Jeffrey M. Van Wagner, FSA, EA, MAAA
PRINCIPAL
Jeff Van Wagner started with Alliance Pension Consultants in November 2013 as Chief Actuary.
Throughout his career, Jeff has been engaged in helping employers manage their total retirement programs. This includes design, administration, and implementation of several types of qualified retirement plans, including Defined Benefit Plans, Cash Balance Plans, Age-Weighted Profit-Sharing Plans, Pension Equity Plans, Floor Offset Plans, and Other Post-Employment Benefit (OPEB) Plans. This also includes acute expertise in designing and administering nonqualified retirement plans / Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans (SERPs), such as deferred compensation plans under Internal Revenue Code Sections 409A and 457. He is also widely experienced in designing and valuating retiree welfare programs / Other Postemployment Benefit Plans (OPEBs).
Jeff’s experience providing actuarial valuation and consulting services spans many industries, including not-for-profit, tax-exempt, privately held and publicly traded Fortune 500 companies. He has worked with many governmental and religious organizations related to their unique retirement plan design and valuation needs. He has worked diligently with all types of organizations throughout the life cycle of their retirement plans, from a plan’s inception to its ultimate termination, ensuring each plan is meeting its objectives, sometimes competing, for participants and stakeholders.
Jeff has also been very active in consulting with his clients on business transactions and combinations. He has been involved in numerous engagements providing due diligence support related to the retirement benefits of organizations for buyers and sellers involved in complicated transactions. He has led projects designed to integrate and optimize the ultimate retirement benefits of combined entities. He is familiar with the required ins and outs of combining and separating retirement plans in the event of a merger or a spin-off.
Prior to joining Alliance, Jeff led relationships with a number of organizations for Watson Wyatt Worldwide and Ernst & Young. He brings a wealth of knowledge relating to the retirement plan philosophies of some of the largest organizations to his everyday interactions with his clients at Alliance.
Jeff’s strengths revolve around his detailed knowledge of retirement plans and his tenacity in solving client problems and issues. He refuses to start from the premise that something is impossible; while the retirement system is comprised of many rules, there are so many possibilities and opportunities inherent in retirement plan design and compliance that allow for client objective optimization. Jeff is constantly engaged by clients who need assistance addressing confusing design structures or complicated compliance missteps and attacks these issues from numerous angles. Ultimately, what drives the success he has with his clients is not just the creative solutions, but his simplifying and straightforward communication with clients that allow for both comfort and confidence in the ultimate resolution. Jeff has relationships with clients that have spanned over 25 years across his history of work experience, and that is a testament of the comfort and camaraderie he imbues in every relationship; he views himself as always your advocate and partner in success.
Jeff graduated from Indiana University with a BS in Mathematics and an MA in Applied Mathematics. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), an Enrolled Actuary under ERISA (EA) and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA).
Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.
~ Albert Einstein
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