Description: This session covers the future of defined benefit pension plans. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 9, No. 2

Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. Now that plan sponsors are required to purchase only the “safest available” annuities, companies encounter a number of difficulties when they attempt to terminate a defined-benefit plan. This session addresses the lack of available insurers and the resulting effect on competition, a situation in which the plan sponsor may have difficulty finding any insurer to take plan benefits, the effect on prevalence of lump-sum distributions, and the role of the PBGC as insurer of last resort.

Description: 1994 SOA Meeting, San Antonio. This session covered the SEC letter on FAS 87, discount rates analyzing the current yield curve, matching bond portfolios to benefit payments, selection of salary scale, selection of return on assets, update on ASB proposed standards, and the relationship, if any, of funding assumptions to accounting assumptions.

Description: Private defined benefit pension plans must, by law, pre-fund the retirement benefits. This requires the periodic valuation of liabilities and calculation of contributions. Because valuation assumptions are seldom borne out by reality, a surplus [or deficit] ensues and varies over time. When the surplus becomes sizable, there often arises a desire to distribute part of it so as to bring it down to a more reasonable level. This paper provides a brief overview of cooperative game theory and, in particular, sharing rules. Then, using certain sharing rules, it determines how to split the surplus or deficit among the plan participants and sponsor. In general, the participant's share in the surplus depends on the total of his contributions. Other considerations, such as the actual investment income received on his contributions or the years of service, may influence the distribution of the surplus. It may even appear desirable to take account of the accrued liability. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1998, Vol. 1.

Description: Chapter 6 raises employee issues, including why there is any cost associated with DROP, the factors which influence an individual's selection, and how the lump sum money is used. From Design and Actuarial Aspects of Deferred Retirement Option Programs, M-RS03-2.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Vancouver Meeting discusses minimum funding and the problems related to establishing and amortizing change-in-method amortization bases. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 3a.

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 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: This study explores whether public pension plans have contributed enough to reduce unfunded liabilities, absent other influences such as investment returns.