Description: The projection methods used by the Social Security Administration's Office of the Chief Actuary are important. The resulting projections are cited regularly by policy-makers, academics and others interested in the long-term financial solvency of the OASDI system. However, a complete description of this projection methodology that is vital for serious policy discussions is not available to the general public. This summary was constructed in connection with the Social Security Advisory Board's 1999 Technical Panel on Methods and Assumptions. A goal of the Methods and Modeling working group of the Technical Panel was to 'work to ensure that the projection methods used by the Office of the Chief Actuary become more public.' From Actuarial Research Clearing House 2000, Vol. 1.

Description: This paper examines some of the methods used to determine the value of the assets held by a pension fund and used in actuarial valuations to determine the required contributions for a pension plan. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1968, Vol. 20, Pt. 1, No. 58.

Description: In the determination of pension costs the actuary normally has available for use several turnover scales which indicate rates of turnover by attained age. This paper attempts to outline broadly one method for classifying selected industries into three groups approximating low, medium, and high turnover levels, so that a more appropriate initial selection of turnover scales may be facilitated. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1968, Vol. 20, Pt. 1, No. 58.

Description: This research report discusses the effect a variation in the interest rate assumption has on a defined benefit plan's costs. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1967, Vol. 19, No. 55.

Description: This paper considers a typical retirement endowment plan where an endowment provides for a monthly payment at retirement and units of life insurance prior to retirement and which the amounts of insurance in later years are net level premium reserves. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1961, Vol. 13, No. 37.

Description: This paper uses economic principles to analyze alternative recognition schemes for end-of-period retirement plan liabilities the candidates, using U.S. nomenclature, are the vested benefit obligation VBO, the accumulated benefit obligation ABO and the projected benefit obligation PBO.

Description: The basic goal of this paper is to develop a generalized statement of aggregate actuarial cost methods and relate to it certain ideas developed by Trowbridge, Nesbitt, and others. A secondary goal is to describe practical methods which bear the same relationship to unit credit funding that the 'usual' forms of frozen initial liability and aggregate bear to entry age normal funding. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1967, Vol. 19, Pt. 1, No. 53 AB.

Description: This research examines funding valuation discount rates that reflect the expected return on investments in accordance with the pension plan’s investment policy. The research is based on data from regulatory filings in Ontario, with supplementary information from British Columbia and the United States.

Description: This paper summarizes third millennium pension research available on the Society of Actuaries Website. The research is organized by categories. In some cases research is assigned to more than one category due to overlap. The goal is to enable a pension actuary who is looking for a research resource to ascertain if there is relevant research and if so to be able to find and download the information. For each item, the year the research was released, the form of research e.g. literature search, paper, survey and a brief synopsis are provided.

Description: This research, based on data from regulatory filings in Ontario, with supplementary information from British Columbia and the United States, examines funding valuation discount rates.