Description: This article is about the Society of Actuaries' Education and Examination Research Paper Committee awarding 30 Fellowship credits to Krzysztof M. Ostaszewski, Ph.D., ASA, for his paper, 'Macroeconomic Aspects of Private Retirement Programs.' This is the twelfth such paper approved for Fellowship credit under the SOA’s Future Education Methods program. The paper analyzes possible macroeconomic factors contributing to the decline in the use of defined benefit plans and proposes an alternative hypothesis for the cause of the decline.

Description: This article explores the findings of a survey which indicates that employers who offer both a pension and a savings plan have plans that are more generous, use more channels for employee communication, and are more attentive to plan management activities. From Pension Section News, February 2002, Issue No. 48.

Description: This discussion focuses on the advantages and disadvantages, from the viewpoint of smaller insurance companies in the United States and Canada, of entering the field of small pension plans. Considerations involve whether a smaller company entering the field should offer group annuities, and to what extent are special premium rates, plans of agents' compensation, and policy forms necessary for a smaller company to compete successfully for individual policy pension plans. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1961, Vol. 13, Pt. 2.

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 1978 session focused on valuation techniques for pension plans. Topics covered: 1. Asset Valuation Methods 2. Use of projections and forecasts 3. Has application of forecasts allowed the actuary to determine short range best estimate of future costs different from traditional methods? 4. Treatment of salary scales, turnover assumptions, retirement decrements

Description: This discussion examines miscellaneous topics. Topics include actuarial training, final salary pension plans and hospitalization and surgical insurance. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1960, Vol. 12, No. 34.

Description: Glossary. From Design and Actuarial Aspects of Deferred Retirement Option Programs, M-RS03-2.

Description: 1993 SOA Spring Meeting, San Diego. This session discussed cash-balance pension plans, design variations, rate of interest credit, IRC section 417e problems, and transition from traditional defined-benefit plans.

Description: This is a report of the Society of Actuaries Committee on Pensions that was initially undertaken as an effort to assist the Committee on Actuarial Principles and Practices in Connection with Pension Plans of the American Academy of Actuaries with respect to recommendations it had been preparing. This report was prepared in an effort to promote better understanding of pension terminology. The Committee anticipates that additional work will be needed to coordinate this effort with regulatory efforts prompted by the pension reform act. It is hoped that a further list of terms reflecting specific words used in ERISA can be prepared, with pertinent definitions along with references to clarifying expressions suggested by the Committee where appropriate. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1976, Vol. 28.

Description: At this presentation, the Executive Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation talks about some recent pension plan terminations what can be done to protect pensions without upsetting the delicate balance of some companies with underfunded pension plans. The answer is not to allow the underfunding to go unchecked. Nor is the answer to let the PBGC absorb all the losses. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 18, No. 2.