The California Law Enforcement Association's Long-Term Disability (LTD) Plan recently reached the $100 million mark in benefits paid to its members, the Plan' s Administrators announced . CLEA's LTD plan, which serves over 20,000 law enforcement personnel in California, is the largest of its kind in California and reached the $100 million milestone in its 31st year of operation.

 

"The amount we've paid to support our members while keeping rates down really shows what we're all about," said Dave Boffi, CLEA President. "We're here to support the welfare of our members by paying the benefits they need. Many of the people who depend on us would have been financially devastated without CLEA behind them."

 

CLEA started in 1985 and today serves over 160 law enforcement agencies. Not only is it the largest long-term disability (LTD) plan in California for law enforcement personnel, it offers most comprehensive benefits available.

 

"The CLEA plan was founded on the desire to provide law enforcement officers with long-term disability coverage that was superior to the other plans available," explained Jerry Hall, a former Santa Clara County deputy sheriff who was the charter president of CLEA and is currently chairman of the Plan's board. "I don't know that we ever thought it would grow to where it is today with more than $100 million paid out. Our priority was always to ensure that that our members would be able to have the highest level of income protection when they needed it the most."

 

"I'm grateful and pleased to know that over $100 million in benefits have been paid to officers in need, with the care and concern that one would like to have for their brothers and sisters," Hall said. "I'm also proud that because they've had this Plan available to them, they have saved hundreds of thousands of premium dollars over the years through CLEA."

 

The CLEA Plan provides long-term disability benefits of up to 85 percent of a member's pay. It is a member-owned non-profit and non-political organization managed by a statewide board of directors comprised of representatives from its participating groups. The Plan is managed by California Public Safety Administrators, Inc., which offers a similar plan for firefighters. Together, the two Plans have paid over $165 million in benefits and serve over 36,000 law enforcement and fire service personnel.

By Dave Boffi, CLEA President

Late last year, CLEA began the process of conducting an actuarial review following the passage of AB 1072 (Daly), which required that Police Officer Benefit Relief Associations such as CLEA submit a report to the California Department of Insurance by July 1, 2016 showing that they are financially sound enough to provide the benefits they have promised to Plan Members.

I am very pleased to tell you that the recently completed CLEA LTD actuarial report confirmed what we already knew: Our Plan is financially strong and our members can count on it being there for them when they need it.

Immediately after AB 1072 passed, the CLEA Executive Board initiated a nationwide Request for Proposal and interview process in order to select a firm that we believed to be the most qualified to conduct the actuarial review we were seeking. As a result of this interview process, United Health Actuarial Services (UHAS) was selected to conduct the review.  UHAS is one of the most respected actuarial firms in the nation, and the California Department of Insurance welcomed our selection because it knew of UHAS' outstanding reputation and competency.

CLEA supported the intent behind AB 1072, which was to ensure that members of the law enforcement community in California could make an informed and confident choice when choosing long-term disability coverage. We worked with the author of the bill, Assembly Member Tom Daly, to craft the bill with language that best achieved that purpose. Once the actuarial review process began, members of our Executive Board, our Plan Administrators and our Plan Counsel worked diligently with the actuary to provide the data needed to conduct their valuation and answer questions that arose.

The soundness of our Plan has now been verified not only by providing 30 years of benefits amounting to over $100 million, but also by top-notch actuaries. Among the findings in the report by UHAS, which was also professionally peer-reviewed by another qualified actuary, are:

While the actuarial process has been long, complex and expensive, I believe it has been invaluable to ensuring that our members and potential members can be confident in the strength of our Plan. CLEA appreciates the effort Assembly Member Daly made to work with us, often in the face of opposition from our competitors, to develop reporting requirements that were fair and led to our support for his bill. 

Since we were founded in 1985, CLEA has repeatedly proven that it is possible to provide the best value in LTD coverage while maintaining our business model of operating as a financially sound association exclusively serving, and managed by, members of the law enforcement community. I want to personally thank everyone who worked so hard to bring the actuarial process to a successful completion. We filed our report with the California Department of Insurance prior to the July 1 deadline.

Each year California Public Safety Administrators, Inc (our Plan Administrators) awards four $500 scholarships to the children of CLEA members. We wish them the very best in their academic endeavors!

High School Recipients

Taylor Bays, Sacramento County Probation
Taylor is attending Sonoma State University, majoring in Math.

Madison Egan, Glendora Police Management Association
Madison is attending Concordia University, majoring in Biology.

Carson Spade, DSA of Santa Clara County
Carson is attending University of Nevada, Reno, majoring in Biology.

College Recipient

Julia Chassen, San Diego County Deputy Sheriff
Julia is attending California State University, San Marcos, majoring in Communications.