Who We Serve
Providing Benefits to Those Who Serve
As a nonprofit ministry of the ELCA, we were established to serve church-affiliated ministries like yours, and we have benefit packages to help you care for your staff.
Portico Benefit Services can provide health, retirement, and life insurance benefits for 501(c)(3) organizations affiliated with the ELCA or with a full communion partner denomination. This could include congregations, senior care facilities, schools, camps, colleges and universities, or social ministry organizations. We offer health benefits as a church plan, which has benefits for those that are eligible.
What Is a Church Plan?
If your organization is associated with a church and is exempt from tax under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3), you may be eligible to participate in a church plan, which is an employee benefit plan established and maintained for the employees of a church or church-associated organization.
Church plans are not subject to reporting and disclosure requirements required in Title I of ERISA, including an annual Form 5500 filing requirement, and are not subject to an annual audit requirement — saving you expenses.
Determination of eligibility to participate in a church plan is dependent on each organization’s unique facts and circumstances. Set up a call and we can help determine your eligibility.
Rostered Ministers & Church Staff
For over 200 years, the Lutheran Church has supported the well-being of faith leaders and their families. Portico is committed to continuing this legacy of providing comprehensive benefits to the rostered ministers and lay employees of the ELCA’s congregations, synods, and churchwide organization.
Supporting the physical, emotional, and financial well-being of those who lead — from seminary to retirement — has much to do with creating and maintaining vital ministries. When our leaders are healthy, our churches are stronger.
Social Ministry Organizations
Social ministries serve a critical role in the community, directly delivering care to those in need. Maintaining the well-being of those who serve is an important part of Portico’s mission to support church-affiliated ministries and their staff.
As a nonprofit ministry of the ELCA, Portico Benefit Services can serve organizations associated with the ELCA or one of its full communion partners. The services these organizations provide are as diverse as the needs of the people and communities they serve in the senior care, youth, and family service sectors.
The pricing with Portico was very good and in switching, we didn’t have to increase rates. It feels like we’re offering a true benefit again.
Sue Cyncynatus
Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, CFO
Colleges & Universities
ELCA colleges and universities educate tomorrow’s leaders. Portico provides flexible and comprehensive benefits to support the needs of faculty members, coaches, leaders, facilities staff, and those who work for colleges and universities of the ELCA or are affiliated with a full communion partner denomination.
Endowment fund investment management
Endowment assets are crucial to the vitality of your institution and to support teaching, research, and the mission. Our investment expertise and the economies of scale from our combined asset size can bring strength to your endowment investments, including options to invest in social purpose funds that align with ELCA social teachings and policies.
It’s refreshing to work with a mission-driven organization like Portico that really lives out their values. I don’t feel like we’re just another customer.
Jeanne Lucas
Director of Human Resources, Bethany College