Description: This paper concludes that there are two index rates that could best replace the 30-year Treasury in the calculation of the Current Liability of a pension plan - either the 30 year swap rate or the benchmark 30-year FNMA bond.

Description: This paper investigates a fundamental approach to the development of the expected cost of vesting in pension plans. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1972, Vol. 24, Pt. 1, No. 70.

Description: This presentation is an open forum from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto. The speakers, members of the Pension Committee of the Actuarial Standards Board [ASB], present an update on the ASB’s exposure drafts of actuarial standards of practice intended to provide detailed guidance on setting economic assumptions for pension plans. The session is concerned with selecting actuarial assumptions, specifically economic assumptions, for measuring pension obligations. The speakers note that in addition to providing guidance to actuaries, the standards are designed to help users of our work product understand what actuaries consider in determining their assumptions. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4B.

Description: Capital Market Assumptions—The Past Performance Future Returns Debate by Jane Arnold and Jennifer Donnelly from Pension Section News, November 1998, Issue No. 38.

Description: This session discussion is about benefit assumptions underlying current liability. What is included and purpose assumptions of current liabilities. From Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 15, No. 3B.

Description: This paper shows how gain and loss formulas for pension plans may be developed precisely from definitions of the unfunded accrued liability and the normal cost rate. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1977, Vol. 29.

Description: Introduction to the paper that documents the flaws of the current financial model.

Description: Paper examining the degree to which certain actuarial methods satisfy public pension plan funding objectives.

Description: This 1981 discussion session focuses on economic assumptions for defined benefit pension plans including: 1. Investment return 2. Salary scales 3. The Spread - Investment return minus salary scale 4. Post-retirement increases 5. Increases in Social Security benefits 6. Effects of inflation and economy on other assumptions 7. Assumptions varying by calendar year

Description: This paper examines tandem levels of salary and interest rates and finds that the absolute level of each assumption as well as the differential are significant cost determinants for defined benefit pension plans. In forming best-estimate salary and interest rate assumptions, the actuary must reconcile the difference, if any, between the currently observed rates and the valuation assumptions. Common practice is to choose expected long-term rather than observed rates for valuation purposes. The error in this procedure is analyzed and found to be tolerable for strictly temporary discrepancies between observed rates and valuation assumptions. For situations where these discrepancies are expected to persist for some time, a need is shown for nonuniform, calendar-year assumptions or their equivalent in order to develop best-estimate assumptions. Followed by several discussion papers submitted