Description: You are the actuary in the room. As you select, recommend or evaluate a pension return assumption, the process should be rooted in sound principles of mathematics, finance and forecasting whether in multi-employer and public sectors or certain private sector situations. Both theory and practical application serve to guide you with useful tools when providing professional actuarial services concerning pension return assumptions. Explore new frontiers in well-accepted underlying models and analytical (closed form) formulas.

Description: The paper demonstrates that the most popular rationalization for evolving glide paths is flawed and should be discarded. The paper also demonstrates that glide paths should generally evolve for investors that endeavor to optimize outcomes and reevaluate their portfolios regularly.