A primer for pension actuaries and others to learn what financial economics says about how pension plans are designed, invested, accounted for and funded. This guide focused on private single employer plans with widely held stock.

The author concludes that the Financial Economics/Market Model denies our collective retirement function an equity participation in the economy which ultimately supports DC over DB as the only cost effective retirement vehicle. From the Public Pension Finance Symposium, May 2009, Session1: Measuring Public Pension Liabilities - The Contrasting Views

This paper explores some characteristics of pension plans that affect the type and amount of investment risk a government sponsored pension plan can afford, including: Size of plan compared to the size of the sponsoring entity, Maturity of the pension plan, Current funded status, and Tax basis of sponsoring government entities. The analysis is based upon a stochastic model of capital markets applied to a variety of hypothetical situations to illustrate how investment risk affects different pension plans differently. We propose a framework for assessing how much investment risk a public pension plan can afford by defining the “pension event horizon,” and we conclude with a discussion of how optimal investment allocations may vary based on the risk characteristics studied. From Public Pension Finance Symposium 2009 - Session 5.

This paper examines the degree to which certain actuarial methods satisfy public pension plan funding objectives. It compares the funding patterns that result from a conventional actuarial approach used by the majority of public plans with patterns that result from the “market value of liability” MVL approach. From the Public Pension Finance Symposium 2009 - Session 2-The Rationale for Traditional Actuarial Models

The authors suggest the use of a Custom Liability Index as a solution to the pension crisis of significantly underfunded private and public defined benefit plans. From the Investment Symposium, Session R2, March 2012.

This web page contains links to papers, articles and newsletters which are useful to the study of the principles of finance and their application to pension plans. Topics include accounting, assumptions/methods, actuarial standards, behavioral economics, design, financial economics, full funding, immunization, investments, minimum funding, market value, pension finance, PBGC, risk, and traditional defined benefit view. Many of the links are contained within an Excel workbook. For each document listed in the workbook, its abstract or a short synopsis is also included to help the user choose appropriate readings.

This web page contains links to papers, articles and newsletters which are useful to the study of the principles of finance and their application to pension plans. Topics include accounting, assumptions/methods, actuarial standards, behavioral economics, design, financial economics, full funding, immunization, investments, minimum funding, market value, pension finance, PBGC, risk, and traditional defined benefit view. Most of the links are contained within an Excel workbook. For each document listed in the workbook, its abstract or a short synopsis is also included to help the user choose appropriate readings.

This web page contains links to papers, articles and newsletters which are useful to the study of the principles of finance and their application to pension plans. Topics include accounting, assumptions/methods, actuarial standards, behavioral economics, design, financial economics, full funding, immunization, investments, minimum funding, market value, pension finance, PBGC, risk, and traditional defined benefit view. Most of the links are contained within an Excel workbook. For each document contained in the workbook, its abstract or a short synopsis is also included to help the user choose appropriate readings.

This web page contains links to papers, articles and newsletters which are useful to the study of the principles of finance and their application to pension plans. Topics include accounting, assumptions/methods, actuarial standards, behavioral economics, design, financial economics, full funding, immunization, investments, minimum funding, market value, pension finance, PBGC, risk, and traditional defined benefit view. Many of the links are contained within an Excel workbook. For each document listed in the workbook, its abstract or a short synopsis is also included to help the user choose appropriate readings.

This web page contains links to papers, articles and newsletters which are useful to the study of the principles of finance and their application to pension plans. Topics include accounting, assumptions/methods, actuarial standards, behavioral economics, design, financial economics, full funding, immunization, investments, minimum funding, market value, pension finance, PBGC, risk, and traditional defined benefit view. Most of the links are contained within an Excel workbook. For each document listed in the workbook, its abstract or a short synopsis is also included to help the user choose appropriate readings.