Description: This article discusses the importance of employer retirement plans. Retirement security in the United States comes from Social Security, employer-sponsored benefits, and personal assets including housing and individual savings. The retirement system today is faced with a lot of change, threat and uncertainty. This article deals with the question: How do employers add value by sponsoring plans? It is positioned to open up a dialogue among actuaries and include embedded questions that are italicized throughout this article. From Pension Section News, January 2006, No. 60.

Description: The 2006 Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation PBGC Annual Performance and Accountability Report and the 2006 Annual Report of the PBGC each contain a summary of the results of the Sept. 30, 2006 actuarial valuation. The purpose of the separate Actuarial Valuation Report is to provide greater detail concerning the valuation of future benefits than is presented in PBGC's Annual Report.

Description: This article highlights the world's fastest growing economy market, China, focuses on its private pension market. Hidden in the backdrop of China’s rapid growth lurks an aging population, a result of China’s one-child policy and the improved longevity of its people. The “4-2-1” phenomenon, characterized by a family structure of four grandparents, two parents, and a single child, is becoming more prevalent. While this aging society is not immediately apparent—in fact, many multinational companies employ a young workforce, with very few grey-haired employees—a demographic shift is inevitable. From Pension Section News, September 2006, No. 62.

Description: Securing Supplemental Retirement Arrangements Course P–361C Study Note by C. Ian Genno from Pension Section News, January 1998, Issue No. 35.