Description: This article is about structuring participating group annuities to guarantee permanent security to participants of defined benefit plans. From The Actuary Vol. 26, No. 8

Description: 1993 SOA Spring Meeting, San Diego. This session was about the effectiveness of the 1987 minimum funding changes and the tools that PBGC used in the legislative development process.

Description: This article, another in the popular series devoted to tax basics, provides an overview of how the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the law governing employment-based retirement and health plans, impacts the use of annuities in pension and 401(k) plans. The article explains which types of plans are subject to ERISA, and which are not; why the concept of "plan assets" is critical; what duties an insurance company or distributor might take on when an annuity is placed with a retirement plan; and finally what disclosures may be required. The article also includes a brief introduction to terminal funding annuities. This article is intended for those with no prior experience in ERISA. Because the vast majority of retirement assets are saved originally in employment based plans like pension and 401(k) plans, understanding the basics of ERISA is important for anyone who will have a career in annuities and life insurance.

Description: This is an article that highlights an alternative method for determining the impact of a change in interest rates on the factor which converts a life annuity to a 100% joint and survivor annuity. It also discusses the factors for early retirement and deferred retirement.

Description: The objective of this paper is twofold. First, a pedagogical approach is taken to derive the pension plan gain and loss formulas by extending the mathematical theory underlying the actuarial funding methods. It is the author's intent to emphasize the similarities between gain and loss formulas developed for individual funding methods and the formulas developed for aggregate funding methods. Indeed, the formulas are fundamentally identical. The second objective is to afford the reader an opportunity to reinforce understanding by providing two comprehensive numerical examples and analyzing actuarial experience by source. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.

Description: This discussion examines miscellaneous topics. Topics include actuarial training, final salary pension plans and hospitalization and surgical insurance. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1960, Vol. 12, No. 34.

Description: 1994 SOA Meeting, San Antonio. This session covered the SEC letter on FAS 87, discount rates analyzing the current yield curve, matching bond portfolios to benefit payments, selection of salary scale, selection of return on assets, update on ASB proposed standards, and the relationship, if any, of funding assumptions to accounting assumptions.