Description: This panel discussion session reported on the status and content of the Actuarial Standards Board standard dealing with the selection of assumptions. The discussion covers what the effects would be on practitioners.

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: Response to David Kausch’s comments on the paper.

Description: This article discusses some of the ideas of pension finance, how to present such information, and how it was presented to the New York City Retirement Systems (NYCRS) in a way that made it available to other interested parties, including the public.

Description: The following topics were discussed at concurrent sessions: 1. Personal Security in the 1970's- United States and Canada, 2. Adjusted earnings for life companies, 3. Pension funding, 4. What about these younger actuaries?, 5. Sources of statistical information for actuaries, 6. Variable life insurance, 7. Models and decision techniques, and 8. Role of the actuary in expense control. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1970, Vol 22, Pt. 2, No. 63.

Description: This panel discussion is from the 1991 Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held June 3-5 in Colorado Springs. The panelists discuss the considerations and factors in selecting an interest rate assumption for a pension plan, looking at the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, ‘ERISA,’ the Financial Accounting Standards Board, ‘FASB,’ current liability, the effect of Internal Revenue Service, ‘IRS’ audit guidelines and audit programs, and the effect of other assumptions. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 17, No. 3A.

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: Panelists develop a framework for analyzing the diverse family of deferred recognition methods for assets under a pension plan. Using this framework, attendees learn how to assess the reasonableness of a method from both a client and a regulatory perspective – that qualify under IR Code Section 412[c][2][A] – including a case study of the evolution of smoothing methods used by a particular group of plan sponsors. From the 2002 Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 28, No. 2. Session 76PD of the San Francisco Spring Meeting.

Description: The Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 87. Employers’ Accounting for Pensions, became effective in 1987. This is an accounting/actuarial standard with significant income statement and balance sheet implications. This article discuses the results of a survey of selected affected companies regarding the impact of this standard.

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.