Description: The article endorses broader use of lifetime income in DC plans. It explains why the use of DB plans will continue to decline. The article points out that plans sponsors will not willingly take on additional ERISA fiduciary exposure. The article endorses three regulatory reforms that would increase the use of lifetime income in DC plans. 1. A robust annuity issuer safe harbor that would free employers from fiduciary exposure for putting an annuity provider on the DC platform. 2. A requirement that a plan offer a lifetime income option to qualify for the 404(c) safe harbor. 3. A revision to 404(c) to allow plan sponsors to allocate part or all of the employer match to lifetime income.

Description: This article talks about the steps taken by one corporation to provide a comprehensive LTD program for their employees.

Description: This article discusses building new retirement systems. It references an article published in the Economist, 'Actuaries and the pensions crunch: When the spinning stops,' Jan. 26, 2006, and the stir that article created in the pension community. This article suggests that we take our understanding of the global economy, business models, shareholder expectations, employee expectations, employment risks, pre-retirement risks and the emerging retirement paradigm and create a new retirement system. From Pension Section News, April 2006, No. 61.

Description: update on the activities of the pension section section council

Description: A new retirement option has been added to the defined benefit plan for federal workers to allow retirees to work part time while receiving part of their pension benefit.

Description: This article highlights the world's fastest growing economy market, China, focuses on its private pension market. Hidden in the backdrop of China’s rapid growth lurks an aging population, a result of China’s one-child policy and the improved longevity of its people. The “4-2-1” phenomenon, characterized by a family structure of four grandparents, two parents, and a single child, is becoming more prevalent. While this aging society is not immediately apparent—in fact, many multinational companies employ a young workforce, with very few grey-haired employees—a demographic shift is inevitable. From Pension Section News, September 2006, No. 62.

Description: Column describing shifting paradigm for retirement plan design in North America that highlights recent SOA research project on Target Benefit Plans.

Description: Anna gives us an excellent “layman’s overview” of concerns, challenges and potential areas for improvement in the area of pre-retirement disability—a contingency that is perhaps too frequently ignored or underemphasized in the general pension actuarial literature during the trend from DB to DC retirement vehicles.

Description: An interview with the director of research at International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans

Description: This article notes that actuaries can play a crucial role in assisting the couple, the attorney's and the human resources professional in alleviating headaches spawned by QDROs and provides simple steps to follow to minimize complexity, thereby saving legal and consulting fees for the divorcing couple and easing their stress.