Description: Presented at October 1985 Annual Meeting. Discusses fifty years of Social Security and the role of actuaries, recruitment sources and problems, remuneration, functions of actuarial staff, problems of staff retention, political pressures, opportunities to influence national legislation.

Description: This is a panel discussion session on social insurance topics focusing on the short and long term financing issues of Social Security, the issue of general revenue financing, and proposals to revise benefit structures. Both U.S. and Canadian systems are discussed.

Description: By definition, actuaries are preeminent in making actuarial analyses. Nevertheless, in some areas, such analyses can be adequately performed by persons from other professions, such as economists and statisticians. This article describes the misuse of life expectancy data by the Heritage Foundation when they 'calculated' that low-income, single African-American males born after 1959 face a negative rate of return from Social Security. Unfortunately, this misinformation was widely disseminated through the news media and Web sites.

Description: The question is frequently raised: Do workers get their money's worth from the payroll taxes that they pay under the U.S. Social Security program? Analyses by nonactuaries are usually faulty because of incorrect methodology and/or incorrect assumptions. This paper presents an analysis of cash retirement benefits for various cases of workers at two earnings levels who attained age 65 and retired in the past and who will attain the normal retirement age and retire at several dates in the future. In summary, the vast majority of workers who retired in the past received, and are receiving, benefits of far greater value than the taxes that they paid. This situation will change in the future, especially if tax rates rise to a level sufficient to support the program over the long run. Many workers who retire in the future will not get their money's worth when the combined employer-employee taxes are considered. This result would be expected eventually for a program that is financed almost entirely by these payroll taxes. However, the vast majority of workers will get their money's worth if only the employee tax is considered. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1992, Vol. 44.

Description: This session discussion is about the financial implications on social insurance, pensions and post-retirement health care. From Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 14, No. 4B.

Description: Presented at October 1986 Annual Meeting. Presentation by a panel of historians on the aspirations of actuaries who established our profession in North America, or who helped to organize the four actuarial bodies formed in 1889, 1909, 1914 and 1916.

Description: A review of a pamphlet which described the amendments to the Social Security Act in 1977.

Description: The author analyzes the arguments for and against a Social Security earnings test and concludes with a recommendation the author believes is consistent with the proper purpose and nature of the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance [OASDI] system. Includes discussion and author’s review of discussion. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1982 Volume 34.

Description: This paper presents an analysis of the mortality of old-age beneficiaries retired workers aged 65 or over and covers the period 1941-61, based on administrative actions taken through 1962. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1965, Vol. 17, Pt. 1, No. 49.

Description: This is a digest of three separate isues: First, discussion examines social security in the United States and recent developments shaping its future. Second topic, Fourth Pacific Insurance Conference for countries of the Pacific rim and Third, current legislative developments. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1969, Vol. 21, Pt. 2. No. 59 AB.