Description: Chapter 2 compares regular, back, and self-directed DROPs, and examines the features of each. From Design and Actuarial Aspects of Deferred Retirement Option Programs, M-RS03-2.

Description: Chapter 7 raises a number of employer issues related to DROPs including: cost neutrality, estimating non-pension cost/savings, cost uncertainty, tax treatment uncertainty, the bargaining process, promotional opportunities, phase-in of coverage, human resources issues, appeal of DROPs to trustees, and mandatory retirement. From Design and Actuarial Aspects of Deferred Retirement Option Programs, M-RS03-2.

Description: The two basic considerations in a pension plan valuation are the choice of actuarial cost methods and actuarial assumptions. This paper deals with the assumptions. The concern in this regard is what actuaries are doing and why. There are explicit criteria why particular assumptions are chosen, and these have often been discussed in the pension literature. However, there also are implicit criteria, which, while seldom discussed in the literature, can dominate the valuation. The goal of this paper is to quantify some of these criteria, and thereby provide a basis for further discussion and research.

Description: This is a discussion on pensions and if takes a closer look at the Deposit Administration. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1950, Vol. 2, No. 4.

Description: Chapter 3 examines some of the early DROP plans, and their subsequent experience. From Design and Actuarial Aspects of Deferred Retirement Option Programs, M-RS03-2.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Vancouver Meeting focuses on the equation of balance and how different pieces of the funding standard account FSA and the unfunded accrued liability UAL are tied together. It also looks at the charges and credits that flow through the FSA from the General Agreement on Terriffs and Trades 'GATT'. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 3b.

Description: This session from the 1983 SOA Vancouver Meeting looks at the use of variable economic assumptions for pension plans including variable investment returns, variable pay increase assumptions and the amortization of the unfunded actuarial liability. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 9, No. 3.

Description: This session from the 1984 SOA Atlanta Meeting covers the long-term future of retirement programs including trends in plan design, changing patterns in the work force, impact of regulation and the role of Social Security.

Description: Over the last several decades, mortality trends and life expectancies in developed countries have been improving and are expected to continue to improve in the future. This paper discusses issues of longevity risk and volatility faced by small defined-benefit DB pension plans in Canada and outlines the opportunities available for entrepreneurial insurance companies interested in providing solutions to address these issues.

Description: This article discusses the non-qualified market opportunities presented by the new limitations imposed on qualified pension plans.