Foster & Foster

Foster & Foster

Ward and Eileen Foster founded the firm in 1979 as an independent actuarial practice, focusing initially on public-sector retirement plans in Florida. The business grew by prioritizing trustee education and customized plan design, moving beyond pure number-crunching to a consultative model. Over four decades, Foster & Foster amassed a client base of more than 400 sponsors, covering plans with member counts ranging from five to 180,000, which ranges from municipal entities to large multi-employer groups. Foster & Foster's service mix includes retirement plan actuarial consulting and health and welfare plan advisory work — balancing defined-benefit and defined-contribution expertise with post-retirement medical valuation. The firm does not publish an AUM or deployment figure, consistent with a structure where it provides actuarial recommendations to plan trustees rather than managing investment portfolios directly. It operates from its Fort Myers headquarters with additional offices in Illinois, California, Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, supporting clients on both coasts and across the Sunbelt. Recent acquisitions of Wisconsin-based Key Benefit Concepts and California-based Demsey, Filliger & Associates signal an appetite for consolidating regional actuaries and extending its geographic footprint. The firm employs more than 100 staff, with a dedicated Plan Administration Division in Cape Coral, Florida, handling day-to-day recordkeeping and compliance functions alongside the actuarial practice. The acquisition pipeline, including the Wisconsin and California deals, adds specialized talent and expands the firm's Midwest and West Coast density. In May 2025, the firm completed the acquisition of United Actuarial Services, deepening its national retirement practice and adding new sponsor relationships (per the firm, May 2025). Foster & Foster combines a multi-office partnership structure with an acquisition-led growth model, functioning as a consolidator in a fragmented profession. Its structure as a privately held services partnership — not a family office or asset manager — creates a distinct posture where succession and service continuity drive the transaction strategy. The firm's focus on mid-market and large public plans provides a stable, fee-based revenue stream tied to regulatory cycles and plan-design mandates rather than asset-market volatility.