Vice President, Retirement and Actuarial Services

Lee Buchele didn’t take the most direct path from South Dakota to Pittsburgh, PA. The varied life experiences he picked up along the way have made this Vice President a valuable partner to Cowden Associates’ clients as they navigate the complex actuarial and retirement world.

From his family’s farm in South Dakota, he went on to Michigan State University where he earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics. From there, he became a lieutenant in the army, working on a missile range in Texas before a 10-month tour of duty in Vietnam.

After returning to the United States, Lee earned his master’s degree from the University of Michigan. Following a successful stop at Lincoln National Life in Indiana, where he focused on defined benefit pension plans, he came to Pittsburgh to work for Johnson and Higgins, where he worked until 1991.

He then moved on to Cowden Associates, Inc. where today he focuses on pension and other post-retirement benefits to its larger single and multi-employer clients. In fact, one of the more unique, recent projects Lee completed was the merger of a single-employer plan into a multi-employer plan, requiring an intimate knowledge of the benefits structure of each.

Lee, who has been in the employee benefits field since 1976, also performs asset and liability projections for funding, GASB 45, FAS 87, FAS 106 and other accounting reports for Cowden’s corporate, multi-employer and non-profit clients.

Lee is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries (FCA), an Enrolled Actuary (EA) under ERISA and a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). He also served on a multi-employer task force for the American Academy of Actuaries.

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