Description: This is a summary of topics discussed at the 1996 Bowles Symposium: “The Old Age Crisis: Actuarial Opportunities,” September 26-27, 1996, at Georgia State University, Atlanta.

Description: Discussion of the need to understand the implications of demographic and family diversity for the design of retirement programs. The design of retirement programs is a design of programs for the elderly, who are more often women, because women live longer and because their work histories often lead to reduced levels of pension and social security benefits.

Description: This article focuses on retirement decisions, phased retirement and related policy issues, calling for actuaries to take on leadership roles in retirement public discussion.

Description: This 1981 article is a discussion of pension reform in Canada, noting that in the last four years there have five government-commissioned studies, resulting in various recommendations covering government and private sector plans. There was consensus on several conclusions - namely that there is too much poverty among the elderly, particularly women, current vesting and portability rules hurt mobile workers, and inflation needs to be addressed.

Description: The Actuary Vol. 22, No. 1. This article discusses the impact of a change in procedure in the financing of the US Military Retirement System. The change requires amortizing the past service liability. The impact will depend upon whether the amortization is achieved by increasing current taxes and decreasing the current deficit, or by merely increasing the national debt and leaving the current deficit unchanged. The author asserts that the new financing method will not weaken the financial condition of the military retirement system, and that it has the potential to strengthen its financial condition if the funding of the past service liability is handled appropriately.

Description: Article from The Actuary, April 1986, Volume 20, No. 4 is an editorial on later retirement. There is indication that workers may eventually stay in the work force longer based on the 1983 amendments to the Social Security Act.

Description: This is an article from The Actuary that discusses the need to reform defined benefit plans. The number of defined benefit plans in the United States has declined significantly over the past 20 years. If Congress overlooks the interests of plan sponsors in its reform, we're likely to witness further erosion of an already weakened defined benefit system, and America's workers would be the ultimate losers.

Description: On May 7th, Barbara Castle, the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Social Services, announced major changes in the details of the Social Security Act-1973. This article summarizes those changes.

Description: A review of a book by a former Commissioner of Social Security, in which he shares his thoughts on what Social Security is, the new law, the financing, the benefits, the types of employment covered, the benefit amounts, the retirement test, and several subsidiary topics.

Description: A critique of the SOA's co-sponsoring of the Manhart Brief which addressed sex discrimination in pension rates. The critique argues that the brief fails to satisfy standards of academic rigor reflected in other SOA publications.