Our team has led, governed, and advised public retirement systems, state investment boards, multiemployer plans, sovereign wealth funds, and endowments. We combine firsthand institutional experience, broad cross-system perspective, and proprietary governance intelligence to understand how your organization works, how it compares, and where it can improve.
«We bring together inside experience, cross-industry perspective, and governance intelligence so we can understand a client faster, compare it more meaningfully, and begin delivering value from day one.»
Frederick (Rick) Funston
Founder & CEO
Funston Advisory Services was founded in 2010 to help institutional investors strengthen governance, risk oversight, organizational effectiveness, and fiduciary decision-making.
Our team includes former executives, fiduciaries, trustees, investment professionals, benefits leaders, auditors, risk specialists, legal counsel, and advisors who have worked inside the types of institutions we serve. We have sat in our clients’ seats, operated the functions they oversee, and experienced firsthand how governance works in practice.
We combine that inside experience with a broad perspective across the institutional community. Over more than 16 years, FAS has conducted more than 60 fiduciary audits and governance reviews for organizations representing nearly $3 trillion in assets under management.
Through InGov®, our proprietary governance intelligence platform, we also benchmark institutions against statutory, authoritative, and expert standards—and against comparable organizations assessed using the same framework.
The result is a faster learning curve, more relevant insight, and practical value from the outset.
Supporting public retirement organizations with governance systems designed to strengthen fiduciary oversight, board effectiveness, institutional continuity, and long-term decision-making in increasingly complex regulatory and investment environments.
Helping state investment institutions build structured governance frameworks, improve oversight practices, strengthen policy alignment, and support prudent stewardship of public capital across changing market and political conditions.
Providing governance and operational guidance for multi-employer benefit organizations navigating complex stakeholder structures, fiduciary obligations, evolving workforce dynamics, and long-term sustainability challenges.
Advising long-horizon capital institutions on governance architecture, risk oversight, institutional intelligence, and decision-making systems that support resilience, continuity, and responsible growth across generations.
Our team includes former executives, trustees, fiduciaries, investment professionals, benefits leaders, auditors, legal counsel, and risk specialists who have spent their careers working within the institutions we serve. We have sat in our clients’ seats and operated many of the functions they oversee.
We have worked across a wide range of public and multi-employer retirement systems, state investment boards, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, and institutional allocators. That breadth allows us to identify common challenges, meaningful differences, and leading practices that no single organization can observe on its own.
InGov® gives us a structured view of governance across 107 U.S. public systems and a growing number of international and multi-employer plans. It enables us to evaluate each client against statutory, authoritative, and expert standards—and compare it with peers assessed on the same basis.
Rick Funston's foundational text on risk intelligence for boards and executives — targeting the governance and risk oversight needs of both public and private sector organizations.
The definitive guide for public pension trustees — combining fiduciary education, governance best practices, and practical frameworks for institutional board leadership.
Rick Funston and Jon Lukomnik's forthcoming framework for boards navigating increasing complexity — a practical governance architecture for the 21st century board.
Governance intelligence briefings, research papers, and practical analyses — published regularly for institutional leaders who need more than surface-level commentary.
