New York Continuation Assistance Program for Entertainment Industry Employees

[javero]

Posted: 6/29/19 at 11:31pm

My apologies if this thread rightly belongs on the main board.  Our earlier exchanges about the 2020 Dem presidential hopefuls piqued my interest in the health, 401(k), and pension benefits available to members of the Actors Equity Association.  Turns out the benefits are provided by the Equity-League Benefit Funds which are managed by an independent organization.  For more information, visit Equity-League. 

What I find striking about New York is that actors and stage managers residing there who experience a lapse in health insurance coverage may qualify for assistance from the state to meet a portion of their COBRA premiums for up to 12 months over their lifetimes.  My next steps will be to determine the source of the program funding, which is likely NY tax payers, and to ascertain the level of funding for the current fiscal year.

An application for the assistance can be found here.

Finally, an interesting note is that on May 26, 2017, the Equity League 401(k) fund manager replaced the Morgan Stanley Institutional Real Estate Portfolio with the Vanguard REIT Index Fund as an investment option, citing the former's poor performance. I'm nearly embarrassed to admit that as long as I've been logging on here I had no idea what health, pension, and retirement benefits were available to those of you who are stage actors and managers.

ETA: Had to remove some odd characters that appeared in the post somehow.  Night all!

Updated On: 6/29/19 at 11:31 PM