Description: This paper considers a defined contribution DC plan, a cash balance plan, and traditional defined benefit DB plan with equal expected value at the assumed retirement age. Using utility as a measure of risk and participant preferences, the designs are particularly well suited to minimize participant risk, particularly while employees are accumulating retirement assets. From Cash Balance Symposium Monograph, M-RS02-3.

Description: This report presents the results of a survey conducted for the Society of Actuaries Pension Section Research Committee by Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc, March 2005. The purpose of the survey was to examine the prevalence of traditional and hybrid defined benefit pension plans in large organizations that have operations in the United States. The results of the study may prove useful to pension practitioners and policy makers wishing to gauge the effect of a recent US court ruling with potentially widespread implications for pension plans commonly referred to as cash balance plans.

Description: Column describing shifting paradigm for retirement plan design in North America that highlights recent SOA research project on Target Benefit Plans.

Description: The Defined Benefit 'DB' underpin Defined Contribution hybrid pension plan offers an attractive combination of benefit security and upside potential for pension plan members, and offers cost containment for employers, whilst still ensuring the provision of adequate equitable benefits. The DB underpin guarantee is valued and hedged as a financial option within the traditional funding paradigms of actuarial science. However, the average monthly hedging costs are time dependent and can be unstable when employees are close to retirement. This is the abstract of a paper that proposes some cost control approaches to reduce the volatility of the hedging cost.

Description: Recently, we have seen renewed interest in the international (or “offshore”) pension plan. An international plan typically provides benefits for internationally mobile workers of a multinational employer, but can also be used for certain other workers. The plan is usually located in a respected international finance centre.