre-tax Employee HealthFlex Rates section.

Using the pastor’s compensation, you may determine the pension benefits using the CRSP calculator. 

The church portion of the HealthFlex premium can be found on the Health and Well Being Page

Even if a pastor’s election stays the same as the prior year, the cost of the plans to the pastor are approved at annual conference and can be found on the conference website on the Health and Well Being Page.

 

You can view the monthly invoice by logging into Data Services account and clicking on the Benefits button. This will take you to a new screen where you will see a drop down from which you can choose the current month’s invoice.

If you have not set up your Data Services account, you must do that first by following the directions found here for logging into Data Services. 

Instructions for paying benefits online can be found here. 

Insurance payments are made at the beginning of the month. Wespath covers participants through the end of the month in which there is a termination, so the expense is not prorated.

When the payments are made on-line the payments aren’t automatically applied to the account as the on-line system is separate from the bank. Once the payments are applied to the bank account, the payments are recorded by the accounting department. If the amount does not show up in seven business days, please contact Bruce Cooper, Conference Controller, at bcooper@ngumc.org.

Instructions for accessing Benefits Access can be found here.

Wespath has provided a comprehensive guide that explains how to access each program. You can find that guide here. 

Wespath has also provided short instructional videos for accessing each well-being program through the Virgin Pulse App on their YouTube page. 

Each participant will have coverage as of their effective date (generally July 1 or January 1). You can log into the Benefits Access to find a temporary insurance card while you wait for your physical card. It generally takes 10 days after the beginning of the month for the card to arrive. You can also call the Wespath Health Team at 1-800-851-2201, option 2.

DENTAL benefits are provided by Cigna.  Please note that Cigna will not be mailing ID cards to members of the dental plan. You may download an ID card by going to www.myCigna.com. On the card you will find your personal identification number.  Without a personal identification number, your social security number will be sufficient. For assistance or to have questions answered, the Cigna customer service number is 1-(800) 244-6224.

VISION benefits come from VSP – Vision Service Providers. There are now two levels of coverage for vision benefits – VSP Exam Core, and VSP Full Service. The Exam Core is the basic level of coverage that’s included in the benefit package of all active HF participants at no cost. The Full Service level is an optional choice that participants make at the time of being a New Hire or during the Annual Election period. To locate a VSP doctor in network, visit www.VSP.com or call 1-(800) 877-7195 for additional information.

In order to receive the retiree benefit, Medicare plans must be chosen through ViaBenefits. They have qualified advisors who can help you choose your plan based on your medical needs. 

The first step in retirement is notifying the Bishop and your DS that you are planning to retire. This is done via email or letter. Once the Bishop has been notified the Benefits Office inputs your retirement date into Wespath and they contact you about your retirement options for your pension distributions. All of the steps required can be found on the Retirement page of the Conference Website. 

Log into Benefits Access. Click on Accounts. In Accounts you will see a Retirement Contributions section. Click on that link and it will take you to a new page to show you your current election.

Fill out the UMPIP Election form and return it to the Benefits Office at aking@ngumc.org and aodegard@ngumc.org. The instructions to send the form to Wespath are for the Benefits Office staff. We sign the form before sending it to Wesapth.

All clergy, from part-time local pastors to ordained elders, are automatically enrolled in UMPIP when they are appointed for the first time. If you do not provide an UMPIP Contribution Election Form, you will be automatically enrolled at 1% of your compensation (base plus housing) with the auto-escalation feature set as the default. 

The auto-escalation feature is a tool to encourage participants to contribute more to their retirement by increasing the contribution amount by one (1) percentage point each year until the contribution reaches 10% of compensation (base plus housing).  This was approved at Annual Conference in 2018.

Clergy can opt out of the auto-escalation feature by checking the box to NOT have automatic contribution apply on the UMPIP Contribution Election Form.