Thank you for your help...going over your correction, I realized that i could make the problem smaller by putting an index over carrier and benefit start date then attack each carrier separately, so i went through three iterations to get to where i think it needs to be

select memberid, carrier, planname, plantype,tiername, premium,benefitstartdate,

case when benefitenddate = '20991231' then displayenddate else benefitenddate end newenddate, displayenddate

from ees

where '20131231'>=[BenefitStartDate]

and not (carrier in ( 'Elect', 'Waive'))

order by 2

--but this left 2014 in the end date, so i tried to nest the case statement

select memberid, carrier, planname, plantype, tiername, premium, benefitstartdate,

case when benefitenddate = '20991231' then

case when year(displayenddate)='2014' then '20131231' end else benefitenddate end, displayenddate

from ees

where '20131231'>=[BenefitStartDate]

and not (carrier in ( 'Elect', 'Waive'))

order by 2

but that left nulls in the end date, so i switched the 'stuffing' for the case statement to

select memberid , carrier ,planname, plantype, tiername, premium, benefitstartdate,

case when benefitenddate = '20991231' then '20131231' else benefitenddate end, displayenddate

from ees

where '20131231'>=[BenefitStartDate]

and not (carrier in ( 'Elect', 'Waive'))

order by 2

and that left the result in the state i needed it, substituting 12/31/2013 where there was 12/31/2099 or the real benefit end date.

Thank you for the push.