Are Actuaries Overpaid?

EmploymentCrossing.com The panel that runs Connecticut state employees’ retirement programs wants to increase the controversial fee it pays two actuaries to attend meetings from $2,900 to $3,000 per session. State Comptroller Nancy Wyman, a non-voting, ex-officio member of the Connecticut State Employees Retirement Commission, said she wants the panel to trim those payments or she’ll ask lawmakers to require it to do so. Wyman’s comments came in response to a review issued last week by state auditors, who reported that the commission pays two of its three professional actuaries, Claude Poulin of North Carolina and Robert D. Baus of New Jersey, a “per diem” of $2,900 per meeting, as well as compensation for first-class air travel, meals, and hotel bills. In two of several potentially embarrassing disclosures, the auditors said Baus had collected $5,800 for two meetings held on the same day, and that Poulin was paid $944 for a round-trip, first-class airfare. Over the last fiscal year, the panel paid Poulin a total of $98,474 and paid Baus a total of $91,891. The 15-member retirement commission includes six trustees representing state employees, six representing state management, the two “professional actuaries,” Poulin and Baus, and a “neutral” trustee, its chairman.