Description: In Pension Dumping: The Reasons, the Wreckage, the Stakes for Wall Street the reviewer finds that Fran Hawthorne provides guidance through the myriad of ERISA rules, PBGC regulations, bankruptcy laws, and investor expectations that have failed to prevent, and have perhaps even have contributed to, many high profile plan terminations. From the Pension Section News, September 2008, Issue No. 68.

Description: This article provides an overview of the laws and regulations governing pension funding and suggests analysis which will enable the plan sponsor to capitalize on contribution options and coordinate long and short term funding strategies.

Description: Minor changes in the Internal Revenue Code would encourage corporations to use Trust Fund financing, thus fueling economic prosperity without population expansion. However, even without these changes, a number of companies have found that establishing an employee trust is the answer not only to their capital requirements, but also to their employees’ increasing demands for a “piece of the action.”

Description: This article addresses how the ARPA has lessened the financial burden on sponsors of corporate defined benefit plans.

Description: During the past few years, the Society of Actuaries Committee on Post-Retirement Needs and Risks has come to realize that employees are called on to make many decisions about their benefits, and increasingly, as more benefits are provided by their employers, the retirement security of the employee depends largely on the decisions they make. During the last two years, the Committee has moved into a new area – with two projects on the topic of Retirement Financial Advice. The first is a research paper focused on employer approaches to retirement financial advice, and the second is a guide for employers. Greg Ward, CFP®, Think Tank Director at Financial Finesse, served on the Project Oversight Group for the employer guide and the research paper. Greg works with employers and employees to promote financial wellness. This article offers some perspectives on the SOA reports.

Description: The SOA Research Institute tasked the Workforce Science Institute to investigate how retirement benefit plans can affect a plan sponsor’s workforce and business results. The following is an interview with Rick Guzzo and Haig Nalbantian co-founders of the Workforce Science Institute who are the researchers on this project. The interview gives a helicopter view of the project as well as provides some “food for thought” on how retirement plans can be designed to produce an effective workforce.

Description: This article covers considerations when an international parent may be faced with responsibility for a US retirement program.

Description: This presentation was made at the 1975 Spring Cincinnati Joint Meeting of the Conference of Actuaries in Public Practice and Society of Actuaries. It addresses the following issues: Can individual policy retirement plans be sold by insurance agents without their becoming fiduciaries, what new features in funding contracts and prototypes plans are needed, and what extra costs for retirement plans are expected due to the reporting, dlsclosure, and actuarial valuation requirements of ERISA. 1975 Record Vol. 1, No. 3

Description: Recently, we have seen renewed interest in the international (or “offshore”) pension plan. An international plan typically provides benefits for internationally mobile workers of a multinational employer, but can also be used for certain other workers. The plan is usually located in a respected international finance centre.