Description: Discussion of competing theories for valuing public pension liabilities. Emphasis on revised Actuarial Standards of Practice that focus on the purpose of the measurement.

Description: This paper uses a Bayesian approach to persistency to explore retirement cost projection variability. The analysis is divided into two parts. In the first part a subjective population projection model is developed, based on a beta-binomial distribution for the number of participants persisting through a given age. Probability statements regarding such items as the number of participants at a given age and the distribution of retirees are developed. The second part shows how the model might be used to generate confidence intervals for retirement cost projections. Both the single-entry-age case and the multiple-entry-age case are considered. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1979, Vol. 31.

Description: The motivation for various asset valuation methods and their properties are briefly described. Some smoothed value or market-related methods based on arithmetic averaging and exponential smoothing are considered and their effect on funding is discussed. Suggestions for further research are also made.

Description: Presented at April 1985 Spring Meeting. Discusses: Large plan actuarial assumptions, Small plan actuarial assumptions, Conflict between explicit assumptions and plan sponsor's objectives, and Immunization effect on the interest assumption.

Description: Part 4 presents an alternate approach to obtaining the fair value of the public sector employer’s pension benefit liability.

Description: An extension of a paper published in the 1952 Transactions by the same author, describing and classifying various funding methods for defined benefit pension plans. Followed by discussion papers submitted by several authors.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to describe an actuarially acceptable and mathematically definitive method for allocating gains by source. Followed by a discussion paper submitted

Description: This paper addresses how to explain yearly fluctuations and computed pension cost in terms of deviations of actual from expected experience. It presents a method for deriving gain-an-loss analysis formulas directly from the valuation formulas and shows that the analysis is implicitly defined by the valuation formulas, rather than something which can be considered apart from them. This method can be used to attack both individual and aggregate cost methods and the development of exact analysis formulas provides not only the basis for computation but also valuable insight into the mechanisms by which cost methods adjust computed costs to reflect actual experience.

Description: An increasingly popular tool in estate planning is the Joint Life policy payable upon the second death. The design and pricing of this policy is influenced significantly by cash value and reserve requirements. This article discusses two methods for calculating these values.

Description: Brief description of articles contained in the newsletter.