Benefits Bulletin July 2025

Welcome to the Benefits Bulletin!

Our goal with this monthly newsletter is to communicate benefit changes and keep you up-to-date and informed on approaching deadlines.

Open Enrollment Changes

Health Insurance, flexible spending account, Aflac, and voluntary benefit changes that occurred during open enrollment will be reflected on your July 16 pay advice. Review your paycheck in MyMadison for accuracy. See a discrepancy? Contact benefits@jmu.edu immediately.

July's Featured Benefit

This month's featured benefit is...

529 College Savings Plan through FIRM & American Funds

Are you a parent, grandparent, or relative who plans to help a loved one (or yourself) with college expenses? If so, then you may want to consider participating in a 529 College Savings Plan through FIRM & American Funds. All full-time and part-time employees, who are U.S. citizens, are eligible to participate in the 529 College Savings Plan. With the CollegeAmerica 529 Plan through American Funds, you get some great benefits:

• Tax-advantaged investing – the earnings in the 529 grow free from federal tax, which helps you accumulate more over the long term.
• Flexibility to use the assets in your account to fund expenses in any U.S. public or private college, including undergraduate, graduate, professional or vocational. Qualified expenses include tuition, fees, room and board, and many other items. Beginning with as low as $25 minimum per fund, moving forward you can adjust, stop or suspend your deductions at any time.
• Since you would invest in Class 529-E shares offered only through this employer-sponsored plan, you do not incur front and back-end sale charges.
• Set up your deductions through the convenience of payroll deduction.
• Retain your CollegeAmerica account and continue investing in the 529-E shares class even upon termination of employment.

Additionally, you can use a total of $10,000 of your 529 College Savings Plan per year on K-12 education for your beneficiary. You may also rollover from the designated beneficiary’s 529 account to an ABLE account for the same beneficiary or family member.

An ABLE account operates similarly to a 529 account. ABLE accounts allow individuals with disabilities and their families to save money for disability-related expenses of the account’s beneficiary. You are now able to rollover (from designated beneficiary 529) funds to an ABLE account as long as it is for the same beneficiary or a family member. You can rollover up to the annual contribution limit ($15,000) until January 1, 2026.

For more information concerning the 529 College Savings Plan through FIRM & American Funds, watch the following video: https://player.vimeo.com/video/199402885.

To schedule a consultation with FIRM to discuss the Virginia529 College savings Plan or the ABLE account, please visit: https://calendly.com/firm_consultation/firm-jmu-virginia-529-consultations-2025?month=2025-05 or call 800-997-7622.

DMV Connect on Campus

DMV Connect is coming to campus on August 19

• Applying for or renewing your ID card (REAL ID)
• Applying for or renewing your driver’s license
• Applying for a Veteran ID card
• Getting a copy of your driving record
• Obtaining vehicle titles, license plates, decals, and transcripts
• Ordering disabled parking placards or plates
• Applying for certified copies of Virginia vital records, including birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates
• Getting fishing and hunting licenses
• Updating your mailing address, voter registration address, and organ donor status
• Requesting a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to set up an online myDMV account
• Purchasing an E-ZPass transponder
• And much more!

Save yourself the inconvenience and the time it takes to go to DMV to complete your transactions; simply visit DMV Connect!

Schedule HERE!!!

Need to Talk with an Expert?

• July 18 - Fidelity, Punchai Paul Vutiprichar - online scheduling or punchai.vutiprichar@fmr.com
• July 22 - FIRM - VA 529, Phil Harris/Caribel Colon - online scheduling
• July 22 - Voya Financial, Janice Parker - online scheduling or janice.parker@voya.com
• July 24 - New York Life, Lisa VanWickler - lvanwickler@ft.newyorklife.com or 434-953-5091
• July 29 - TIAA, Rich Carroll - online scheduling
• August 6 - Aflac, Michael Glover - michael_glover@us.aflac.com or 540-997-3201

Webinars

• July 16 - Legal Resources Seminar: Understanding and Using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) register online or view all seminars
• July 23 - TIAA Webinar: Steps to Help Secure Your Income in Retirement: A Mid-Career Check-In register online or visit tiaa.org/webinars
• July 23 - Legal Resources Seminar: Conversations for Caregivers - Scam Threats for Care Recipients register online or view all seminars

Find more information HERE!

June's Duke2Duke Nominees

Duke2Duke is our peer recognition program giving faculty and staff members an opportunity to show gratitude towards their peers and acknowledge their positive behaviors and actions.

We would like to recognize all of the outstanding employees/departments who were nominated for a Duke2Duke in June!

• Michael Anderson
• Burdette Bontrager
• Roger Burke
• Minh Dang
• Larry Good
• Sasha Griffith
• JMU Motor Pool
• Sandra Krezelak
• Michael Mehling
• Justin Miller
• Lori Patton
• Sara Price
• Ali Shifflett
• Kandace Stephenson
• Terri Wuenschel

Submit a Duke2Duke here!

Find more information HERE!

Upcoming Benefits Training – Retirement 101: Understanding Your VRS Retirement

Are you contemplating retirement? Have you set a retirement date? What do you do next? What benefits will you receive? What is the timing on paperwork?

Come to Retirement 101 and learn the answers to all these questions and more! Learn about your retirement options through the Virginia Retirement System (VRS), discuss the impact on benefits when you retire, and learn how myVRS and Human Resources can aid in retirement planning.

Retirement 101: Understanding Your VRS Retirement (HR1212)

Thursday, September 11, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Register with course number HR1212 in MyMadison

THANK YOU FOR READING!

This bulletin has been brought to you by the JMU Benefits Team. If you have any questions or would like to reach out to us, please give us a call at 540-568-3593, visit us on the web at www.jmu.edu/humanresources/benefits, or email us at benefits@jmu.edu. Look for the Live Chat on our website and reach one of us instantly!