Description: This summary is intended to provide the pension actuary with guidance in interpreting and using the termination and retirement information in the 2003 SOA Pension Plan Termination and Retirement Study. The tables in the study were developed based on 1.7 million life years of data from 112 plans collected primarily from actuarial consulting firms for the period 1995 – 2000.

Description: This paper summarizes third millennium pension research available on the Society of Actuaries Website. The research is organized by categories. In some cases research is assigned to more than one category due to overlap. The goal is to enable a pension actuary who is looking for a research resource to ascertain if there is relevant research and if so to be able to find and download the information. For each item, the year the research was released, the form of research e.g. literature search, paper, survey and a brief synopsis are provided.

Description: 1993 SOA Spring Meeting, San Diego. This session discussed the proposed standards for determining the economic assumptions for the purposes of measuring pension obligations. The actuary's determination of the interest rate assumption was the primary focus of the discussion.

Description: This presentation was made at the 1975 Spring Cincinnati Joint Meeting of the Conference of Actuaries in Public Practice and Society of Actuaries. It discussed the following: how to choose the best pension assumptions and methods, how to arrive at interest assumptions, and the advantages of cost methods that reflect assumptions about new entrants and other changes in the group. 1975 Record Vol. 1, No. 3

Description: This 1978 session focused on valuation techniques for pension plans. Topics covered: 1. Asset Valuation Methods 2. Use of projections and forecasts 3. Has application of forecasts allowed the actuary to determine short range best estimate of future costs different from traditional methods? 4. Treatment of salary scales, turnover assumptions, retirement decrements

Description: This meeting session, which occurred at the June 1980 SOA meeting in San Deigo, covered economic assumptions for pension plans. Topics included: 1. How should an Inflation Assumption be chosen? 2. Who should and can be involved in the process? 3. What Economic Assumptions are used for Social Security Canadian and U. S. projections? 4. What is the future of productivity and general wage increases? 5. How are Turnover and Retirement Age Assumptions related to Economic assumptions? 6. Are actuaries using variable or indexed Economic Assumptions? How are they doing it? 7. Should Economic Assumptions vary by plan size? By Benefit design? By valuation method? By investment strategy?, and 8. How should the assumptions be communicated to the plan sponsor? From Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 6, No. 3.

Description: This is a panel discussion session focusing on the pension plan sponsor's funding policy including examining alternate uses of cash selection of actuarial cost method selection of actuarial assumptions use of projections and effect of investment strategy on funding policy. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 7, No. 1.

Description: This meeting session, which occurred at the April 1982 Society of Actuaries meeting in Orlando, presented a panel discussion that focused on retirement age issues, trends and assumptions related to pension plans. Also a discussion of factors that affect early retirement elections

Description: A discussion of the various Pension Plan Asset Valuation Methods. FromThe Pension Forum, August 2001, Volume 13, Issue No. 1.

Description: Capital Market Assumptions—The Past Performance Future Returns Debate by Jane Arnold and Jennifer Donnelly from Pension Section News, November 1998, Issue No. 38.