Description: This is a summary of the employer costs for pension plans published by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as of December 2013.

Description: The project goals are: • Illustrate an analytical framework using stochastic forecasts and efficient frontiers for hypothetical retirees, for determining retirement income generators (RIGs) that could be offered in a DC retirement plan. • Determine the RIGS or combination of RIGs that could be considered optimal according to specified criteria. • Encourage plan participants, plan sponsors, and advisors to adopt a portfolio approach to developing retirement income strategies.

Description: The author proposes an annuity clearinghouse to encourage employers to offer annuity accumulation products in their defined contribution plans. This addresses the lack of portability that is associated with, and discourages the use of, defined contribution plans.

Description: During the past few years, the Society of Actuaries Committee on Post-Retirement Needs and Risks has come to realize that employees are called on to make many decisions about their benefits, and increasingly, as more benefits are provided by their employers, the retirement security of the employee depends largely on the decisions they make. During the last two years, the Committee has moved into a new area – with two projects on the topic of Retirement Financial Advice. The first is a research paper focused on employer approaches to retirement financial advice, and the second is a guide for employers. Greg Ward, CFP®, Think Tank Director at Financial Finesse, served on the Project Oversight Group for the employer guide and the research paper. Greg works with employers and employees to promote financial wellness. This article offers some perspectives on the SOA reports.

Description: Discussion about the pros and cons of providing lifetime income options in defined contribution plans, and about the pros and cons of annuitization vs. structured payouts. Discussion triggered by an SOA research report authored by Steve Vernon.

Description: This article summarizes the progression over the last three decades as to how contributions have been invested under qualified 401k and other defined conribution plans. It also discusses the current trend of investing in a single life style portfolio selected from a choice of three to five options and the benefits of this type of option.

Description: This issue wraps up the publication of essays to explore solutions available to address risks in retirement and focus on risks in a DC environment.

Description: In this session at the SOA 2003 Washington, DC Spring Meeting, the panelists discuss the value of deferred taxes to the owner of an IRA, 401k or similar product. The time it takes for tax-deferral benefits to overcome typical penalties levied on early distributions is reviewed. They also discuss the effect of tax deferral on the risk profile of investments.

Description: This paper examines the so called 1/n investment puzzle which has been observed in defined contribution plans whereby some participants divide their contributions equally among the available asset classes. It has been argued that this is a very naive strategy since it contradicts the fundamental tenets of modern portfolio theory. We use simple arguments to show that this behavior is perhaps less naive than it at first appears. We show that when we account for estimation error the 1/n rule has some advantages in terms of robustness and we demonstrate this with numerical experiments. From The Actuarial Research Council, Volume 38, No. 1.