Service Analyst
Resume:
Brian D. Watkins
Irvington, NJ 07111
***********@*****.***
Objective: To work in an increasingly responsible role in the field of HR Benefits
Administration
Experience:
Mar. 2008 – Present sanofi-aventis US Bridgewater, NJ
Retirement Analyst
Improve the level of service to retirees by actively managing external vendors; create and
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maintain metrics and reporting process flow; host weekly status teleconferences
Maintain excellent employee relations through retirement presentations and “webinars”
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for hundreds of sanofi-aventis employees; attend local “road shows” and presentations to
promote our company retirement benefits
Created, and successfully maintain, Retirement Portal on company intranet to provide a
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user-friendly self-service environment for employees to educate themselves on the
retirement process
Work closely with the Compensation Department and Mercer (vendor) to maintain and
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test data elements for the Your Wealth Planner website (proprietary)
Assisted extensively in the Retiree Medical Plan implementation with external vendor
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including HR News announcements, e-cards, website testing, communications strategies,
and data integrity testing, etc.
Integral to the implementation process for the MyRetirement online pension and retiree
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medical website with our vendor (testing, communications strategy, phased roll-out)
Ensure pension plans are in legal compliance, including testing for the general audit,
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review and update of SAS70 analyses, PPA Annual Funding Notice and Summary
Annual Report (SAR) distributions
Successfully managed and completed 2008 pension plan activity reconciliation, trust
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reconciliation and census roll-forward (FASB87). Coordinated with plan actuaries,
treasury department, and external auditors to ensure 5500 compliance
Improved retirement communications to displaced employees; created informative and
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personalized letter system
Improved retirement communications to field-based employees through creation of
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Retirement High Level Summary brochure; worked closely with Communications
Department and marketing services vendor
Authorized representative and liaison for the Medicare Retiree Drug Subsidy (RDS)
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application process; collaborate with vendors for plan reconciliation
Liaise with HR generalists, payroll specialists, and upper management to address
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employee concerns
Successfully manage ad hoc HR issue resolution: payroll, 401(k), health and welfare,
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HRIS (SAP), etc.
Experienced in SAP PL4 and WAVE; employment actions and benefits enrollment
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transactions
Educate employees on their retirement options via one-on-one meetings and retirement
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consultations; effectively manage Departmental mail and email inquiries
Constantly keeping abreast of the latest retirement news and trends
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Oct. 2006 – Feb. 2008 Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) Little Falls, NJ
Defined Benefits Analyst
Efficiently processed and calculated benefit commencement, estimate, termination, true-
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up, survivor and MRD packages for over ten different pension plans (Salaried Plans,
Account Balance Plans and Hourly Plans) for a large defense contractor
Excelled in the role of Subject Matter Expert for the Hourly Pension Plan, serving as the
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contact for companywide/client-wide inquiries on the client’s most populous plan
Led departmental initiatives such as the annual termination backlog clean-up, where I
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prioritized and assigned calculations to the team
Trusted to be the official Mentor to fellow analysts, assisting them with plan, Excel, or
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other questions
Effectively trained new team members, quickly bringing them up to speed
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Leveraged Account Information System / Participant Account Servicing System software
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to provide accurate and timely responses to participant web inquiries and Client
comments
Managed and made data changes to pension calculation architecture via Database
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Maintenance software
Utilized payroll software to setup payment elections and paying rows, ensuring that
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participants received correct distributions on a timely basis
Interacted with database programmers, payroll analysts, benefits service technicians,
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health and welfare analysts and upper management on a daily basis
Consistently took initiative to automate routine processes
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Successfully interpreted business requirements documents and plan documents
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Consistently met tight turnaround times of less than one week for all assignments, self-
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managed projects and ad hoc tasks (rehired retiree clean-up, non-qualified plan
projections, FICA year-end calculations, and pension protection act integration, etc.),
insuring that Service Level Agreements with our client were met
Feb. 2002 – Oct. 2006 Tinari Economics Group Livingston, NJ
Research Analyst [Forensic Economics]
Accurately forecast the present value of lost pension income, earnings, health insurance,
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stock options, and other benefits in accordance with accepted standards
Extensive experience researching regional wage statistics and occupational income
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Worked closely with principals (Ph.D. statisticians and economists) to develop
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assumptions for Divorce, Business Valuation, and Wrongful Termination cases, etc.
Effectively and efficiently managed employees on a multitude of on-going forensic
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economic consulting projects and cases
Ensured a superior work product through in-person interviews with clients and attorneys
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Routinely researched, and projected benefits for, a variety of pension plans such as the
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NJ Public Employees’ Retirement System, Civil Service Retirement System, Police and
Firemen Retirement System, New York Police Pension Program, and a variety of other
public and private pension plans
Forecast income tax liabilities; effectively interpreted W-2 wage data and income tax
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return information
Spearheaded development of Excel spreadsheets that reduced and/or eliminated
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repetitive calculations
Extensive experience interpreting deposition transcripts and other legal documents
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Initiated database, Internet, book, and journal research to collect valuable legal, statistical
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and economic data, pertinent to specific cases
Education:
New York University New York, NY
College of Arts and Sciences
Bachelor of Arts: May 2001
Majors: Political Science; Russian Studies
Draper Scholarship Recipient
GPA: 3.7
Computer Skills:
Expert in: MS Excel
Proficient in: Word, SAP HRIS, Word Perfect, Quattro Pro and Internet
Familiar with: Access, SQL, KLG Tools (HRIS), LexisNexis and Westlaw
Awards:
Recipient of numerous “Comp-Time Awards” at ACS in recognition of great work ethic,
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team spirit and for going above and beyond my job responsibilities
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