Description: A response to American Legislative Exchange Council's report "Unaccountable and Unaffordable" in light of applicable Actuarial Standards of Practice.

Description: In February 2008, the American Academy of Actuaries and and the Society of Actuaries Pension Section Council co-sponsored a lively roundtable discussion of the role of funding, disclosure and investment for public pension plans. This article presents the author’s observations and interpretations of the roundtable discussion.

Description: This panel discussion from the 1977 Record of the SOA Vol.3 No. 4 examines current issues in public employees pension plans including investments, ERISA compliance, cost methods, actuarial audits, and plan design issues.

Description: This panel discussion focuses on the funding of public employee retirement plans.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to explore a methodology for choosing among techniques for managing contribution volatility in defined- benefit pension plans. A frequently used – and as often criticized – method for managing contribution volatility is to base actuarial cost on smoothed assets. Our goal in this paper is to develop a methodology for measuring and evaluating the quantitative impact of competing asset smoothing policies. We proceed by investigating a series of basic pension metrics, evaluating the characteristics of each using a simulated pension plan. We then use normalized and weighted combinations of these metrics to determine an optimal smoothing policy.

Description: This paper presents a methodology that represents the common ground between the major camps in the debate over the defined benefits DB system.

Description: On October 16, 1974, the Congress overrode the Presidential veto of H.R. 15301 The Railroad Retirement Act of 1974, a bill to restructure the railroad retirement system which was based on proposals made jointly by railroad management and labor. H.R. 15301 now P.L. 93-445 embodies some far reaching changes which are mainly directed toward relieving the difficult financial situation of the railroad retirement system.

Description: In recent months, many significant developments in Canada have affected employee benefits, particularly pensions. Other Canadian issues discussed in this article are unemployment insurance and taxation of pensions.

Description: Review of 2018 changes to retirement-related actuarial standards of practice in the US and Canada.

Description: This article provides a summary of the Actuarial Standards Board work and hearing evaluating whether a new ASOP is needed for public sector pension plans.