The Company

Penflex is a professional services firm specializing in the administering of Length of Service Award Programs (LOSAP) for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers. For more than two decades Penflex has been advising clients and providing the needed administrative and actuarial services for successful Service Award Programs.  Currently, Penflex is proud to provide these services to the volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers in more than 400 departments nationally and has been retained by entire states and statewide firefighter organizations.

The Penflex Mission

When President and Actuary, Ed Holohan, set out to design customized,  properly maintained and independently monitored LOSAP programs for more than 20 years ago he demanded integrity, accountability and personalized service. Ed’s mission was then, and remains today, to provide volunteer fire and EMS departments with valuable tools to recruit, retain and recognize their members.  

Penflex  has no monetary interest in who is chosen to hold and invest program funds, what kind of plan is chosen or whether life insurance is included or not. Rather, we focus on creating customized programs to fit the needs of each departments and provide referrals to qualified investment specialists.

The President

Penflex founder, owner and president Edward Holohan has been a professional pension plan actuary specializing in taxpayer-funded pension programs for over 30 years. Prior to establishing Penflex Ed worked with the New York State and Local Employees Retirement System and subsequently worked with a large, international consulting and actuarial services firm. He is widely regarded as an expert on LOSAP programs and his two decades of working with them make Ed one of the most experienced LOSAP experts in the nation.

LOSAP Legislation

Penflex began providing its services to volunteer organizations in New York State after the number of volunteer firefighters decreased significantly during the 1980s. This overall decline in the number of volunteers seriously threatened the safety of residents and communities. In 1988 the New York State Legislature and the governor approved an amendment to the NYS general municipal law authorizing local governments to establish voter-approved volunteer firefighter "Length of Service Award Programs." By providing cash incentives to volunteers, these programs were designed to help municipalities recruit and retain volunteers to be active members of their organization. Although other states have adopted similar legislation, there are still hundreds of thousands of volunteer organizations without LOSAPs. Some of these organizations have established LOSAPs absent legislation in their state. The Internal Revenue code was amended in 1996 in an attempt to clarify the tax treatment of length of service awards paid to volunteers.

How Penflex Began

Since 1990, Ed Holohan took his business from the small laptop in his den to almost 400 fire and EMS volunteer organizations in ten states. He's spent the last 21 years demonstrating to government officials and volunteers that a proper education on these programs, including a sound financial program-funding plan, will save taxpayers the major expense of a full-time, paid fire and EMS staff.

The Future of Penflex