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.

Description: A pension plan uses Actuarial Equivalence to determine a 'fair' adjustment to pension benefits for form and timing of payment. The definition of Actuarial Equivalence is set in the Plan Document which may not have been reviewed for decades. With a wave of recent pension litigation in the U.S., plan sponsors, attorneys and actuaries now pay more attention to how pension plans define Actuarial Equivalence. How does a change in mortality table or interest rate affect the ultimate benefit? What are the requirements under ERISA and pertinent regulations? Are there court cases that have examined this question before? What are the issues behind the recent lawsuits and what can a plan sponsor do now to reduce their legal exposure? What alternative strategies are available for changing or not changing the definition in the plan document?

Description: Informal discussion 2017 LT100 transcript for Session 1C: Impact of Aging: Biggest Current Policy Challenges from the U.K./U.S./Canada as a Result of Aging?

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Boston Meeting focuses on recent legislative and regulatory developments in the U.S. including new IRS regulations, the Department of Labor, the SEC, the new CPI table and court decisions. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 4b.

Description: This report provides a system-wide analysis of the expected contribution requirements for the U.S. single-employer defined benefit pension universe over the remainder of this decade.

Description: Mexico substituted its defined benefit system [IMSS] of the formal sector by a defined contribution system in 1997. The initial plan called for buying single premium annuities for the widows and disabled workers under the new system. In the first three years, this market came to occupy a significant part of the insurance sector. Then, the number of workers getting benefits started to fall dramatically. This is the abstract of a paper that shows that such a fall has been a direct result of how the IMSS authorizes the issuance of single premium annuities. The paper analyses the rationale behind such a dramatic change in policy, analyzes various possible scenarios of IMSS strategies, and examines the problem to see if it brings in any long-term benefits to IMSS.

Description: This 1981 discussion session covers Government and Pension Reports, in particular, reports from the U.S. President's Commission on Pension Policy, the National Commission on Social Security, the Canadian Lazar Report, and the Report of the Ontario Royal Commission on Pensions. This discussion also covers the implications of these reports for the pension business in the United States and Canada.

Description: Through a review of legislative and policy provisions, this paper highlights national differences in retirement policy and identifies alternative retirement policy strategies. The countries studied are France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. In addition to the traditional tools of retirement policy, normal, deferred and early retirement, other areas of policy with a potential impact on retirement are studied. Data on retirement experience also are presented and discussed. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1993, Vol. 45.

Description: Discusses the recent firing of the Social Security Commissioner and the president's legal authority to do so.

Description: This essay explores the role that the emerging defined contribution retirement system may be playing in the growth of wealth inequality in the United States. The current system leaves many Americans with little or no retirement savings. Those with higher accumulation levels appear to invest proportionally more in equities, which may have an exponential effect of balances over long time periods. The author hypothesizes that willingness to take investment risk involves the relationship between the amount an investor has accumulated and what she/he needs in order to cover basic costs of living. This is one reason that investors with greater accumulation levels may be able to earn higher rates of return. The essay concludes by suggesting that the U.S. defined contribution system should include all workers and provide additional fiduciary guidance. Examples reforms, both in the U.S. and other countries, are provided.