Plan Design

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(Note: Where available, an online link to the resource is provided; in some cases, we are only able to provide the reference information)

• "But Jeremy, Doesn't that Make DB Plans too Expensive?"

A handout at Session 80: Plan Design at the 2004 SOA Spring Meeting, Anaheim

• Economic Design of Cash Balance Pension Plans

Black (1980) and Tepper (1981) showed that shareholders would gain if corporate defined benefit pension assets were invested in taxable fixed-income securities instead of equities. This paper extends their analyses to cash balance plans, concluding that additional shareholder gains arise when plan liabilities mimic equities.

• Group Variable Annuity Pension Plan

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This article proposes changes to the law on DB plan design in response to the challenges facing DB plans.

• Retirement Benefits, Economics and Accounting: Moral Hazard and Frail Benefit Designs

This paper uses economic principles to analyze alternative recognition schemes for end-of-period retirement plan liabilities; the candidates, using U.S. nomenclature, are the vested benefit obligation (VBO), the accumulated benefit obligation (ABO) and the projected benefit obligation (PBO).

• What's next? - DB plans for the long run

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Is the age of the Defined Benefit (DB) plan over? This article explores the question.