A few words about us

Trest was formed in order to help employers have a better workplace, by providing human resources and benefits personnel with the necessary support to do their jobs effectively. We understood that internal personnel were often confronted with complicated benefits and compensation issues and often lacked the resources to accurately and efficiently address employees’ questions and issues raised by regulatory authorities. In order to alleviate those common problems, Trest’s mission is to not only provide benefits design and compensation advice to HR and benefits professionals, but our expert knowledge of the employee benefits law, administration and operational tax rules.

Trest’s client base is broad and ever-changing and includes public and private plan sponsors, union and non-union, with employees throughout the country and globally. We have been engaged by several Federal agencies to conduct employee benefits training and provide the associated employee benefits communications materials for the Federal Employees’ Health Benefits program (FEHB), Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) classroom and web-based seminars. To date, we have prepared the communications materials for and conducted over 100 2-day seminars educating thousands of employees on the employee benefits offered in the federal system.

We offer employee benefit design and compliance consulting services in connection with health and welfare plans, retirement plans and senior management benefits. Our professionals are also available to handle the organization’s RFP process in order to engage providers, and after engagement we assist in monitoring the vendors’ performance. Trest performs preemptive audits of benefit plan documentation, operation and administration. Our professionals review plan documents for regulatory compliance, review service agreements to ensure the reasonableness of the fees and terms, ensure the absence of fiduciary breaches and prohibited transactions, conduct interviews with internal benefits professionals and review material participant communications, and information regarding pending employee benefit disputes, in addition to other documentation. We prepare a comprehensive Compliance Report that summarizes our review, including issues that need to be addressed.

Our professionals provide benefits training to employees responsible for benefits management and administration. We explain the legal requirements and provisions for the organization’s retirement and health and welfare plans, including the practical aspects of benefits administration. We teach the organization’s professionals about the retirement process, available resources and how to address and resolve participant questions and disputes. Our professionals also guide your employees in the initial steps to take in addressing employee benefits focused regulatory examinations, which can be so critical in avoiding costly litigation, penalties and excise taxes. Our team provides in depth coverage of calculating benefits under the organization’s plans, Social Security, domestic relations orders, taxation of benefits, surviving spouse benefits, fiduciary responsibility, the benefits application process, claims procedures and other important information.

The New Employee Benefits Orientation is designed to acquaint employees with the benefit packages made available to them by the organization, in order to maximize utilization in pursuit of successful retirement. Participants will receive all of the information they need to understand, use, and integrate to make educated decisions regarding the benefits offerings. The course will provide benefit calculation instructions and information to assist participants in understanding the amount of income replacement in retirement that most individuals need in order to live comfortably, and also provide helpful information on plan operation, the composition of investment funds and the importance of prudent investing. The instructors will provide advice on the management of personal finances and guidance on the steps that participants need to take in the years preceding retirement. Our specialized expertise addresses complex questions and individual concerns to augment the education process.

Preparing for retirement can sometimes be problematic since it means that one is aging and moving into another life cycle change. We provide individual counseling to assist employees and their families in making the transition a more positive and less stressful experience. The impact of retirement on older citizens is frequently neglected in the counseling arena. As pre-retirement counselors, we understand what a retiree will face in retirement. Our sessions are designed to provide the individual with a comprehensive overview of the current retirement plan and benefits provisions and various concerns regarding the retirement process. We are confident that these sessions will assist the employee in gaining knowledge of the available benefits, helping to ease the stress of making life-long decisions.The counseling sessions may be performed in small groups or by telephone if preferred. We are available to hold individual counseling sessions over the phone and can also provide the counseling onsite. Typically, we schedule the onsite sessions over several days and have individual meetings each hour. Spouses are encouraged to attend.