Description: An update on the Capital Market Assumptions used for asset allocation maybe useful to actuaries given the parallels with the assumptions an actuary uses to measure plan obligations.

Description: This articles features three study notes for used for the Retirement Benefits course 8 exam: Current Issues in Social Security by Steven McKay Mortality Tables for Pension Plans by D. Grubbs and M. Oliver and Valuation of Pension Benefits for Disabled participants by Edward Sypher

Description: This article provides an excerpt from the PBGC Actuarial Valuation Report with greater detail concerning the valuation of future benefits than is presented in the PBGC's Annual Report for 2000.

Description: This article describes a simplified problem in pension plan financing and presents two questions about how it can be modeled. Answers to these questions will be discussed and their implications for traditional actuarial models will be presented in Part 2 of the article in the following issue of the newsletter.

Description: Provides a summary of key points from the ERISA Advisory Council Report on Outsourcing (2014). The report provides interesting and important perspectives and the article encourages the reader to look at the report and consider the issues raised.

Description: This article describes techniques and models used to forecast mortality improvement and the considerations that underlie long-term mortality improvement projections in the United States.

Description: This article summarizes the focus of the inaugural The Pension Conference which is the difficult investment environment for pension plans and the increased choice and competition that accompany that environment.

Description: Spending down (decumulating) assets during retirement involves complex decisions about which specific assets to liquidate in what amounts, in what order, and at what times. No established methodology exists for making these decisions in individual cases. This paper describes a manual process that individuals can follow, a process that could be automated for wider use.

Description: Excerpts from the PBGC Actuarial Valuation Report—2002 which provides greater detail concerning the valuation of future benefits than is contained on the PBGC's Annual Report.

Description: ASOP No. 6 Exposure Draft Provisions Relating to Community Rated HMO Contracts by J. Richard Hogue from Pension Section News, February 2002, Issue No. 48.