The 2015 Pension 40: Edward (Ted) Siedle

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Edward (Ted) Siedle
President / Benchmark Financial Services
Last year’s rank: 33

Hidden fees don’t stay buried long when Edward (Ted) Siedle is around. In late October the 61-year-old founder of pension forensics firm Benchmark Financial Services concluded a probe into Jacksonville, Florida’s police and firefighter pension system at the request of the city council. According to Siedle, poor investment decisions and board monitoring of the $1.43 billion fund resulted in at least $370 million in losses from underperformance over two decades and $36 million in excess fees over six years. “They adopted the highest fiduciary standard known in law and then promptly proceeded to ignore it completely and not even comply with state minimum standards,” Siedle says. Last year he dug into the Employees’ Retirement System of Rhode Island, raising $20,464 from 349 contributors for the first-ever crowdfunded pension audit. According to Siedle — not everyone agrees — preventable losses at the $8 billion pension fund totaled nearly $2 billion. “Mismanagement and ‘politicization’ of pension investments — not excessive benefits promised to workers — are the chief culprits,” he wrote in a June report. A former Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer, Siedle founded Benchmark, based in Ocean Ridge, Florida, in 1999 and quickly became a controversial figure in the pension world. Siedle says he has investigated more than $1 trillion in retirement plan assets over his three-decade-long career. What’s the strangest thing he’s seen? “Beanie Babies!” he says. In 2005 the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had $50 million earmarked for investment in the then-hot stuffed-animal line, as well as rare coins and other collectibles. Justice was served, says Siedle: “The Beanie Baby people went to jail.”

The 2015 Pension 40