Description: This working paper discusses the risks of investing in stocks in public pension funds.

Description: Due to the decline in interest rates in 1993, the SEC staff began focusing on the discount rates being used for pension and postretirement benefit accounting under FASB Statement of Financial Accounting Standards FAS 87, 'Employers' Accounting for Pensions,' and FAS 106, 'Employers' Accounting for Postretirement Benefits Other Than Pensions.' Employers will need to assess their discount rates and, for some, reduce those rates significantly. To help plan sponsors comply with the SEC guidelines, Salomon Brothers has developed a Pension Discount Curve and a Pension Liability Index. This report reviews the construction of these two measures, as of December 1994.

Description: Many pension funds have recently established dedicated or 'matched' portfolios. These are portfolios of fixed-income securities whose cash flows from interest and maturities match the expected benefit payment stream on a block of liabilities. With particular reference to ERISA, this paper explores the actuarial mechanics of pension funding under dedication, including the selection of assumptions, the valuing of assets, funding of the initial change in unfunded liability, and funding of subsequent gains and losses. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1983, Vol. 35.