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John Beirne Writes Book on Retirement Plans

Jodi Amatulli
When Hamden Hall past parent and trustee John Beirne Jr. celebrated his 50th anniversary as a financial planner last year, he also joined two colleagues to make retirement an easier process for their clients.
            John, founding partner of Beirne Wealth Consulting (BWC), has penned a new book, The Rest Easy Retirement Plan. He shares author credits with BWC’s partner and chief operating officer Jim Betzing and Matt Gallagher, BWC’s head of business development.
            “The goal of our book is to help companies and their employees successfully navigate the financial waters to reach ideal retirement goals,” John said. “When it comes to administering a 401(k) retirement plan, the goal is always to do what’s best for the employees. However, achieving what’s always best for employees can keep employers and plan sponsors up at night.”
            The book, John notes, outlines five “straightforward” concepts that will help busy CEOS and company directors “rest easy.” He added that when he first launched his career in the mid-sixties, Corporate America provided employees “cradle-to-grave” coverage—both medical insurance and guaranteed pension benefits.
            However, with foreign competition diminishing American companies’ profits, the result has been a decrease in benefits to maintain profitability.
            “Defined benefit plans have largely been replaced by defined contribution plans,” John said. “The onus is now on employees—and their plan sponsors—to determine the quality of their financial future.”
            At BWC, once focused on defined benefits, John and his team have spent the last several years partnering with plan sponsors to provide the “best-structured and most cost-effective” plans to beneficiaries of defined contribution plans. It’s John’s hope and that of his co-authors to help our nation and employees face new challenges with guidance provided in The Rest Easy Retirement Plan.
            John, who founded BWC after 46 years at Merrill Lynch, has always upheld the work philosophy that “doing what is in the best interests of clients is always mutually beneficial over the long term.”
A stickler for that common sense approach has earned John the reputation as an “industry leader and true pioneer.”
            In 1978, John was the first broker in the country to convince a public pension fund to use independent money managers—a “gutsy recommendation” that proved highly successful for both the client and his firm.
            Today, John, who has specialized in public pension fund management with vast institutional expertise in private pension plans, endowments, hospitals, foundations and 401(k) plans, now guides the BWC team in his role as chief investment officer.
            John holds a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA®) designation from the Wharton School of Business. He is a 1965 graduate of the University of Connecticut where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics. He also attended the business graduate school at the University of Bridgeport where he studied corporate finance.
            John also studied abroad at the INSEAD School in Fontainebleau, France, specializing in global corporate finance. Additionally, John has completed courses of study at Stanford and Harvard Universities.
            John has been a member of Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA) since 1987. He received the Business Person of the Year award in 1986 from the Milford Chamber of Commerce.
            Although John’s work at BWC keeps him working at five cylinders— the firm has offices in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Florida—John carves out time for his family and leisure activities.
            His eldest son, John Oliver Beirne, has joined BWC as a financial planner. His youngest, Hamden Hall alumnus Evan Beirne, Class of 2006, is an avid golfer on a professional path. John is a board member of the First Tee of Connecticut and of the Connecticut Yankee Council Boy Scouts of America.
—Jodi Amatulli
 
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