PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Gene Kalwarski, 1-877 Cheiron (243-4766), gkalwarski@Cheiron.us

November 7, 2003

One year on and growing strong

One year after its founding, Cheiron has emerged as one of the nation’s leading and most innovative boutique actuarial services firms, serving a growing roster of Taft-Hartley, public sector and corporate pension and health & welfare plan clients.

“We started this company a year ago to set a new standard for independence, professional integrity and creativity for the actuarial services industry.    Our rapid growth since then tells us we’re filling an important niche,” says Gene Kalwarski. “We have remained faithful to our motto, ‘Classic values, innovative advice.’”

Cheiron now serves over 40 major clients which together provide benefits for over 400,000 people, and have assets of approximately $10 billion.  Over half of those clients are Taft-Hartley plans, both pension and health & welfare.

In addition to its broad menu of traditional actuarial consulting services, Cheiron’s innovative and popular “P-scan” and “H-scan” products give plan trustees and managers a tool to do real-time, interactive simulation of alternative funding, investment, asset allocation and liability scenarios. 

“These products have been particularly useful to clients during this time of volatile financial markets and high inflation rates on medical costs,” says Gene. “Trustees don’t want to wait for weeks or months to get an analysis back of the implications of a change they’re considering making in the way they’re handling plan investments or benefit design,” he adds.  “These are the kinds of responsive services people are coming to us for.”

Cheiron’s activities have received extensive media coverage, including a profile in HR Innovator magazine, which described the firm as “looking beyond the conventions of pension planning.”

Cheiron has also been helping pension plans and other clients meet their fiduciary obligations to participants with services like Gatekeeper, a regular independent review of the work product of clients’ other advisors. “With rampant conflicts of interest within some sectors, particularly in investment management, our clients found Gatekeeper to be very helpful this year,” notes Gene.  As an independent firm with no ties to accounting or investment companies, Cheiron is able to provide completely unbiased advice.

As a follow-on to Gatekeeper, Cheiron has expanded its in-depth auditing services, including in-depth reviews of the annual valuation process and of the consulting advice plan sponsors are receiving.

Additional new services and growth areas for Cheiron include:

Cheiron is accommodating growth in demand for its services through a combination of hiring good people — the firm’s consulting staff grew by nearly 40% over the past year — and the establishment of strategic alliances with other actuarial firms whose resources complement those of Cheiron.   As a result, Cheiron has an on-the-ground presence in five states — Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and California as well as the District of Columbia.

Looking ahead, Cheiron’s founders anticipate continued growth and additional innovative services in 2004. “We work hard to anticipate the needs of pensions, health & welfare plans, regulatory agencies and others and to meet those requirements with creative and responsive services,” says Gene.   “We look forward to serving our clients for many years to come.”