Start a Pension and Retirement Actuarial Consulting Practice

1. 1

   Secure Enrolled Actuary status or a partner who has it

   US defined-benefit plan valuations for ERISA funding must be signed by an Enrolled Actuary, a credential granted by the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries and maintained with specific continuing education. This is the single hard gate on this business. If you hold it, you can sign; if not, either pursue enrollment or partner with an EA who signs while you handle analysis and client work.

2. 2

   Target the durable defined-benefit book

   Many corporate defined-benefit plans are frozen or closed, but frozen is not gone: they still need annual actuarial valuations, funding and contribution calculations, and government filings for years. Target small and mid-size sponsors of defined-benefit, cash-balance, and multiemployer plans, plus public-sector plans, where a responsive boutique is preferred over a giant benefits firm. These liabilities are multi-year, which is exactly why they suit recurring engagements.

3. 3

   Stand up entity, insurance, and ERISA compliance

   Register the business, carry professional liability cover, and build your practice around ERISA requirements, IRS funding rules, and the Actuarial Standards of Practice for pensions. Your work product feeds regulated filings, so documentation and reproducibility matter. Get comfortable with the annual compliance calendar because your deliverables are tied to it.

4. 4

   Own the annual valuation and filing cycle

   The core recurring deliverable is the annual actuarial valuation and the Schedule SB attached to the plan's Form 5500, along with contribution ranges and funding notices. Build a repeatable process for gathering census data, setting and documenting assumptions, and producing the valuation and filing on time. Owning this calendar for a plan is what makes the revenue recurring by nature.

5. 5

   Win the first sponsor and prove reliability

   Land one sponsor whose plan you can take over cleanly, ideally one frustrated with a slow or impersonal incumbent. Deliver an accurate valuation and a filing on time, and explain the funding position in plain language the finance team can act on. Reliability on a regulated deadline is the reputation that wins the next sponsor by referral.

6. 6

   Add adjacent retirement advisory

   Around the required valuation sit higher-value conversations: plan design and freezes, pension risk transfer and annuity buyouts, funding policy, and accounting disclosure support. These extend the relationship beyond the compliance minimum and raise the value of each client. Offer them once you have earned trust delivering the required work reliably.

7. 7

   Scale with EA capacity and tight review

   Grow by adding Enrolled Actuaries and building peer review, since funding certifications carry real legal weight. Each EA widens the plans you can sign. Keep the compliance discipline as you add clients, because a missed deadline or a flawed certification in a regulated space damages the reputation the whole practice runs on.

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