Healthy, resilient leaders shape healthy, resilient faith communities. This ELCA core belief is referenced in guiding church documents, and explains the enduring partnership between ELCA organizations, their leaders, and Portico Benefit Services.
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Yes, It Takes a Village
As one community, we’re called to strengthen ministry. And we each play a critical role according to guiding church documents, the ELCA Philosophy of Benefits and Vision and Expectations.
- Congregation members and organizations are called upon to provide their leaders with sustainable livelihoods as well as time to tend their well-being.
- Leaders are expected to tend their well-being in all dimensions of the Wholeness Wheel, the ELCA’s wellness symbol and discernment tool.
- Portico is responsible for providing cost-effective benefits, resources, and inspiration to help leaders strengthen their financial, emotional, and physical well-being.
Signs of a Healthy Leader
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A healthy leader is comfortable talking about money. Because she has addressed her own financial realities, she can more confidently guide her congregation through financial challenges with grace, empathy, and wisdom.
A healthy leader cares for himself emotionally and physically, knowing that when he does, his people get him at his best. He is more likely to be a non-anxious, listening presence, able to guide others through difficult situations.
A healthy leader knows there is strength in vulnerability. She embraces help from family, colleagues, professionals, etc., and looks for opportunities to share with others how she was helped. In this way, she affirms for her congregation that we can't live well when we stand alone.
A healthy leader speaks openly about his life, sharing stories of his own decisions — wise and less wise. In this way, he engages his congregation in honest conversation, and invites them to more openly consider and discuss their own issues.
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A Benefit Program For Life
Portico's ELCA benefit program supports sponsored plan members during their working years, and continues some benefits into retirement. Depending on eligibility, the program protects members by helping to minimize the impact of financial, physical, and emotional loss or trauma due to aging, injury, illness, disability, and death. And it provides inspiration and support to help them better steward their gifts of mind, body, money, and spirit.
Walking With Leaders — For Life
Starting Out
- First Call
- Debt Issues
- Learning Financial Basics
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Putting Down Roots
- Marriage & Kids
- Owning a Home
- Call Change
- College Savings
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Settling In
- Empty Nest
- Call Change
- Retirement Planning
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Enjoying Retirement
- New Choices
- Social Security
- Medicare
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Financial Well-being
Concerns Common to Those in Ministry
- Managing debt
- Budgeting and saving on a limited income
- Affording out-of-pocket health care costs
- Creating a long-term financial plan
- Being financially able to retire
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ELCA Benefits
Protection:
- Retirement account contributions
- Disability coverage
- Life insurance coverage
Wellness Support:
- Financial planners, retirement planners, and debt coaching
- Early, mid-career, and pre-retirement seminars
- Social purpose investment program
- Clergy housing allowance
- Clergy tax guide
- Wellness dollar financial incentives
- Supplemental and dependent life insurance
- Tax-advantaged accounts (health and dependent care FSAs, HSA)
- Employee pretax retirement contributions
- Discounted long-term care insurance
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Emotional Well-being
Concerns Common to Those in Ministry
- Carving out time for family, hobbies, vacation, and self-care
- Managing uncertainty and emotionally charged life events
- Asking for help from congregation members to pursue a healthy lifestyle
- Finding support to make lasting lifestyle change
- Dealing with anxiety about financial issues like college and retirement saving
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ELCA Benefits
Protection:
Wellness Support:
- Employee Assistance Program, including counseling
- Faith-based wellness activities and resources inviting attention to whole-person well-being, prayer practice, and meditation
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Physical Well-being
Concerns Common to Those in Ministry
- Dealing with exhaustion due to long hours and stress
- Finding money, time, or know-how to prepare and eat healthy food
- Finding time to exercise
- Finding doctors and counseling in rural areas
- Getting around to preventive check-ups and screenings
- Knowing what to do when you don’t feel well
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ELCA Benefits
Protection:
- Medical coverage
- Prescription drug coverage
- Dental coverage
Wellness Support:
- Care coordinators
- Fitness center discount
- SilverSneakers® Fitness Program
- 100% paid preventive check-ups and screenings
- Stop Smoking program
- Hearing discount program
- Chronic condition prevention program
- Diabetes management program
- Asthma & COPD specialized care program
- Multiple sclerosis specialized care program
- Biometric screening
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A Church Plan is Good Stewardship
Organizations tell us they want to do right by their leaders. But, as good stewards, they also want to understand the value of the benefits they provide — for their own leaders and the ELCA community.
Four reasons why Portico’s ELCA benefit program best serves the unique needs of ministry:
An Enduring ELCA Ministry
Through predecessor church bodies, the ELCA has maintained Lutheran pension and aid programs for over 200 years. While Portico continues this tradition, we are much more than a benefit provider. As an ELCA ministry, we've championed living well in ministry, helping our church embrace the idea that the strength of our leaders affects the strength of our shared mission.
1988
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In the context of moral outrage over apartheid, we established social purpose funds, freeing members to invest in alignment with ELCA social teachings and policy documents.
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1993
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Recognizing that busy leaders need help planning for retirement, we created the pre-retirement seminar.
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2004
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We collaborated with ELCA leaders to create and share the Wholeness Wheel as an ELCA whole-person well-being discernment tool.
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2007
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With the physical health of our leaders slipping, we re-designed our health plan to inspire and reward healthy behavior.
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2008
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During the "Great Recession," we made necessary decisions to help ensure lifetime payments to ELCA annuitants.
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2009
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To provide a more in-depth wellness experience, we designed and introduced the year-long Journey of RenewalTM.
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2012
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To help leaders plan their financial lives, we offered financial planning assistance for the first time to all our members, younger and older.
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2013
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We anticipated changes brought to the health insurance marketplace by health care reform, and modified our health plan to deliver new benefit options.
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