Description: This paper examines tandem levels of salary and interest rates and finds that the absolute level of each assumption as well as the differential are significant cost determinants for defined benefit pension plans. In forming best-estimate salary and interest rate assumptions, the actuary must reconcile the difference, if any, between the currently observed rates and the valuation assumptions. Common practice is to choose expected long-term rather than observed rates for valuation purposes. The error in this procedure is analyzed and found to be tolerable for strictly temporary discrepancies between observed rates and valuation assumptions. For situations where these discrepancies are expected to persist for some time, a need is shown for nonuniform, calendar-year assumptions or their equivalent in order to develop best-estimate assumptions. Followed by several discussion papers submitted

Description: This paper presents a procedure for analyzing the factors that affect federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance costs in the U.S. This procedure shows that the tripling of the program costs during the last 30 years resulted from increases in the number of beneficiaries as opposed to increases in the number of covered workers. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1986, Vol. 38.

Description: This paper summarizes the legislative activity from 1969-72 with regards to social security. Topics include expansions in Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance [OASDI], establishment of social security trust funds, and changes in Medicare including extensions of benefits to disabled persons. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1973, Vol. 25, Pt. 1, No. 73.

Description: An extension of a paper published in the 1952 Transactions by the same author, describing and classifying various funding methods for defined benefit pension plans. Followed by discussion papers submitted by several authors.

Description: This paper shows how net costs of virtually all life insurance contracts may be compared, using, for each contract, the ratio of two interest-adjusted cost indexes denoted as Interest Adjusted Cost indexes. The paper includes a discussion of how the relative cost of early termination of the contract may best be shown to the buyer. Followed by discussion papers submitted by various authors

Description: This paper discusses decoupling of social security - meaning that the coupling of actual benefits for those already beneficiaries and potential benefits for future beneficiaries be broken. The purposes are to describe the environment, the problem which decoupling addresses and the importance of a rational solution. The paper discusses the wage-indexing approach and the price-indexing approach. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1977, Vol. 29.

Description: The interest-adjusted method has come to be the most widely accepted method for comparing costs of individual life insurance policies. This paper presents a relatively simple modification of the interest-adjusted cost method that serves more general purposes satisfactorily. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1980, Vol. 32.

Description: This is a collection of reports on various topics including the 18th International Congress of Actuaries, The Committee on Continuing Education, Developments in Automobile Insurance, and the American Academy of Actuaries. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1968, Vol. 20 Pt. 2, No. 58

Description: This is a discussion of 'The Generalized Family of Aggregate Actuarial Cost Methods for Pension Funding' by John R. Taylor. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1967, Vol. 19, Pt. 1, No. 54.

Description: This paper attempts, in some measure, to get at least the fundamentals of pension funding into actuarial literature. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1952, Vol. 4, No. 8.