Description: The article endorses broader use of lifetime income in DC plans. It explains why the use of DB plans will continue to decline. The article points out that plans sponsors will not willingly take on additional ERISA fiduciary exposure. The article endorses three regulatory reforms that would increase the use of lifetime income in DC plans. 1. A robust annuity issuer safe harbor that would free employers from fiduciary exposure for putting an annuity provider on the DC platform. 2. A requirement that a plan offer a lifetime income option to qualify for the 404(c) safe harbor. 3. A revision to 404(c) to allow plan sponsors to allocate part or all of the employer match to lifetime income.

Description: Presents a tool for actuaries to analyze defined contribution plans. Analytical Hierarchy Process weights plan features. Result is accessible to non-actuaries.

Description: Provides preview of the two essays published in this Pension Section News and encourages dialogue, particularly on the 401(k) essay and the ideas for change.

Description: This report presents a framework that could be used by employers and employees to assess defined contribution retirement plan benefits.

Description: Actuaries can be well suited to provide consulting to both DB and DC plans. We focus on DC design and the important nondiscrimination test requirements that need to be at the core of a plan design project. Plan design for DC plans seems easy, but should not be looked at any less seriously than DB plan design. The key steps are the same as DB plan design. We review key concepts that plan design actuaries want to know.

Description: This project has four phases. Phase 1 develops the framework for using a portfolio approach to developing retirement income strategies, and establishes a baseline for comparing to future phases. Phases 2, 3 and 4 analyze more complex retirement income solutions than Phase 1, to determine if the additional complexity improves projected outcomes and can be justified by the potential to deliver more favorable results. Interim reports have been prepared for each phase and can be found on the SCL and SOA websites. This report integrates the findings and conclusions from the Interim Reports, to help plan sponsors and their advisors consider the various goals, RIGs, and retirement income solutions that were analyzed in all four phases. This report references the analyses from the interim reports, but does not replicate all of these analyses. The Interim Reports provide many more details on our analyses for all four phases and should be used in conjunction with this report.

Description: In this article, the author discusses the impact automatic enrollment AE in 401k programs has on plan participants. From the Pension Section News, October 2011, Issue No. 75.

Description: Defined contribution plans need to do more than simply offer participants a menu of investment choices--the average worker is not building a secure retirement. Because both employers and employees face constraints, the solution is not as straightforward as delaying retirement or boosting contributions. Features like automatic enrollment can help somewhat, but are not enough. Truly innovative solutions are needed. There are numerous different proposals for improved retirement plans, both in the US and internationally. Individual proposals often contain an evaluation section dealing with benefits and risks, but what is lacking is a full quantitative evaluation framework that can be uniformly applied to a number of different proposals. This essay lays the groundwork for a potential research project to build such a quantitative assessment framework.

Description: Hear from the chairperson on themes in the September 2016 issue of Pension Section News published by the The Pension Section.

Description: The project goals are: • Illustrate an analytical framework using stochastic forecasts and efficient frontiers for hypothetical retirees, for determining retirement income generators (RIGs) that could be offered in a DC retirement plan. • Determine the RIGS or combination of RIGs that could be considered optimal according to specified criteria. • Encourage plan participants, plan sponsors, and advisors to adopt a portfolio approach to developing retirement income strategies.