Member Profile

Graham Schmidt is a well-known expert on public pension plans with more than 25 years of experience. He is the State Association of County Retirement Systems (SACRS) representative on the California Actuarial Advisory Panel. His clients include many large county and city plans, as well as several transit and other independent agencies. His experience includes working on audits and risk analyses. He oversees Cheiron’s retiree medical benefit trusts practice, developing more than a dozen tax-advantaged union-run trusts that provide pooled lifetime benefits under a fixed contribution. He also heads Cheiron’s Technology Committee and has led our efforts in developing interactive online reports. He is a member of the Society of Actuaries’ Retirement Plans Experience Committee and has volunteered on other public plan committees of the Academy of Actuaries and the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. He often speaks about public pension issues at industry and professional conferences, including at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, and the National Council on Teacher Retirement. He is a frequent instructor at the SACRS Public Plan Investment Management program. He joined Cheiron in January 2013 and opened the firm’s Bay Area office that year. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, an Enrolled Actuary under ERISA, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Science with Departmental Honors from Johns Hopkins University.