Description: Top down approach to retirement results in wasting the human capital of retirees. We should concentrate, instead on allowing our clients to use their human capital to the fullest extent possible, and structure retirement products around that premise.

Description: This paper looks at different ways to think about the economic relationships within the family and relate them to various ways of providing for retirement security within a Social Security and employer framework.

Description: This paper will focus on default distributions and why they are important.

Description: The subject of this paper is the question: What is the added cost to permit unrestricted election of optional forms of retirement income? From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1961, Vol. 13, No. 36 AB.

Description: The abstract for a paper that focuses on default distributions and why they are important.

Description: The Federal Employees' Retirement System 'FERS', enacted into law on June 6, 1986, covers civilian employees of the U.S. Government who were hired after 1983. FERS supplements Social Security with a basic annuity plan and a thrift-savings plan. The Civil Service Retirement System 'CSRS' remains in effect for employees hired before 1984 who do not elect to transfer to FERS. Besides discussing the benefit changes, this paper covers the following related subjects of broader interest: 1. The federal legislative process, including the roles of interest groups, the Congress and the Administration, and the actuaries assisting them, 2. Investments in stocks and bonds by the new thrift plan, and why these use index funds, and 3. How FERS serves as a model for other large public retirement systems, using a defined contribution plan to help meet its retirement objectives and giving the private sector opportunities to provide benefit services. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1988, Vol. 40, Pt. 1.

Description: In response to public inquiries into the indexing of pension plan benefits, the financing of defined-benefit plans with fully indexed benefits is explored. A model career-average pension plan is set up with all accrued benefits fully indexed. For different funding conditions, the changes in pension plan surplus are examined under the economic conditions of 1946-1987. The results show that the fluctuations in surplus can be more easily absorbed if the pension plan balance sheet uses market value of assets and a funding objective which is flexibly related to assets and set in terms of a fixed conventional liability and an asset fluctuation reserve. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1992, Vol. 44.

Description: This paper recommends changes to current laws affecting employee benefits, changes that would provide substantial retirement security for these and other contingent workers in Mulitempoyer plans.

Description: This paper reviews and compares the Canadian and U.S. Social Security systems as to their adequacy, actuarial equity and progressiveness. It concludes that the Canadian system[s] provide larger minimum benefits and, thus, greater adequacy than the U. S. On the other hand, the analysis indicates more emphasis on actuarial equity in the U.S. system [in total] than in Canada. Finally, both systems are shown to be highly progressive in that lower-wage earners get larger benefits per dollar of contribution than do higher wage earners. The paper concludes by noting that while the systems in these two countries have remarkably different actuarial formulae for determining benefits, and remarkably different structures, that the benefits that result from the two systems are surprisingly similar. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1999, Vol. 1.