Description: Article from Pension Section News, May 2007, No. 64, discusses the expectations of a pension plan. When people get what they expect, they are happy. When people do not get what they expect, they get upset. A lot of Americans are upset today with their retirement plans. The Financial Accounting Standards Board FASB and Congress are taking action, but their actions may create more problems than they solve. Underlying everything is a substantial disconnect between rule-makers and the public. The public has a more simplistic view of a retirement plan than rule-makers do. Rule-makers need to keep in mind the simplistic way ordinary people think of a retirement plan.

Description: This paper discusses simple interest, amortization and simplicity. The author asserts that compound interest is an improvement upon simple interest that makes the calculation of interest simpler. Likewise, exponential amortization is an improvement upon linear amortization that makes the calculation of amortization simpler. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1990, VOL. 2.