Description: This presentation from Session 34 of the SOA June 2005 New Orleans Health/Pension Spring Meeting discusses the changing risks faced by sponsors of defined benefit pension plans and how actuaries can help these plan sponsors adopt investment and funding strategies that will help manage these risks. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 31, No. 2.

Description: Recent meetings on financial economics have promoted the idea of an all bond asset allocation. Financial economics calls us to take a corporate-centric, rather than plan-centric approach to pension asset allocation selection. However, we can also learn about the risk of investing in stocks by using some traditional actuarial tools, like measuring the "probability of ruin".

Description: This paper will describe why self-insurance is less attractive with transparent-accounting rules, and the will examine two strategies an employer can execute to reduce the plan's and the plan participant's risks.

Description: This paper takes the position that a truly transparent pension accounting expense could be developed to produce superior reporting that reflects experience as it occurs. Contributions could also be based on some asset and liability information about the pension plan, but with flexibility to allow for more controllable and stable contributions. From Current Pension Actuarial Practice in Light of Financial Economics Symposium, M-RS04-1.

Description: Full version of Pension Section News, Issue No. 57, January 2005.

Description: This paper analyzes the likely increase in volatility for a representative plan and then considers the implications of adopting a hedged portfolio as a means of reducing the increased volatility. It then analyzes the effects of adopting a stochastic funding method which represents a simple extension of traditional expected value funding methods. From The Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure Monograph, M-RS05-1.

Description: Employers and investors have suffered recently from taking too much investment risk inside their defined benefit DB plans, producing calls for more transparent accounting. Some employers have tried to eliminate this pension risk by moving to defined contribution DC plans. From Pension Section News, January 2005, Issue No. 57. However, this is not the only, or even the best, option available. From Pension Section News, January 2005, Issue No. 57.

Description: This article looks at the risk of investing in stocks by using traditional actuarial tools, such as measuring the probability of ruin. From Pension Section News, September 2004, Issue No. 56.

Description: Our panel of experts discusses different investment strategies for pension plans, expected asset returns, appropriateness of these strategies for use with different types of plans and effects on a plan's annual contribution requirement and pension expense. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 29, No. 3, Session 11pd.

Description: Panelists re-examine proposals and ideas for pension funding practice and objectives. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 30, No. 3.