Description: This is a discussion of the title paper by Raymond F. Houseman, which provides some practical aspects of various funding methods. The paper is critiqued, and some alternative methods are discussed.

Description: This section presents multiple book reviews and summaries of recent publications. Reviews: 'Social Security' by Myers, 'Report on Actuarial Principles and Practical Problems with Regard to Nonforfeiture Requirements' by Society of Actuaries, 'Mortality and Morbidity in the US' by Erhardt and Berlin, 'The Fifty-Second Annual Report of the Board of Actuaries of the Civil Service Retirement System' by US Government, 'Health Service Information in the US Today' by Murnaghan, 'Financial Problems Confront the Federal OASI and DI Trust Funds' by Staats, 'Public Employee Pension Funds' by Tilove, '1976 Annual Reports of the Board of Trustees of the Federal OASDI Trust Funds...' by US Congress, 'Report of the Consultant Panel on Social Security to the US Congressional Research Service' by US Government, 'Crime by Computer' by Parker, 'Reports of Consultants on Actuarial and Definitional Aspects of Social Security Disability Insurance' by US Government, 'Social Security: The Fraud in Your Future' by Shore, '1972 Lifetime Earnings by Age, Sex, Race and Education Level' by Social Security Administration. Digests also included.

Description: Traditional pension cost methods are based on the actuarial present value of future benefits [which is a mean value]. As a consequence, these cost methods are deficient because they cannot provide plan sponsors with certain valuable information such as the probability that the accumulation of a particular sequence of contributions will ultimately provide sufficient funds to pay benefits, or the size of fund needed to ensure that retirees' lifetime benefits are paid with a specified probability. In response to these deficiencies, a new family of cost methods, called a-percentile cost methods, is developed. These cost methods are based on the probability of adequately covering all participants' benefits. Expressions for the normal cost, the accrued liability and the gain are provided. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1993, Vol. 45.

Description: Post-Retirement Experiences of Individuals Retired for 15 Years or More

Description: This paper is intended to help plan sponsor fiduciaries understand existing options and carry out their due diligence when studying retirement income solutions for DC retirement plans. It educates human resources and financial professionals at plan sponsors about the potential issues, solutions, and processes involved with implementing, administering, and communicating a retirement income program for their plan participants.

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: A frustrating aspect of pension funding rules for U.S. plan sponsors is that contribution requirements are adversely correlated with business cycles. For example, not only did plan sponsors get hit with large contribution requirements in the perfect storm of the early 2000s, but many sponsors were prohibited from contributing in the late 1990s boom due to full funding limitations. This paper proposes that plan sponsors be allowed to contribute the normal cost as a deductible contribution each year. In hindsight, this would have allowed plan sponsors to pay for benefits as they accrued in the late 1990s and ultimately mitigated some of the crash of the early 2000s. The authors aim to demonstrate that a contribution policy allowing contributions to be at least equal to the normal cost will result in less volatility of contributions and improve the funded status over time.

Description: Statistics about the National Football League Players’ Pension Plan and its funded status.

Description: Statistics about the NFL players' pension plan funded status.

Description: Statistics about the National Hockey League Players’ Retirement Benefit Plan and its funded status.