James Hynes is President of Taft Hartley Resources II, Inc. Mr. Hynes formerly served as the Executive Administrator for the Pipe Trades Services Minnesota (PTSMN), a nonprofit Minnesota corporation that provided administrative services to various pension and welfare trusts in the piping industry. He was employed at PTSMN for 32 years. Employee benefit services were provided to approximately 5,000 active employees working for over 300 employers as well as over 2,800 retirees, resulting in over 18,000 covered lives in the welfare fund. As executive administrator, Mr. Hynes was responsible for the overall administration of the benefit funds’ day-to-day operations. The welfare fund processed approximately 100 million dollars in benefit claims per year. This was a comprehensive benefit plan that provided medical, dental, vision, disability, death, retiree, Medicare supplement and prescription drug coverage as well as additional ancillary benefits. In addition, the Retiree Health Trust was a separate trust fund designed to provide health benefits to retired members with over $250 million in assets and future health costs funded on an actuarial basis.
Mr. Hynes also oversaw the implementation and all operational aspects of the four Pipe Trades Family Health & Wellness Centers, which provided primary medical care, cardiac, chiropractic, behavioral & mental health care and a variety of additional health and wellness services to the plan participants. As Executive Administrator, Mr. Hynes was in charge of the administration of two distinct pension plans: the PTSMN Pension Plan, a defined benefit plan, and the PTSMN Pension Supplement Plan, a defined contribution plan. This administration included investment oversight, recordkeeping, participant education, all reporting & disclosure requirements as well as the coordination of services provided by investment managers, actuaries, auditors, and plan consultants. The defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans had combined assets of over $2.8 billion. In addition, he served as President of Labor Value Rx, a pharmacy benefit management company (PBM) designed specifically to meet the fiduciary needs of Taft-Hartley welfare funds. PTSMN provided collection and accounting services for approximately $250 million per year in benefit and other contributions as directed by the local unions and contractor association agreements. Mr. Hynes is a 40-year member of Minneapolis Pipefitters Local #539 and is a certified instructor of journeymen and apprentices in the plumbing and pipefitting industry.
Current role