Optimizing Foundations, New York · (917) 275-3802
We advise boards, finance officers and business owners on pension, retiree health and employee ownership questions with thirty-year consequences. The valuation is where the conversation starts, not where it ends.
Or call (917) 275-3802 and ask for an actuary.
Four reasons plan sponsors choose the firm over a national practice or a bundled provider.
The credentialed actuary who signs the valuation directs the work, answers the auditor and presents to the board. There is no hand-off to a service center.
The firm manages no assets, sells no products and has no compensation arrangements with insurers, investment managers or recordkeepers. A recommendation to terminate, de-risk or change providers is paid for by the client alone.
Valuation, projection and reporting platforms built in-house, so results arrive as interactive views the finance team can question and change, with the formal report beside them.
Every deliverable is reviewed by a second credentialed actuary before it leaves the firm, and the review is recorded. Assumptions, data and methods are documented so results can be reproduced and explained.
Public retirement systems, private employers and employee-owned companies each answer to different rules and different audiences. The approach is the same: sound assumptions, clear reports and a recommendation.
States, counties, cities, school districts, transit and public safety systems. Results have to hold up in front of a board, a council and the auditors.
Companies, health systems and mission-driven organizations with pension, retiree medical or executive plans, where the CFO needs the risk understood before year-end.
Boards, trustees, business owners and acquirers who need a decision analyzed and presented so it can be made: a transaction, a succession, a governance question or a funding policy.
Most engagements start with a decision someone has to defend to a board, a council, an auditor or a family. We develop the cost and risk analysis, model the alternatives and support the client through the decision.
Side-by-side economics of continuing a defined benefit plan against a defined contribution or 403(b) design, carried through to a board recommendation. When termination is the answer, a final-year package that brings every balance to zero.
GASB 74/75 measurement is the starting point. The larger question is funding policy, trust strategy and plan design, and what each does to the balance sheet and the budget over twenty years.
Pension risk transfer economics, timing against funded status and interest rates, and the documented insurer review under Interpretive Bulletin 95-1 that fiduciaries need on file before they sign.
Mandatory retirement age and deferred retirement option studies for public safety and other public plans, with cost, workforce and member outcomes modeled together rather than in separate reports.
Repurchase obligation forecasts for ESOP companies, succession and liquidity planning, and the annual administration that keeps the plan compliant once the transaction closes.
Benefits due diligence for buyers: the pension, retiree medical, multiemployer and executive plan exposures that come with a target, measured on the basis that matters for price, and the deal terms that follow.
The recurring work behind these decisions, GASB 67/68 and 74/75, GASB 101, ASC 715 and IAS 19 reporting, funding valuations, cash balance testing, nondiscrimination testing, Form 5500 and benefit calculations, is described under Services.
Every liability on the balance sheet is a benefit someone is counting on.
Teachers, troopers, nurses, transit workers, and the employees of the companies we advise. That is why we use models we can explain, give boards results they can test themselves, and have a second actuary check every figure.
A sample of what the firm has been asked to do. Client names available on request and with permission.
The firm also holds and pursues GASB 74/75 engagements for municipalities, counties, transit authorities and state legislative bodies, and provides third-party administration for defined contribution, defined benefit and cash balance plans.
The sequence is the same whether the question is a $2 million OPEB liability or a statewide retirement system. Clients see every step.
Agree on the question, who has to approve the answer and what would change their mind. Then decide what to model.
Census, plan provisions and assets reconciled to the prior year. Liabilities and cash flows in our own tested models, assumptions documented.
Scenarios, sensitivities and stress cases, plus an independent review by an actuary who did not run the numbers.
Board and council materials in plain language, with the trade-offs on one page and the detail behind it.
Filings, communications, administration and next year's valuation. We stay on after the decision is made.
Every valuation, study and disclosure is reviewed by a second credentialed actuary before it leaves the firm.
The actuaries who prepare the valuation are the ones who present it. Full team and advisors
Principal and signing actuary
FSA, EA, CFA, FCA, MAAA
More than 30 years advising public and private plan sponsors. Previously Deloitte, Towers Perrin and Hewitt Associates. More than 300 M&A benefits diligence reviews. Former Interim Dean, Columbia University School of Professional Studies.
Managing Director and Senior Actuary
FSA, EA, CFA, PMP, MAAA
Trusted advisor to CEOs, CFOs and heads of HR on retirement plan strategy. 26 of his 27 years at Deloitte Consulting, leading plan design, compliance and testing, and plan termination projects.
Senior Manager
Ph.D., FSA
More than 30 years across actuarial education and insurance. Led Columbia University's M.S. in Actuarial Science program for 13 years. Recipient of the 2020 Society of Actuaries Presidential Award.
Send an RFP, a solicitation link, last year's report or a short question. A credentialed actuary will respond, usually within one business day.
Call (917) 275-3802 or write to info@optimizingfoundations.com