A front-page article in your April 29 issue was published featuring the “adjustable pension plan,” which Cheiron has been working on in concert with other professionals. The article stated, more than one time, that I was the person who conceived the adjustable pension plan concept. That is not the case. It is important for your readers to know the full story.
The concept, which was first called the “variable defined benefit plan” and later named the adjustable pension plan, was conceived by a team of professionals inside and outside of Cheiron working together to try to solve the retirement crisis in America.
This team included:
David Blitzstein, special assistant for the Multiemployer Funds Collective Bargaining Department of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, who worked with Cheiron consultants Gene Kalwarski and Peter Hardcastle to help develop a viable retirement plan option that neither contained the inherent risks of a traditional defined benefit plan nor the inadequacy of a 401(k) plan. This led to the development of the original variable defined benefit plan.
Barry S. Slevin, president of Slevin & Hart, was also heavily involved, providing strategic and legal advice, as was Skip Halpern, area president of Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors, who provided investment consulting advice on this effort.
Finally, David Lee, vice president of Strategic Income Security Services, also provided investment consulting advice and performed independent forecasts to stress test the new plan design.
My contribution to this exciting development was a variation of the concept that would work for single-employer plans, as was done for the Newspaper Guild of New York.
RICHARD HUDSON
Principal consulting actuary
Cheiron Inc.
New York
