Description: Feature article discussing the creation and effects of orphaned VEBAs, Voluntary Employee Benefit Associations.

Description: The adoption of FAS 158 forces sponsors of post-employment health benefit plans to consider how to manage the volatility that changes in medical care inflation create in the other postemployment benefits (OPEB) liability. By choosing carefully how the nominal discount rate used for the liability is decomposed into real rates and inflation, I illustrate that the true exposure to an OPEB plan is to the spread of medical care inflation above (or below) the overall inflation rate. The implication is that an effective immunization strategy exists that can eliminate most of the volatility in the OPEB account.

Description: This discussion reviews accounting for non-pension post-retirement benefits. Current FASB developments, Funding issues, Assumptions and methodology are examined. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 9, No. 4.

Description: This session discussion is about postretirement health benefit funding, corporate-owned life insurance COLI, trust-owned life insurance TOLl, settlement contracts, 401 h and pension plan asset transfers. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 18, No. 1A.

Description: This article reviews the new standard of practice, ASOP 6, and its impact on the actuarial assumptions that actuaries use for valuations of retiree group medical and life benefits.

Description: SOA’s recently completed research project related to long term projects of health care cost trends for use in post retirement medical valuations.

Description: This session discussion is about funding strategies for postretirement health benefits. Topics discussed include VEBAs, 401[h] plans, 501[C]9 plans, stock ownership plans, dedicated profit sharing, HSA, impact to FAS 106 expenses, and investment vehicles. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 19, No. 1B.

Description: This panel will present a discussion of retiree health issues with a special focus on current developments with respect to Financial Accounting Standard FAS 106. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 4b.

Description: Presented at April 1985 Spring Meeting. This session discussed: Potential liability, Design techniques for controlling liability, Effect of inflation, Effect of medicare change, Financial accounting requirements, Funding vehicles and methods.

Description: Exploration of sources of volatility in retiree health valuations, noting how volatility arises and might be mitigated, with discussion of valuation parameters more problematic for retiree health benefits than for pensions. Three significant influences on retiree health valuation volatility are covered-- changes in benefit level, fluctuations in cost level, and alterations in eligibility for, or duration of, benefit – and attention focused on the last two. Specific conclusions result in recommendations, which are supported by practical examples contrasting volatile measurement results with those likely from the recommended practices. Theoretical discussion includes health claim variation, health trend usage, financial economics, option pricing, discount rates, and deterministic vs. stochastic modeling.