Kwasha Lipton was an employee benefits consulting firm located in

Fort Lee, New Jersey Fort Lee is a Borough (New Jersey), borough at the eastern border of Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated along the Hudson River atop The Palisades (Hudson River), The Palisades. As of the 2020 Uni ...

History

The firm was founded in 1944 by H. Charles "Chick" Kwasha and Maurice Lipton. Kwasha Lipton is best known for creating a type of

defined benefit Defined benefit (DB) pension plan is a type of pension plan in which an employer/sponsor promises a specified pension payment, lump-sum, or combination thereof on retirement that depends on an employee's earnings history, tenure of service and ag ...

pension A pension (; ) is a fund into which amounts are paid regularly during an individual's working career, and from which periodic payments are made to support the person's retirement from work. A pension may be either a " defined benefit plan", wh ...

plan called a

cash balance plan A cash balance plan is a defined benefit retirement plan that maintains hypothetical individual employee accounts like a defined contribution plan. The hypothetical nature of the individual accounts was crucial in the early adoption of such pla ...

(CBP), which it designed for the employees of

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

in 1985. Kwasha Lipton implemented dozens of CBPs for its clients. CBP plans were ultimately adopted by companies throughout the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Some employees allege that the plans discriminate against older workers in violation of federal age discrimination law because of the way in which younger and older employees earn benefits under CBPs. Many cases that found plan sponsors liable most were later reversed by appellate courts. However to retroactively approve the plans Congress enacted the

Pension Protection Act of 2006 The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (), 120 Stat. 780, was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on August 17, 2006. Pension reform This legislation requires companies who have underfunded their pension plans to pay higher premiums t ...

. This settled whether a CBP ''

ab initio ( ) is a Latin term meaning "from the beginning" and is derived from the Latin ("from") + , ablative singular of ("beginning"). Etymology , from Latin, literally "from the beginning", from ablative case of "entrance", "beginning", related t ...

'' violated age discrimination. However, plan conversions that created CBPs out of existing traditional pensions by freezing accruals of older workers are still unsettled issues. Kwasha Lipton was acquired in 1996 by

Coopers & Lybrand PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along ...

and became the Kwasha Lipton Group of Coopers & Lybrand. Coopers & Lybrand then merged with

Price Waterhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along ...

on July 1, 1998 to form

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

. Kwasha Lipton was combined with PricewaterhouseCoopers' other benefit consulting groups to create Unifi, which was sold to

Mellon Financial Mellon Financial Corporation was an American investment firm which was once one of the world's largest money management firms. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was in the business of institutional and high-net-worth individual asset managem ...

. Mellon combined Unifi with its Buck Consultants subsidiary to create Mellon HR Solutions, which was sold to

Affiliated Computer Services Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (ACS) was a company that provided information technology services as well as business process outsourcing solutions to businesses, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. ACS was based in Dallas, Texa ...

(ACS) for $405 million in 2005 and renamed Buck Consultants. In 2010, ACS was sold to

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

for $6.4 billion. Buck Consultants was later rebranded as "Buck Consultants at Xerox".

Building

Kwasha Lipton owned and occupied a building in

. It is the first office building visible to the North after passing from

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

across the

George Washington Bridge The George Washington Bridge is a double-decked suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting Fort Lee in Bergen County, New Jersey, with the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is named after George W ...

, and it has views of the bridge and the

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

skyline A skyline is the wikt:outline, outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city's overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural area, rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the ...

. The 13-story building offers of office space, and was sold in July 2005 for $33.7 million. ACS remains the primary occupant.

References

External links

Buck Consultants
{{coord, 40.854661, -73.964685, region:US_type:landmark, display=title Management consulting firms of the United States Financial services companies established in 1944 Defunct companies based in New Jersey Actuarial firms Companies based in Bergen County, New Jersey 1944 establishments in New Jersey Financial services companies disestablished in 1996 1996 disestablishments in New Jersey