Description: Pension actuaries need data for setting assumptions, comparative information and technical analysis. This session focuses on what information is available, how to find it and how to use it. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 23, No. 1.

Description: The failure of a few large life insurers in the early 1990's led to public concern about the safety of annuities purchased by qualified retirement plans. As a result, the Department of Labor issued guidelines, known as the 'Safest Annuity Rule,' for selecting annuity providers. This study examines whether the Safest Annuity Rule is significantly changing the market for insured annuities issued to tax-qualified pension plans, particularly upon the termination of defined benefit plans. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1997-98 Reports.

Description: This article discusses the relative merits of investing some Social Security assets in common stocks either by 1. Adjusting the retirement benefits and taxes, and investing part of the Social Security trust funds in the stock market [the 'defined benefit,' or DB, method], or 2. Reduce the basic retirement benefits further, and have workers invest part of their future contributions in individual accounts [the 'defined contributions,' or DC, method].

Description: Full version of Pension Section News, April 1998, Issue No. 36.

Description: The Federal Employees' Retirement System 'FERS', enacted into law on June 6, 1986, covers civilian employees of the U.S. Government who were hired after 1983. FERS supplements Social Security with a basic annuity plan and a thrift-savings plan. The Civil Service Retirement System 'CSRS' remains in effect for employees hired before 1984 who do not elect to transfer to FERS. Besides discussing the benefit changes, this paper covers the following related subjects of broader interest: 1. The federal legislative process, including the roles of interest groups, the Congress and the Administration, and the actuaries assisting them, 2. Investments in stocks and bonds by the new thrift plan, and why these use index funds, and 3. How FERS serves as a model for other large public retirement systems, using a defined contribution plan to help meet its retirement objectives and giving the private sector opportunities to provide benefit services. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1988, Vol. 40, Pt. 1.

Description: The title for this session is a little ambiguous. The panelists do not say much about the ins and outs of how to tax retirement income plans. Rather, they talk about why tax policy works as it does and how it relates to pension policy. It becomes evident from the discussion that pension policy and tax policy are hard to separate. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 17, No. 3B.

Description: In the early 1990s, when several large U.S. and Canadian life insurers teetered on the brink of insolvency and finally collapsed, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its 'safest annuity' provision [DOL Interpretive Bulletin 95-1] ruling that private pension plans buying annuities had the fiduciary obligation to choose the 'safest available' provider. This article examines the effect this ruling has had on the annuity market.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Boston Meeting focuses on recent legislative and regulatory developments in the U.S. including new IRS regulations, the Department of Labor, the SEC, the new CPI table and court decisions. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 4b.

Description: This article contains reviews of the following books: 1. 'Fundamental Mathematics of Life Insurance' by Floyd S. Harper and Lewis C. Workman, 2. 'Mathematics of Compound Interest' by Marjorie V. Butcher and Cecil J. Nesbitt, 3.'Compound Interest and Annuities-Certain' by D. W. A. Donald, 4. 'Demography' by P. R. Cox, 5. 'The Spirit and the Uses of the Mathematical Sciences' edited by Thomas L. Saaty and F. Joachim Weyl, 6. 'Ethics, Morality, and Insurance' by John D. Long, 7. Reports of the 1971 Advisory Council on Social Security, 8. 'Medical Care at Public Expense' by Mark V. Pauly 9. 'Eleventh Actuarial Valuation of the Assets and Liabilities under the Railroad Retirement Acts as of December 31, 1968, with Technical Supplement' by the Railroad Retirement Board, 10. 'Nouvelles tables-types de mortalité' by Sully Ledermann, 11. 'A Table of Expected Working Life for Men, 1968' by Howard W. Fullerton, 12. 'Disability-Determination and Evaluation' by Henry H. Kessler, 13. 'Industrial Safety Statistics: A Re-examination' by Jerome B. Gordon, Allan Akman, and Michael L. Brooks, 14. 'Pensions and Severance Pay for Displaced Defense Workers' by Hugh Folk and PauI Hartman, 15. 'Trends and Variations in Fertility in the United States' by Clyde V. Kiser, Wilson H. Grabill, and Arthur A. Campbell, 16. 'Benefit Plans in Junior Colleges' by Francis P. King, 17. 'The Consumer's Guide to Insurance Buying' by Vladimir P. Chernik, and 18. 'Private Pension Scheme Finance' by Sylvia and Leslie Tutt. Notices of other studies and articles are also included. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1971, Vol. 23, Pt. 1, No. 67.

Description: This is a letter to the readers of the newsletter describing the content of the publication.