Description: A review of the book 'Indexation of Pensions and Other Benefits' by Robert J. Myers, which deals with the indexing of Social Security and government employee pension plans in the U.S., Canada, and other countries, as well as private pension plans, for which the author advocates the voluntary adoption of automatic indexing.

Description: ERISA funding requirements for defined benefit pension plans require an asset valuation method which takes reasonable recognition of fair market value. In this article, the author proposes three asset valuation methods in which market values could be averaged to eliminate the detrimental effects of periodic fluctuations in the bond and stock markets.

Description: Review of Fifty-Second Annual Report of the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System. The authors found it to be a concise well written report discussing a number of issues facing all pensions in an inflationary economy. Both the title and the dull format in the usual Government Printing Office style would seem to insure this document's instantaneous consignment to dead storage. However, behind the cover of this small pamphlet is a concise, well written report discussing-a-number of the issues facing not only federal pension programs at the present time, but all pensions in an inflationary economy. For example, several of the 11 pages devoted to the main report discuss the implications of static assumptions ignoring inflation as opposed to dynamic assumptions including inflation.

Description: The author of this article notes that “valuing pension or long-term disability plans with Social Security offsets generally requires some assumptions about the future course of the wage base and benefit formula,” and “the usual approach is to select annual percentage increases for these two variables which relate reasonably and well to the valuation salary scale, and then to project Social Security on that basis.” The author goes on to discuss how the actuary and plan sponsor can be comfortable with a particular choice of parameters, given that “costs can be very sensitive to the Social Security projection and recent history offers little guidance.”

Description: This article discusses the cost of vesting under TEFRA's accelerated benefit accrual and vesting rules for top-heavy plans.

Description: Discusses two different issues of current concern in the UK: Transfer Values and Personal Pensions.

Description: This is a review of the book, 'Guide to the Technical Side,' by Barnet N. Berin. The book was produced for the non-technician in the form of an easy-to-understand review of the technical aspects of pensions. Although this book has relatively little value for someone well-versed in the actuarial mathematics of pensions, Mr. Berin’s book could be useful for the non-pension actuary or the consultant who wants to familiarize himself with this subject. It should certainly prove a helpful volume for administrators of pension plans and for employers.

Description: The Actuary Vol. 22, No. 1. This article discusses the impact of a change in procedure in the financing of the US Military Retirement System. The change requires amortizing the past service liability. The impact will depend upon whether the amortization is achieved by increasing current taxes and decreasing the current deficit, or by merely increasing the national debt and leaving the current deficit unchanged. The author asserts that the new financing method will not weaken the financial condition of the military retirement system, and that it has the potential to strengthen its financial condition if the funding of the past service liability is handled appropriately.

Description: This article is about the value of fringe benefits, specicifically of pension benefits earned while married in the event of divorce or marital dissolution. It centers around the assumptions which should be used to determine the present values and shows applicable equations to be used.

Description: This article describes behavioral finance and its relevance in identifying analytics and processes suitable for a control environment for the actuarial aspects of an insurance company.