Description: The article first tries to determine a consensus view of what social security should accomplish and then tries to measure how well the current level of benefits succeeds in meeting these goals. Assessing benefit adequacy is an essential element in putting the overall program on a sound financing footing.

Description: This paper presents a procedure for analyzing the factors that affect federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance costs in the U.S. This procedure shows that the tripling of the program costs during the last 30 years resulted from increases in the number of beneficiaries as opposed to increases in the number of covered workers. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1986, Vol. 38.

Description: This is a discussion of the paper, Mortality Experience under the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System by Louis O. Shudde. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1951, Vol. 3, No. 7.

Description: Discussion of social security systems in the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean.

Description: Article from The Actuary, June 1971 – volume 5 - Issue 6 reviews the Advisory Council on Social Security's 1971 report on Social Security and Medicare.

Description: This article is about a seminar held on October 30, 1997 to discuss mortality improvement in the NAFTA countries and the impact of such improvements on the financing and benefit adequacy of the countries’ individual social security systems. The gathering of about 80 researchers from a variety of disciplines served as a type of summit meeting on the NAFTA countries’ mortality projections. The seminar was Phase 2 of a three-phase SOA research project, 'Impact of Mortality Improvement on Social Security: Canada, Mexico, and the United States.' The project is intended to provide some guidance for appropriate governmental bodies to use in determining future financing and benefit needs for social security. It is sponsored by the SOA, The Actuarial Foundation [formerly the SOA Foundation], the Retirement Research Foundation, the American Society of Pension Actuaries, the social security administration of each NAFTA country, and the Pension Research Council.

Description: This article discusses the relative merits of investing some Social Security assets in common stocks either by 1. Adjusting the retirement benefits and taxes, and investing part of the Social Security trust funds in the stock market [the 'defined benefit,' or DB, method], or 2. Reduce the basic retirement benefits further, and have workers invest part of their future contributions in individual accounts [the 'defined contributions,' or DC, method].

Description: The author summarizes her experience participating as an expert as part of a forum that was launched to give the public a neutral avenue through which to express views on the U.S. Social Security program and possible reforms. This particular forum focused on women's issues with respect to Social Security.

Description: This article contains reviews of the following books published in 1992: 1. 'Broken Promises: The Inside Story of the Failure of Executive Life' by Vic Modugno, 2. 'Within the System: My Half Century in Social Security' by Robert J. Myers, 3. 'Insurance Risk Models' by Harry H. Panjer and Godon E. Willmot, and 4. 'Social Security: What Every Taxypayer Should Know' by A. Haeworth Robertson. Notices of Social Security notes and studies are also included. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1992, Vol. 44.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Vancouver Meeting addresses the critical issues of the financing for the Social Security systems in the U.S. and Canada. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 21, No. 3b.