Pensions Expert Witnesses Pitted Against Each Other

Cambridge Advisory Group, a financial consulting firm whose president has a murky CIA past, has earned more than $900,000 in consulting fees through Milwaukee County. Milwaukee County paid the pension adviser almost $1 million including at least $214,000 through the county’s law firm as a pensions expert witness in the county’s federal malpractice case against its former pension adviser, Mercer Inc. But after more than 2 1/2 years of work on the case, the firm’s president, Stuart S. Piltch, dropped out last month as one of the county’s key witnesses. JSOnline reports:

Mercer has been ratcheting up demands for details on Piltch’s actuarial training, efforts the county and Piltch have resisted. Though he’s not a licensed actuary, Piltch told county lawyers he received advanced training while working for the CIA and passed tests equivalent to those required for a professional license. In attacking Piltch’s credentials, Mercer appears to be aiming to discredit the county’s entire malpractice case. In one filing in the federal lawsuit, Mercer argues that a bogus expert could spoil the county’s case.