Description: The Employee Retiree Income Security Act, or ERISA, establishes an important statutory role for pension actuaries in the United States. As part of its statutory goal to protect the retirement security of America’s workers, ERISA requires tax-qualified defined benefit plans to obtain an actuarial valuation of plan reserves each year. When valuing the plan’s reserves, the actuary is required by ERISA to act on behalf of plan participants. Thus, the plan actuary fulfills an important role in maintaining the plan’s ability to meet its on-going obligations to the plan participants and their beneficiaries. From Pension Section News, April 2006, Issue No. 61.

Description: Actuaries may soon be required to select assumptions that are individually reasonable when measuring pension obligations. This is the core meaning of a proposed amendment to the Actuarial Standard of Practice #4 in addition to the proposed ASOP on economic assumptions.

Description: This panel discussion session reported on the status and content of the Actuarial Standards Board standard dealing with the selection of assumptions. The discussion covers what the effects would be on practitioners.

Description: This is a summary of 1972 discussions about: 1. the past and future dynamics of North American retirement systems, 2. alternatives for pension legislation, and 3. actuarial principles and practices for pension plans. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1972, Vol. 24, Pt. 2D, No. 68.

Description: This presentation from Session 82 of the SOA June 2005 New Orleans Health/Pension Spring Meeting discusses the risks faced by pension plan sponsors, and the role of the actuary in measuring, discussing, managing, and mitigating these risks. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 31, No. 2.

Description: Challenge to actuarial business as usual in re public pension plans with a focus on setting actuarial standards of practice

Description: This article discusses adjusting IRC 415 limits for prior distributions. The proposed IRC 415 regulations issued last May contained guidance regarding how to adjust the benefit limits for prior distributions. This is commendable on the part of the IRS. How to adjust the IRC 415 limits for prior distributions has long been a source of confusion even for experienced pension actuaries. The best methodology is not immediately clear, and some methods have become common practice even if they can lead to inconsistent or unreasonable results. From Pension Section News, January 2006, No. 60.

Description: Thomas B. Lowman's response to the article Reinventing Pension Actuarial Science by Lawrence Bader and Jeremy Gold. From The Pension Forum, January 2003, Volume 15, Issue No. 1.

Description: Presented at June 1996 Spring Meeting. This session will review these pension standards and discuss how they apply to the work of the practicing actuary.

Description: Zvi Bodie's response to the article Reinventing Pension Actuarial Science by Lawrence Bader and Jeremy Gold. From The Pension Forum, January 2003, Volume 15, Issue No. 1.