Description: This article discusses the risk of declining market cap with large pension obligations and focuses on the pension risk from the standpoint of different companies. Specifically, we’ll examine risk based on the relative size of the pension obligation to the market capitalization of the plan sponsor. From Pension Section News, September 2006, No. 62.

Description: Anna Rappaport provides her usual highly-stimulating and thought-provoking summaries of ideas that she has heard and generated during some of her most recent expeditions to various Conferences, Meetings, Roundtables, Symposia and Retreats that deal with a wide variety of retirement and old age security related issues.

Description: This essay talks about gender differences that affect retirement security and reviews lessons from SOA research. It provides advice for women including traps to avoid. Issues consider include differences in life spans, widowhood, divorce, differences in care patterns and caregiving.

Description: The Pension Forum is for the publication of papers on pension-related topics and discussions of those papers. It is published on an ad hoc basis by the Pension Section of the Society of Actuaries, and delivered to Pension Section members free of charge.

Description: Interview with Sudipto Banerjee

Description: Sponsors of DB plans are being forced to focus on their plans as never before. A confluence of events—market downturn, aging workforce and changing legislation/regulation—has meant the status quo no longer applies to companies’ DB plans.

Description: This article looks at the risk of investing in stocks by using traditional actuarial tools, such as measuring the probability of ruin. From Pension Section News, September 2004, Issue No. 56.

Description: Current DC plans do an extremely poor job at managing investment and longevity risk for plan participants. This leads to suboptimal outcomes: retirement income is potentially too low, assets are subject to catastrophic losses and may even run out. Insurance solutions—most notably annuities—address some of these issues, but are expensive and not very much liked by consumers. This paper explores how Enhanced Risk Sharing Savings Accounts (“ERiSSA”), consisting of a combination of individual DC accounts with a collective risk sharing and return redistribution mechanism coupled with deferred annuities, might be able to strike a better overall balance for consumers.

Description: Technological innovations are disrupting traditional business models, improving products, and enhancing the user experience.