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Instructor biography

All instructors are well known in the industry, so any potential attendee would be well acquainted with the instructors. The entire symposium is lead by 3 instructors, Larry Deutsch, Kevin Donovan and Jim Holland. The ethics portion is lead by Karen Smith and Larry Deutsch.

Kevin Donovan, CPA, EA, MSPA

Kevin is a nationally recognized speaker and author in the area of qualified retirement plans. Kevin is a shareholder in the CPA firm of Beach Fleischman & Co., PC, and is managing member of the firm's pension affiliate, Pinnacle Plan Design, LLC, where he specializes in designing retirement plans to maximize the benefits for business owners and principals. Kevin is an enrolled actuary as well as a Certified Public Accountant. He is a Member of ASPPA, where he has served on the Board of Directors and the Government Affairs Committee (GAC). Kevin is a founding Member of the College of Pension Actuaries (COPA) and currently serves as ACOPA's Vice President. He also serves on ACOPA's GAC where he has assisted in writing comment letters to the IRS and Treasury regarding proposed regulations. Kevin has been a contributing editor to Journal of Pension Benefits (JPB), the leading trade publication for pension professionals, where he previously authored a column concerning retirement plan design for small businesses. He is currently an editorial advisor for the JPB. Kevin has also been published in the Journal of Taxation of Employee Benefits, the Benefit Law Journal, as well as The ASPPA Journal. In addition, Kevin is a contributing author to the Life Insurance Answer Book for Qualified Plans and Estate Planning. Most recently Kevin was a contributing author to the AICPA publication The CPA's Guide to Retirement Plans for Small Businesses in which he authored chapters on defined benefit plans and tax deduction issues regarding retirement plans. Kevin graduated from Syracuse University with a BS in Accounting in May of 1980. He has practiced in the retirement plan area for more than 25 years.

James E. Holland

ASA, EA, MAAA, FCA, FSPA, Chief Research Actuary

Jim has more than 40 years of professional experience working on issues related to retirement and welfare benefit plans.

His experience includes helpings consultants and clients understand and apply rules and regulations and the impact of relevant court decisions on their plans. His expertise includes plan qualification requirements and the funding and deduction rules. He is also often engaged as an expert witness in pension disputes.

Before joining Cheiron, he was the Assistant Director, Employee Plans Rulings and Agreements at the Internal Revenue Service, and was effectively the chief pension actuary for most of his career. Among other responsibilities, he helped develop regulatory and legal guidance for pension and welfare plans, and worked with officials at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the Department of Labor.

He speaks frequently about regulatory, legislative, and legal developments affecting pension and welfare plans at professional meetings and conferences. He has written numerous articles on pension and welfare plans and also authors and oversees the firm’s pension and health and welfare alerts. He received the Edward E. Burrows Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Society of Enrolled Actuaries in 2012.

His prodigious memory and history and knowledge of IRS rules and regulations and case law about benefits topics is helpful to consultants and clients. He joined Cheiron in January 2010 as the firm’s first chief research actuary.

He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, an Enrolled Actuary under ERISA, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, and a Fellow of the American Society of Pension Actuaries.

Lawrence Deutsch, FSEA

Larry is the founder and president of Larry Deutsch Enterprises, which has provided software to innovative TPA firms since 1985. Larry is also the founder and owner of Larry Deutsch's Penguin Consulting and Design, Ltd., which has provided pension and actuarial consulting services to pension consultants nationally since 1997. Larry has been active in the pension actuarial community since being enrolled in 1981, including authoring multiple articles, involvement with the Academy of Actuaries, the American Society of Pension Actuaries, the American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries, the College of Pension Actuaries and the advisory committee and exam committee to the Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries.

Karen Smith

Karen Smith has been practicing in the retirement area for more than 25 years. She is President of Nova 401(k) Associates. In the past, she has been involved in several industry groups including ASPPA, where she was a member of the Board of Directors. She is a past president of ACOPA. Additionally, Karen was a member of the American Academy of Actuaries Committee on Qualifications for several years. Karen speaks at industry groups about technical issues and professionalism.

Prior to forming Nova 401(k) Associates in 2000, Karen worked from 1990-2000 in the Houston office of William M. Mercer, Incorporated (“Mercer”). A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Karen received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with Honors in 1990. She received her Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the University of Houston Law Center in 1998.

Karen enjoys pickle ball.