As founder of Acuff & Associates, Lucian Acuff has been a prominent fixture in the national retirement plan consulting industry for more than 50 years. He was founder of one of Tennessee’s first benefits consulting firms and was a managing director of the world’s largest benefits consulting firms. With vast experience in consulting, actuarial services, management, and technology, Lucian serves as Chairman of the Board of Acuff & Associates.

Trina Gross, serving as CEO of Acuff & Associates, is a founder with the firm since its inception. Trina is responsible for the executive oversight of Acuff’s 40+ professionals and 1,100+ qualified retirement plans. With career experience in the retirement and consulting field, she has a vast knowledge of plan design, consulting with employers on all aspects of their plans, and complex administration. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Institute of Pension Administrators, and served as President for the 2019-2020 term. She is dedicated to the betterment of the retirement industry while leading the firm.

Birgit Cornelius leads the areas of Compliance, Quality Review and Document Services at Acuff & Associates, Inc. She has over 20 years of broad ERISA experience providing retirement plan consulting services to employers in a variety of industries for qualified and non-qualified plans. She holds multiple designations from ASPPA and NIPA as well as the ERPA designation. Birgit serves as a Technical Resource in all her roles.

With more than 20 years of experience in retirement plan administration, Jennifer Duff leads the Defined Contribution Administration Team at Acuff & Associates. Her experience ranges from working with a national firm in the defined benefit area to managing a team of plan analysts providing all administrative services for Acuff. Her capabilities in focusing her team on excellent client service are surpassed by none.

Terry Dunger serves as a Relationship Manager having been in the Retirement plan Industry for over 40 years. As a veteran of the retirement Plan industry, Terry enjoys coordinating efforts with other professionals as they consult with employers in the small to mid-size marketplace about their plan needs. His primary motivation is to enhance the value of retirement savings and employee benefits within the companies he works alongside.

Becky Hodges serves in both a Business Development role and a Relationship Manager role for Acuff & Associates. With over 25 years of experience in Defined Contribution plans, she works with prospective and existing clients on the design and annual administration of their plans. She believes in making complicated retirement plan-related tasks as simple and easy as possible for her clients and she helps them communicate with their participants and their service providers. In addition, she leads the Relationship Management Team for Acuff & Associates.

Steve Jones is a Relationship Manager with 40+ years of experience bringing creative solutions to the most complicated of retirement plans. He believes that the key to a successful plan is to properly manage it from top to bottom; making sure the plan first fits the needs of the employer, and then staying on top of the details. He also mentors the staff as a Technical Resource.

As a founder of Acuff & Associates, David Kays is an actuary with 45+ years of consulting experience in the employee benefits area. He has extensive experience working will all types of employers, from individuals to governments to large corporations, as well as with multi-employer plans and expert witness services.

With more than 30 years of experience in data technology and retirement plans, Keith Stewart is responsible for the management of the company’s technology. With expertise in the areas of systems development, administration, and recordkeeping, he has developed customized software for the client’s use in administration of 40l(k) plans. Keith is also one of the founders of Acuff & Associates.

Michael Baron serves as Regional Director of Sales with over 18 years of experience in the financial services industry. Michael’s passion is working with financial advisors helping them win, manage and retain the business of their institutional clients. With the insight he has gained, he is considered a great practice management resource. Michael enjoys working with all types of advisory practices from groups dealing exclusively with retirement plans to advisors looking to make retirement plans a piece of their marketing efforts.

Matthew Bravo is an Enrolled Actuary with 18 years of experience advising companies in the design, compliance, funding and administration of their retirement programs including qualified cash balance and traditional defined benefit plans. With prior large plan experience (plans of up to 100,000 participants), he now focuses his efforts to deliver customized retirement solutions for small to mid-size organizations and individuals. He enjoys helping clients find retirement plan solutions that are easy to understand and result in straightforward financial solutions.

Linda Green is a Relationship Manager who has a passion for retirement benefits. She believes that clients and their employees are best served by delivering timely services that are tailored to the client’s needs while maintaining compliance in all aspects of plan administration. Linda brings to her clients more than 30 years of qualified plan experience in addition to her own experience as a plan sponsor.

With more than 20 years of experience, Pamela Leitschuh serves as Controller and Human Resources Director with Acuff & Associates. Along with her responsibilities as Controller, Pamela manages the Asset, Distribution and Administrative Teams. She is instrumental in all things “financial” for the firm.

As Implementation Manager, Ashley is highly motivated by the desire to assist Acuff & Associate’s clients for the purpose of making sure a strong network of communication is established. She is responsible for ensuring that each client’s plan is running smoothly. She has more than eight years experience in retirement plan administration, including generating plan documents, compliance testing and conversion processing.

Jeff Underwood brings his highly technical knowledge and 30 years of experience to Acuff & Associates as a Senior Administrator and Technical Resource. He manages several of the most complex plans for the firm providing administration and consulting expertise for those clients. As a CPA, he brings an additional level of depth that is immeasurable to the Acuff Team.