Foster & Foster, Inc., a Florida corporation, is an independent actuarial consulting firm founded in 1979. Our firm consists of highly credentialed actuarial consultants as well as general retirement specialists, and we provide actuarial services to municipal pension and postretirement medical programs.
Currently, we service more than 150 local ordinance plans throughout Florida and over 20 trust funds for police officers and firefighters through a contract with the Division of Retirement.
Our Mission:
Provide municipal clients with unparalleled service by generating meaningful results, exceeding expectations, and making each client feel as though they are our top priority.
Our Values:
We are committed to being an organization that acts with integrity, honesty, respect and professionalism. We embrace such attributes as innovation, peak performance and strong discipline that when combined with our mission, will help us realize our vision.
Our Vision:
To become the actuarial consulting firm the public sector holds in the highest regard.
Count on us for accurate, timely, low-cost actuarial consulting services that you can understand and trust.
Accuracy
Foster & Foster works to guarantee accuracy through our double-check process where we require two actuaries to review all client reports.
We also use ProVal, the best actuarial valuation software currently available in the marketplace. Developed by WinTech, this PC-based software eliminates the time and expense of maintaining and operating a mainframe system. It creates an electronic audit trail for excellent documentation, and allows for an easy transfer of information for accuracy in valuation results.
Timeliness/Responsiveness
With over 150 clients, we’re a large firm that maintains our success by focusing on exceptional customer service. Because we’re a specialized firm, we can offer you economies of scale to save you both time and money. We promise:
- Benefit calculations performed within 10 business days
- Actuarial valuations performed within 60 days (following the receipt of all necessary demographic and financial information)
Because we perform our own asset reconciliation on most trust funds, audited assets are typically not necessary for us to perform a valuation. As our client, you will receive a report shortly after the beginning of the fiscal year if we have received the necessary information mentioned above.
Cost
Foster & Foster is proud to be the lowest cost provider in the market. We control our costs through:
- An organizational structure that minimizes fixed overhead, allowing us to bill less than our competitors while maintaining our mission of unparalleled service
- Splitting travel costs among clients whose meetings are nearby
- Giving impartial advice on performing studies to achieve the intended results of the client
- Articulating many costs in advance with no hidden charges
- An hourly billing rate for other work that is the lowest in the industry
- Working to adhere to our core values of honesty, integrity, respect and professionalism
Communication Ability
Sometimes understanding an actuary can be like trying to learn a foreign language. At Foster & Foster, we go the extra mile to communicate in a straight-forward manner.
We give you all the information you need to make smart decisions. We don’t stop at just providing contribution requirements for the year and the funded status of the plan. We explain why the plan is in its current state, and we’ll provide a forecast for the following year. If you have a question, we’ll have an explanation.
We won’t flood you with too much information, but we will be clear and concise in all of our reports and information.
Client Retention
Most of our clients have been with us for more than 15 years. We think that’s a strong indicator of good results and excellent customer service.
We invite you to take us for a “test-drive.” We think you’ll appreciate our ability to communicate accurate results at a reasonable cost.