Consultants and Actuaries

Joe Newton is a nationally recognized public sector actuary who works with numerous statewide, regional, and local retirement systems and is located in GRS’ Dallas, Texas office. He has more than 20 years of actuarial and benefits consulting experience. Joe’s clients are located in Colorado, Hawaii, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Texas.

Joe is the Pension Market Leader for GRS. In this capacity, Joe functions in one of the most senior professional roles in GRS, providing significant firm-wide leadership and contribution at the highest levels. This role bridges the gap between industry requirements, internal processes, and client deliverables to further strengthen GRS’ position in the marketplace.

As well respected in our industry, several of Joe’s projects have changed the way services are provided, and how pensions are understood, in the public sector community. There are several examples of plan redesign projects, including optimized funding mechanisms and creative plan design features that originated with Joe’s consulting and have been further implemented by other systems. Joe has a unique ability to create innovative solutions to specific problems, and then be able to communicate these sometimes complex solutions to all stakeholders.

Joe stresses a top-down approach to pension plan consulting, which integrates the major goals of stakeholders, addresses human capital needs, and utilizes projection and valuation techniques that manage risk. He has built an enviable reputation in the public sector actuarial community for his creative ability to communicate difficult and complex ideas to Boards and Stakeholders. Most importantly, Joe believes he has helped its clients increase their credibility with the legislative and executive branches of the state government. In many cases, we have annual educational sessions for legislative leaders are of paramount importance in establishing and maintaining this credibility.

Joe is an appointed member on the Associate Advisory Committee of the National Association of State Retirement Administrators (NASRA) where he provides support for NASRA’s vital initiatives to support public employee benefit programs across the country.

Professional Designations

• Fellow, Society of Actuaries
• Enrolled Actuary
• Fellow, Conference of Consulting Actuaries
• Member, American Academy of Actuaries

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Mathematics, and Business Administration, Austin College (Sherman, Texas)