< The 2014 Pension 40: The Battle Is On
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Edward (Ted) Siedle
President
Benchmark Financial Services
PNR
Edward (Ted) Siedle has spent more than three decades pioneering pension forensics, searching out excessive and hidden fees, conflicts of interest and transparency problems. A year and a half ago, Siedle, founder of Ocean Ridge, Florida–based Benchmark Financial Services, sought to reveal the untold story of public pensions. He contends that many governments’ solution to underfunded pensions, which he characterizes as cutting benefits and boosting allocations to opaque, expensive and risky alternative investments, is not reform but a wealth transfer to Wall Street. “The political solution that’s been proffered, driven by campaign contributions from alternatives managers, is a doomed investment strategy,” says Siedle, 60, who has a JD from Boston College Law School and oversaw compliance for Putnam Investments. In an April 2013 blog post on Forbes’s website, he launched a fiery attack on Rhode Island’s pension reform, led by then–general treasurer, now Governor-elect, Gina Raimondo (No. 14). Siedle was then hired by a Rhode Island public employee union to investigate and produced a report assailing what he called the state’s high hedge fund fees, lack of transparency and potential violations of the law. He applauds the California Public Employees’ Retirement System’s move to exit hedge funds but faults CalPERS for not being more forthright in admitting to the role underperformance played in its decision. “There are no [public pension] funds that I’m aware of that have solved anything by alternative investments,” he says. The best investment strategy for public pensions, Siedle asserts, is to reject skyrocketing fees and demand full transparency.
The 2014 Pension 40
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Bruce Rauner Illinois | John and Laura Arnold Laura and John Arnold Foundation | Randi Weingarten American Federation of Teachers | Rahm Emanuel Chicago | David Boies Boies, Schiller & Flexner |
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Randy DeFrehn National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans | Damon Silvers AFL-CIO | Laurence Fink BlackRock | Chris Christie New Jersey | Robin Diamonte United Technologies Corp. |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| Ted Eliopoulos California Public Employees’ Retirement System | John Kline Minnesota | J. Mark Iwry U.S. Treasury Department | Gina Raimondo Rhode Island | Phyllis Borzi U.S. Labor Department |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| Orrin Hatch Utah | Abigail Johnson Fidelity Investments | Ted Wheeler Oregon | Caitlin Long Morgan Stanley | James Hoffa International Brotherhood of Teamsters |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| Amy Kessler Prudential Financial | Alejandro García Padilla Puerto Rico | Christopher Klein U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Caifornia | Steven Rhodes Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan | Kevin de León California |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| David Draine Pew Charitable Trusts | Jordan Marks National Public Pension Coalition | Sam Liccardo California | Joshua Rauh Stanford Graduate School of Business | Karen Ferguson and Karen Friedman Pension Rights Center |
| 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 |
| Timothy Blake Moody’s Investors Service | Kathleen Kennedy Townsend Center for Retirement Initiatives, Georgetown University | Edward (Ted) Siedle Benchmark Financial Services | Daniel Loeb Third Point | Judy Mares Employee Benefits Security Administration, U.S. Labor Department |
| 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| Andrew Biggs American Enterprise Institute | Andy Stern Columbia University | Kenneth Mehlman KKR & Co. | Teresa Ghilarducci New School for Social Research | A. Melissa Moye U.S. Treasury Department |
