On June 17th, the Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued the "grandfather" regulation. This regulation defined the ways a health plan can keep its grandfather status. The goal is to protect Americans' ability to keep their current health benefits. The regulation also minimizes market disruption and helps put us on a path toward the competitive, patient-centered market of the future.

 
The grandfather regulation includes a number of rules for determining when changes to a health plan cause the loss of grandfathered status.  For example, plans could lose grandfather status if the employer chose to make certain changes that reduce benefits or increase costs to consumers.

This amendment modifies one aspect of the original regulation.

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How To Add To Savings By Hiring A Spouse
 

One of Michael Keating's clients had a common-enough problem: He wanted to increase his retirement savings and reduce his tax liability, but he was already maxing out his 401(k) contributions.

Keating, managing partner at New York City-based Inner Harbor Advisors LLC, had a less-common solution:  The client should hire his wife.

Keating hatched the plan during an after-hours conversation with the client and with Keating's partner, John O'Meara. The client was a 38-year-old business owner who earned more than $400,000 a year working in the financial-services industry.

As is the case with many spouses of small-business owners, his wife was already an important part of the business, helping to make travel arrangements, doing some compliance bookkeeping and organizing
publicity events. She wasn't being paid for the work, however.

"So we asked him, 'Is your wife on the books? If not, let's talk about that'," Keating recalled.

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