Description: Retirement plan trustees are tasked with retirement plan administration. Trustees are responsible for hiring service providers and monitoring the quality of their work. This article discusses actuarial audits as a due diligence tool for public plan trustees.

Description: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that the virtues of “marked-to-market” pension accounting are greatly exaggerated for both public and private pension plans. It is demonstrated that the “marked-to-market” paradigm, as applied to pensions, is based on a questionable economic foundation and may produce plenty of “misinformation” of its own. From the Pension Section News, September 2008, Issue No. 68.

Description: This paper presents the details of the actuarial implications of amendments to the Railroad Retirement Act. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1952, Vol. 4, No. 10.

Description: This is the discussion to the paper, The Actuarial Implications of the 1951 Railroad Retirement Amendments by Joseph Musher. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1952, Vol. 4, No. 10.

Description: The U.S. Bureau of the Census has rightfully earned a reputation for technical excellence. However, the author has run across an instance where this venerable, distinguished agency went sadly astray - namely, in connection with the number and proportion of employees of state and local governments who are covered by Social Security and Disability Insurance.

Description: This report presents the results of the work undertaken in response to the SIPF’s request. The premise of this work is that there is a need for a concise but still comprehensive and focused report on the financial health and prospects of state and municipal plans to give stakeholders the overview they need to come to informed opinions about the need for changes to the structure of these plans. The report needs to strike a balance between narrative and quantitative indicators of a plan’s financial health.

Description: The author presents an overview of the Conference and highlights the controversy and discussion about the appropriate ways to measure assets and Liabilities for public sector pension plans. From the Pension Section News, September 2008, Issue No. 68.

Description: The Federal Employees' Retirement System 'FERS', enacted into law on June 6, 1986, covers civilian employees of the U.S. Government who were hired after 1983. FERS supplements Social Security with a basic annuity plan and a thrift-savings plan. The Civil Service Retirement System 'CSRS' remains in effect for employees hired before 1984 who do not elect to transfer to FERS. Besides discussing the benefit changes, this paper covers the following related subjects of broader interest: 1. The federal legislative process, including the roles of interest groups, the Congress and the Administration, and the actuaries assisting them, 2. Investments in stocks and bonds by the new thrift plan, and why these use index funds, and 3. How FERS serves as a model for other large public retirement systems, using a defined contribution plan to help meet its retirement objectives and giving the private sector opportunities to provide benefit services. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1988, Vol. 40, Pt. 1.

Description: Reflecting Congressional desire for unified reports on all Federal retirement systems, Public Law 95-595, signed by the President in October 1978, requires annual reports from these systems similar to the ERISA reports from private sector plans. The author, as Chief Actuary of the DoD, discusses the first report produced.

Description: The author assess the financial performance of pension privatization in Europe.