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 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: The SOA conducted a study of uninsured pension plan mortality in response to The Retirement Protection Act of 1994 and to ensure that the Treasury Department would have current and thorough information available when it considers updating the mandatory mortality table to be used when when calculating Current Liabilities for pension plans. The purpose of this report is to provide actuaries with all of the significant findings of the study along with a full explanation of when and how these should be used in reviewing or setting mortality rates for specific plans.

Description: A critique of the SOA's co-sponsoring of the Manhart Brief which addressed sex discrimination in pension rates. The critique argues that the brief fails to satisfy standards of academic rigor reflected in other SOA publications.

Description: Background of the Manhart case on sex discrimination in pension rates, summary of the brief prepared for the case by an SOA task force, and text of a letter submitted to the court by SOA members critical of the brief.

Description: Revised pages for the RP-2000 Mortality Tables Report dated April 2000.

Description: This article on pensions and tax expenditures discusses the problems in the development of the numbers provided by the Office of Management and Budget. Tax reform proposals that quantify increases in tax revenue that would result from elimination of tax advantages of qualified pension plans are flawed in the author's opinion.

Description: The Actuary Vol. 22, No. 1. This article discusses the impact of a change in procedure in the financing of the US Military Retirement System. The change requires amortizing the past service liability. The impact will depend upon whether the amortization is achieved by increasing current taxes and decreasing the current deficit, or by merely increasing the national debt and leaving the current deficit unchanged. The author asserts that the new financing method will not weaken the financial condition of the military retirement system, and that it has the potential to strengthen its financial condition if the funding of the past service liability is handled appropriately.

Description: This session discussion is a review proposals to modify the plan termination provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Current projections of the corporate funding problems and the alternatives under consideration will be included. From Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 14, No. 1.