Description: The author encourages the use of sound actuarial principles to develop reasonable retirement spending budgets instead of rule of thumb approaches commonly used.

Description: This presentation is an open forum from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto. The speakers, members of the Pension Committee of the Actuarial Standards Board [ASB], present an update on the ASB’s exposure drafts of actuarial standards of practice intended to provide detailed guidance on setting economic assumptions for pension plans. The session is concerned with selecting actuarial assumptions, specifically economic assumptions, for measuring pension obligations. The speakers note that in addition to providing guidance to actuaries, the standards are designed to help users of our work product understand what actuaries consider in determining their assumptions. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4B.