Description: Chapter 4 describes growth issues including multiple account problems of the old SAR, the amount of money in the AFOREs, and portfolio composition in the AFOREs. From Retrospective and Perspective Analysis of the Privatized Mandatory Pension System in Mexico, M-RS02-1.

Description: Great damage is being done to the U.S. economy as a result of the widespread misunderstanding that the Consumer Price Index measures changes in the cost of living.

Description: The Long and Short (Runs) of Investing in Equities by Peter Yoo from Risks and Rewards Newsletter, March 1999, Issue No. 32.

Description: Investment opportunities are driven by events in the economy and how participants in the financial markets react to those events. This keynote address will highlight current economic themes and their impact on investment opportunities.

Description: This essay explores the role that the emerging defined contribution retirement system may be playing in the growth of wealth inequality in the United States. The current system leaves many Americans with little or no retirement savings. Those with higher accumulation levels appear to invest proportionally more in equities, which may have an exponential effect of balances over long time periods. The author hypothesizes that willingness to take investment risk involves the relationship between the amount an investor has accumulated and what she/he needs in order to cover basic costs of living. This is one reason that investors with greater accumulation levels may be able to earn higher rates of return. The essay concludes by suggesting that the U.S. defined contribution system should include all workers and provide additional fiduciary guidance. Examples reforms, both in the U.S. and other countries, are provided.

Description: In this paper, the authors have analyzed the Cash Balance pension and contributions using the methods and principles of financial economics, to give a market consistent evaluation of the costs of the CB liability.

Description: This is a short story on the retirement income calculator.

Description: Feature article summarizing a talk given by Andrew Lo at the SOA 2009 Annual Meeting on the credit crisis and why risk management failed to stop the excessive risk taking.

Description: The article makes reference to how the intervention by government agencies and institutions into the financial marketplace are creating distortions. This artificial tampering into market mechanisms will likely result in major financial dislocations down the road as natural economic forces (coined by the term "invisible hand") eventually are allowed to come into play.

Description: Acquisitions and divestitures present unique challenges to actuaries, both before and after the sale. The panelists at this presentation address the following issues for pension as well as for health and welfare plans: 1. What considerations are there when a company is being bought or sold? 2. Can the buyer and the seller ever agree upon the retiree medical liability? 3. Is the buyer interested in the income statement or the balance sheet? 4. What are some of the hidden liabilities? 5. What regulatory issues need to be considered? From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 17, No. 3B.