Julius Smetona — Chief Actuary & Founder
Julius Smetona, F.S.A., E.A.
Julius is president and founder of DeSales Associates. He holds a B.A. in music, an M.S. in operations research, and an M.S. in mathematics, all from Case Western Reserve University.
He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, an Enrolled Actuary, and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. His consulting experience ranges from sole proprietors to Fortune 100 class organizations.
Julius works with a wide variety of tax-qualified retirement plans, currently ranging from those that cover a single participant to plans that benefit five hundred employees. His design experience includes creating plans under traditional defined benefit or defined contribution models as well as hybrid defined benefit arrangements (cash balance or pension equity plans). In addition, he has terminated dozens of plans, worked with the PBGC in distress termination situations, provided technical support for plan sponsors in connection with audits by the IRS, DOL, and PBGC, and has rehabilitated plans that experienced compliance failures or operational defects.
Julius addressed the 14th Annual Treasury Management Idea Exchange, sponsored by the Northeastern Ohio Treasury Management Association. His topic was Recent Opportunities and Potential Pitfalls in Qualified and Non-Qualified Plans.
In the summer of 2003, a research paper authored by Julius on asset/liability management issues was published in the Canadian journal Institute of Insurance and Pension Research Reports. Julius has been an adjunct professor at the Department of Statistics of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio where he taught actuarial science.
Julius has served on the EA-2F Examination Committee since 2007. This national committee writes one of three exams pension professionals striving to become enrolled actuaries must pass. It is administered by the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries and the Society of Actuaries.
Julius was a featured speaker at the Annual Legal and Regulatory Update of the Worldwide Employee Benefits Network on March 18, 2010, in Cleveland, Ohio. He addressed the Financial Planning Association of New York on February 15, 2012, in New York City.
His practice areas also include health-care plans. Julius has served as actuary for Health Maintenance Organizations, designed prescription drug plans, point of service plans, and Medicare supplemental plans, and filed rates with the Ohio Department of Insurance. He has provided incurred-but-not-reported (IBNR) claims liability analysis for self-funded health care plans, prepared actuarial reports under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards Number 106 and SOP 92-6 for post-retirement health care benefits, and prepared actuarial attestations under Medicare Part D. He also works with public sector health care plans and has developed computer simulations to evaluate alternative delivery approaches, from fully insured to self-funded, and prepare employer and employee cost-sharing analysis under alternative plan design scenarios.
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Watch Julius share the ins and outs of a defined benefit plan.