Fundamentals of Service Agreements: Setting Expectations and Protecting Your Future
Date: Thursday, August 9, 2018
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 pm EST
Cost: This webinar is free of charge.
Speakers: Ashley Gillihan, Alston & Bird, LLP
Moderator: TBD
Registration:
Description:
Why do we need to enter into service agreements with our clients? The obvious, most prolific answer is that we want to limit our liability that might otherwise be open ended without the agreement. This is no doubt a great reason for entering into a service agreement. But there is another reason too—setting expectations. Disappointment is always caused by missed expectations and expectations are often missed because the one party does not know what the other party is or should expect. Entering into a service agreement allows you to set those expectations so that you can reduce the chance of disappointment.
Learning Objectives
In this session, we will discuss the fundamentals of services agreements so that you can more effectively and efficiently accomplish the goals of limiting liability and avoiding disappointment. This session will address the following core elements of a service agreement between a plan sponsor and a third party administrator as viewed through the eyes of the third party administrator:
- The process of entering into a service agreement with a client, such as when to begin the process and negotiation strategies
- Allocation of plan responsibilities—what is your exact role with respect to the plan?
- Fiduciary responsibility: Are we a fiduciary and how it should be addressed in the agreement (if at all)?
- Confidentiality: What is confidential information in this context and what should our responsibility be?
- Indemnification—under what circumstances should you be indemnified? Your client?
- Limitation of liability—how much is too much? For what types of damages should be liable?
- Plan litigation: What role do we play with respect to plan related litigation?
- Arbitration or Litigation? Do you want to hash things out or duke things out?
- Choice of law/venue: if there is a dispute where will you “hash  or “duke  things out?
- Identifying specific services: how detailed should we be?
Questions are welcomed and we encourage sharing of personal experiences.
Cost
The cost will be $199.99 per location for the live webinar and the audio podcast. You may have as many people as can fit in a room, hear a conference call and see a computer screen for the live webinar.
Technical Notes
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Technical Warning Two – Freestone is the platform used to stream the webinar. In the event that polling questions are incorporated into the webinar, please ensure that your pop-up blocker is turned off or adjusted so that they are able to appear.
Webinar Recorded for Future Listening
In addition to this live webinar, this webinar will be recorded and offered in a streaming mode (Internet connection required) and a podcast format (permitting you to download the recording and use it disconnected from the Internet). The podcast is an MP3 format, audio and video file, that you can “save as  to your computer hard drive and then move to any MP3 compatible device.