Description: overview of changes in retirement plans and economic demands for the baby boom generation

Description: The author shares the story of his actuarial career and provides insight into the development of retirement today and the past and future of the pension actuary.

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: Recent studies have suggested that teachers would be better off with DC or Cash Balance plans than with DB. Detailed data from CalSTRS support the opposite.

Description: An interview with actuary Lee Gold reveals preliminary results of a recent SOA research project which surveyed employees on what retirement plan features they prefer.

Description: This article provides a basic introduction to the taxation of qualified annuities held in qualified retirement plans and IRAs. The article has been updated for the SECURE Act and the SECURE 2.0 Act. The article describes the basic types of employer-based plans, provides of overview of the taxation of contributions and benefits when annuities are held in connection with plans and IRAs, explains the required minimum distribution rules, and offers a brief introduction to recent legislation impacting qualified annuities.

Description: The standard for measuring retirement income adequacy has been the final earnings replacement rate (usually targeted at 70%). But - does it work?

Description: An “eligible combined plan”allows the promise, funding and delivery of both pension benefits funded by the employer and salary deferrals funded by the employees

Description: This is a study of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) mortality experience. The study consists of data furnished by the PBGC for the time period of September 30, 2009 through September 30, 2014. All of the data come from single-employer pension plans taken over by the PBGC in a distress termination. This is the SOA’s first study of PBGC experience and provides another comparison point of retirement plans mortality experience for work performed by pension actuaries.

Description: The editorial provides an overview of articles in this issue that explore and illustrate solutions to current retirement challenges.