Description: This article describes Singapore's Central Provident Fund and how it involves government, employers and employees in a cooperative partnership for mandatory savings and investment to assist with the primary lifetime goals of home ownership, medical care and retirement provision.

Description: A pension plan uses Actuarial Equivalence to determine a 'fair' adjustment to pension benefits for form and timing of payment. The definition of Actuarial Equivalence is set in the Plan Document which may not have been reviewed for decades. With a wave of recent pension litigation in the U.S., plan sponsors, attorneys and actuaries now pay more attention to how pension plans define Actuarial Equivalence. How does a change in mortality table or interest rate affect the ultimate benefit? What are the requirements under ERISA and pertinent regulations? Are there court cases that have examined this question before? What are the issues behind the recent lawsuits and what can a plan sponsor do now to reduce their legal exposure? What alternative strategies are available for changing or not changing the definition in the plan document?

Description: This open forum is from the 1991 Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held June 3-5 in Colorado Springs. The panelists discuss actual experiences related to consulting on plan design issues, including the effect of regulatory restriction on plan design, such as the nondiscrimination rules, further application of cash balance plans, and other recent developments that affect plan design. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 17, No. 3B.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Vancouver Meeting covers discrimination in plan design specifically addressing 401a4 and 410b regulations. It defines what benfits, right and features are, defines and tests current availabiltiy, defines effective availability and reviews some special rules. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 3a.

Description: This report provides a system-wide analysis of the expected contribution requirements for the U.S. single-employer defined benefit pension universe over the remainder of this decade.