Description: Public policy makers acknowledge that there exist significant tax incentives for the use of Registered/Qualified Pension Plans and RRSP's/lRA's. This is the abstract of a paper that first analyzes these tax advantages as to the component source, i.e., how much of the advantage can be attributed to the tax deductibility of contributions and how much is because of the non-taxation of the investment income until taken. The paper then attempts to determine and illustrate whether or not these elements of tax assistance should be viewed as tax deferral or tax waiver. The analysis shows that any tax advantages associated with the deductibility of contributions is only tax deferral. However, the paper proves that there is a permanent loss to the taxpayers associated with the non-taxation of earned investment income until taken which should be viewed as a tax subsidy or tax waiver. The paper ends with a short discussion of the public policy issues raised by these findings. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1994, Vol. 1.

Description: Through a review of legislative and policy provisions, this paper highlights national differences in retirement policy and identifies alternative retirement policy strategies. The countries studied are France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. In addition to the traditional tools of retirement policy, normal, deferred and early retirement, other areas of policy with a potential impact on retirement are studied. Data on retirement experience also are presented and discussed. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1993, Vol. 45.

Description: State and local pension plans provide their stakeholders with a great deal of information. However, that information is typically not presented in a user-friendly way. Summary documents often fail to give their readers a clear and comprehensive picture of a plan's finances. The premise of the SOA Project described in this article is that there is a need for concise summary reviews of a plan's operations. The Project's mandate included the preparation of two sample reviews of two different state systems that might serve as models, but not rigid templates for reviews prepared by plan management. This article describes and compares the two reviews and their accompanying dashboards, and also addresses the Project's broader goals. The article emphasizes that it is not the exact shape or format of a summary review that matters, but how effectively it conveys the current state and prospects of a plan's finances.

Description: The author shares the story of his actuarial career and provides insight into the development of retirement today and the past and future of the pension actuary.

Description: This article focuses on retirement decisions, phased retirement and related policy issues, calling for actuaries to take on leadership roles in retirement public discussion.

Description: This session discussion is about the national retirement income policy. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 16, No. 1.

Description: Chapter 9 reviews some of the challenges still facing the Mexican system including retirement age, portfolio risk, INFONAVIT, and the informal market that includes a majority of Mexican workers. From Retrospective and Perspective Analysis of the Privatized Mandatory Pension System in Mexico, M-RS02-1.

Description: This article was presented at the 1975 Spring Cincinnati Joint Meeting of the Conference of Actuaries in Public Practice and Society of Actuaries and addresses the impact of the following changes on future needs for pension coverage, future amounts of pension benefits, and costs of funding.

Description: In 1995, Mexico replaced the public pay-as-you-go system by a privately managed system based on individual accounts. This paper analyzes the causes that made necessary the reform of the old Mexican pay-as-you-go pension system. A description of the modifications and current situation of the pension system also are discussed. The paper concludes that although the pension system has been modified during the last few years, there are still some weaknesses that have to be corrected to provide an appropriate retirement benefit to workers.

Description: Article discusses how middle class Americans are doing in saving for retirement, sources of incomes and results of the Survey of Consumer Finances.