Description: A frustrating aspect of pension funding rules for U.S. plan sponsors is that contribution requirements are adversely correlated with business cycles. For example, not only did plan sponsors get hit with large contribution requirements in the perfect storm of the early 2000s, but many sponsors were prohibited from contributing in the late 1990s boom due to full funding limitations. This is the abstract of a paper that proposes that plan sponsors be allowed to contribute the normal cost as a deductible contribution each year. In hindsight, this would have allowed plan sponsors to pay for benefits as they accrued in the late 1990s and ultimately mitigated some of the crash of the early 2000s. The authors aim to demonstrate that a contribution policy allowing contributions to be at least equal to the normal cost will result in less volatility of contributions and improve the funded status over time.

Description: The abstract for the paper Improving Pension Funding: What's in It for me?

Description: The abstract for the paper Dr. Phil's Guide to Pension Funding Reform.

Description: The abstract for a paper that talks about the Swedish pension system reform.

Description: This paper presents a procedure that can be used to find an efficient frontier for the variability in the contribution rates for pension plans. From the Actuarial Research Clearing House, January 1996, VOL. 1.

Description: The abstract for the paper A Comprehensive Defined Benefit Pension Plan Reform Proposal

Description: This is the abstract for a paper that seeks to construct a new system for pension funding that balances the needs of all the pension stakeholders. The paper presents a system that supports plan sponsors’ needs for predictable and relatively smooth contribution streams with the needs of the PBGC, pensioners, and taxpayers for a well-funded system. From The Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure Monograph, M-RS05-1.