Member Profile

Stephen T. McElhaney is a Principal Consulting Actuary at Cheiron and is a nationally respected public sector retirement consultant. He has extensive experience as an actuary for various state and local governmental retirement plans. Steve’s background has included presentations before public retirement boards and legislative bodies, as well as presentations before public sector conferences and actuarial meetings. Steve is a member of the Public Plans Steering Committee of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. The Committee has been very active in submitting comments to the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) as they have proposed changes in pension accounting standards. The Committee has also submitted comments to the Actuarial Standards Board on proposed changes to actuarial standards. Steve also served on a task force established by GASB as it was developing Statements No. 74 and 75 for other postemployment benefit plans (OPEB). Prior to joining Cheiron, Steve was a Principal with a large national benefits consulting firm where he served as national leader for public sector retirement consulting in the US. This role included managing the activities of four public sector centers of excellence as well as being national coordinator for consulting related to GASB Statement No. 45. He also served on its national Professional Standards Leadership Team, which developed and monitored professional standards for all US employees. Some of his more significant consulting assignments have included: - Serving as lead actuary for numerous state and local governmental retirement plans. - Performing actuarial audits for more than numerous state retirement systems. - Serving as lead consultant on numerous pension plan design studies. Several of these studies included evaluation of hybrid arrangements as well as assessment of alternative defined contribution plans. - Assisting clients in implanting retirement choice for employees.