Grant Thornton LLP is growing its Compensation and Benefits Consulting practice with the leadership of Hal Bellovin, Employment Tax Consulting director, and Philip Bonanno, Retirement Consulting Actuary and director. Bellovin is based in the firm’s Metropark, New Jersey office and Bonanno is based in the firm’s New York office.

“Hal and Phil are widely respected and highly talented leaders whose wealth of experience will be an asset to our clients throughout the region as we continue to expand our practice,” said Bruce Benesh, national partner-in-charge of Grant Thornton’s Compensation and Benefits Consulting practice. “Their experience, along with the leadership from Michael Monahan, principal-in-charge of the firm’s New York and New England Compensation and Benefits consulting practice, highlights the firm’s continued commitment to building a comprehensive suite of compensation and benefits consulting capabilities.”

“Hal and Phil bring to Grant Thornton a combination of proven leadership skills, vast knowledge and a strong understanding of our growth-oriented clients’ needs throughout the Northeast region,” said Frank Kurre, Grant Thornton’s Metro New York and New England managing partner.

Bellovin has nearly 15 years of employment tax services experience. He has extensive experience in employment tax refund review projects, payroll system implementations and employment tax transaction and merger and acquisition issues.

Most recently, Bellovin served as a human resources operations and compliance manager at Time Warner Inc., where he focused on corporate employment tax, payroll administration and employment administration. Prior, he served as a senior tax advisor within the Corporate Tax department at IBM. Prior to IBM, Bellovin was a manager specializing in employment tax within the State and Local Tax practices at both KPMG LLP and Ernst and Young LLP.

Bellovin received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Bonanno has more than 25 years of retirement consulting experience within the private and public sector, including governmental plans. He has extensive experience working on Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) requirements, including post-retirement medical plans. He also has vast experience with projections of liabilities, assets and contribution requirements; periodic experience studies to review actuarial assumptions; and measurement of the impact of changes in plan provisions, actuarial assumptions and/or actuarial methods.

Most recently, Bonanno served as a director and consulting actuary with Buck Consultants for more than 15 years. There, he led teams of actuaries and consultants who performed all related tasks involved in private and public sector pension valuations, including minimum funding requirements, gain and loss analysis, Form 5500 filings, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation premiums and financial statement footnote disclosure according to relevant FASB and GASB accounting standards.

Bonanno is an Enrolled Actuary and a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the Conference of Consulting Actuaries. He is also a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Siena College.

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