Description: This study examines reductions in retirement benefits from the decline in defined benefit plans and increases in defined contribution plans during the past 20 years and what effect this has on workforce management. In particular how this change is affecting older workers’ decisions to retire and what effect this could have on companies. An underlying assumption implicit in evaluating the benefit of retirement of older workers is that productivity declines in old age while pay does not, leading to a pay productivity gap that could have an adverse effect on the employer from delayed retirement. The validity of this assumption was also examined.

Description: This is a summary of a new research paper entitled: “Determining Discount Rates Required to Fund Defined Benefit Plans” by John Turner and three other economists, which describes a new way to look at pension funding for ongoing plans that is a variant of using expected returns (currently used in public plans) that takes into account the risk that contributions will be needed in the future for this year’s benefit accruals.

Description: This paper explores the advantages and disadvantages of a defined benefit plan option for phased retirees.

Description: This presentaion provides a comparison of the pension guarantees provided by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation 'PBGC' in the United States and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Fund 'PBGF' in Ontario, Canada. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 18, No. 4B.

Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. This session focuses on the new types of defined-benefit plans: cash balance, pension equity, life cycled, etc. The issues covered include the regulatory environment, funding and accounting issues, and benefit adequacy.

Description: The Employee Retiree Income Security Act, or ERISA, establishes an important statutory role for pension actuaries in the United States. As part of its statutory goal to protect the retirement security of America’s workers, ERISA requires tax-qualified defined benefit plans to obtain an actuarial valuation of plan reserves each year. When valuing the plan’s reserves, the actuary is required by ERISA to act on behalf of plan participants. Thus, the plan actuary fulfills an important role in maintaining the plan’s ability to meet its on-going obligations to the plan participants and their beneficiaries. From Pension Section News, April 2006, Issue No. 61.

Description: Canadian employers who sponsor retirement plans have mostly adopted arrangements that qualify for deferral of taxes. It is no longer clear that this is the best choice. Low interest rates and the emergence of Tax-Free Savings Accounts mean that there could be better alternatives for future generations of employees. This research paper re-examines the effectiveness of tax deferral and other fundamental choices.

Description: This paper examines some of the effects of mortality improvements on traditional defined benefit plans. From The Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure Monograph, M-RS05-1.

Description: This paper surveys the actuarial techniques connected with salary scale mathematics for the valuation of defined benefit pension plans. Followed by several discussion papers submitted

Description: Among many purposes, this paper will outline the theory of gain and loss analysis for pension fund valuations, indicate practical problems met in applying the theory to two model plans and show the Fackler accumulation formulas. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1959, Vol. 11, No. 31.