John Bikus, Author at PBI Research Services

About John Bikus

John is the President of PBI Research Services. Prior to joining the company, John helped start, grow and successfully sell two online companies – ObitData.com (leading online data and research company) and Legacy.com (global leader in online obituary services). He also has marketing, sales, and research experience with Kraft Foods and AC Nielsen. John holds an MBA from the University of Chicago.

The 40-year evolution of a brand to reach the pinnacle in its industry.

Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a follower and a leader. “ In the death audit and participant locate market, PBI Research is the clear leader and constant innovation has been the catalyst. But it didn’t happen overnight. It started 40 years ago when the company began helping pension funds find unreported pension decedents and locate missing plan participants and beneficiaries. This unrelenting focus to provide accurate data on a consistent basis propelled [...]

John Bikus2024-05-01T14:27:01-05:00May 31st, 2023|News|

You received PBGC SFA funds, now what?

You have conducted your Death Audit based on the PBGC guidelines. You have gone through the SFA application checklist, and you finally receive an approval notice from the PBGC for your requested SFA funds. Now what? Although the PBGC does not expect SFA fund recipients to repay the awarded cash, these funds come with a catch. There are several terms and conditions that apply to awarded SFA funds. Many of these can be found [...]

John Bikus2023-12-12T10:15:46-06:00February 15th, 2023|Pensions, Webinar Recaps|

Why the DMF isn’t Adequate for Insurance Companies

Identifying deaths has become harder for insurance companies. In 2011, a change to the SSA Death Master File (DMF) fundamentally altered the Death Audit landscape resulting in challenges to Death Audit providers accompanied by a significantly increased burden placed on insurance companies to accurately identify deaths of policyholders. Because of this, missed deaths are leading to overpayments for insurance companies in their Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) and Structured Settlements lines of business. In Long Term Care (LTC), [...]

John Bikus2024-05-01T14:24:57-05:00February 9th, 2023|Death Audit & CertiDeath, Insurance|

Press Release: PBI Research Services Announces CertiCensus® Certified – A New Gold Standard in Pension Plan Data Management and Compliance

MINNEAPOLIS (Jan. 11, 2023) – PBI Research Services, the leading death audit and locate service provider, today announced CertiCensus Certified, a new gold standard certification for its customers and the industry marking the most thorough verification and documentation process for pension plan participant data management. CertiCensus is the industry’s first single-source, proactive pension plan population management platform to help pension plans reduce costs, eliminate overpayments, ensure regulatory compliance and mitigate cybersecurity risk. With the [...]

John Bikus2023-06-15T10:59:36-05:00January 11th, 2023|News, Pensions, Population Management & CertiCensus|

Best Practices for Applying for Special Financial Assistance (SFA) Funds

Pension plans nationwide are taking advantage of Special Financial Assistance (SFA) funds granted to eligible recipients by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) – a federally chartered corporation created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to encourage the continuation and maintenance of pension plans and funds. The program was created to rescue severely underfunded multiemployer pension plans who are projected to be insolvent prior to 2051, to ensure that the millions of retirees [...]

John Bikus2023-12-12T10:16:22-06:00December 16th, 2022|Pensions|

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