Description: The SOA's Aging & Retirement Strategic Research Program and Financial Finesse are pleased to make available a series of briefs focused on retirement literacy issues. The Retirement Planning Tools brief provides a resource for better understanding retirement tools.

Description: Many retirement actuaries have experience developing, implementing, and monitoring Liability Driven Investing (LDI) strategies for plan sponsors. These strategies typically involve modifying a plan’s investment strategy to remove a significant portion of the investment and interest rate risk now or at some point in the future when specific triggers are met. The tactics often involve the use of fixed income assets to cash flow and/or duration match the liabilities. In the spirit of helping actuaries expand their roles in an evolving defined contribution world, this article explores the application of LDI and derisking strategies within defined contribution and individual retirement accounts. The economic theory behind this approach is called the lifecycle hypothesis, or lifecycle finance. The benefits of the lifecycle finance method are that it provides a safe approach to save for retirement and a secure source of floor income during retirement. Similar to pension plans, each individual has his or her own idiosyncratic needs, wants, and risks that should be considered. Actuaries are uniquely situated to help defined contribution plan sponsors, individuals, and even themselves implement the lifecycle finance approach by developing and distributing tools and methods that focus on income (rather than wealth), LDI strategies, and personalization.

Description: An interview with actuary Lee Gold reveals preliminary results of a recent SOA research project which surveyed employees on what retirement plan features they prefer.

Description: Risk-shared plan designs have been gaining significant popularity with employers and members in response to the shortcomings of traditional defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans. The presenters will explore risk-shared plan design innovations recently implemented in Canada to better balance the competing needs of members and employers, including the growing trend toward pension plan consolidation.

Description: A fact sheet summarizing the report, Optimizing Retirement Income by Integrating Retirement Plans, IRAs, and Home Equity.

Description: The SOA is pleased to make available a report updating the 2012 risk assessment performed by Porteous et al. The report also provided an economic capital analysis for a stylized US plan with the same member profile and the USS provisions modified to reflect a typical US DB plan.

Description: Summary sheet of the report, Tale of Two Pension Plans: Measuring Pension Plan Risk From an Economic Capital Perspective.

Description: Designing an international pension program for mobile Employees. From The Pension Forum, January 2003, Volume 15, Issue No. 1.

Description: This session covers Pension actuaries who are becoming more involved in the administration of defined-benefit pension plans. Along with this work comes special challenges that are different from those seen in more traditional pension actuarial work. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 27, No. 1, Session 93PD

Description: Fact sheet about the April 2019 Single Employer Contribution Analysis Update.