Description: A comparison of recently used mortality assumptions among state-based and large-city public pension plans.

Description: A comparison of recently used mortality assumptions among state-based and large-city public pension plans.

Description: A comparison of recently used mortality assumptions among state-based and large-city public pension plans to the Pub-2010 Mortality Tables.

Description: Study of the impact of IRS proposed mortality tables on private sector pension plan costs, including liabilities, contributions and PBGC premiums.

Description: The Retirement Plans Experience Committee (RPEC) hired Ernst & Young to perform a literature review and assessment of mortality improvement rates in the United States population.

Description: A review of the book 'Indexation of Pensions and Other Benefits' by Robert J. Myers, which deals with the indexing of Social Security and government employee pension plans in the U.S., Canada, and other countries, as well as private pension plans, for which the author advocates the voluntary adoption of automatic indexing.

Description: This project aims to understand pension participants’ investment and withdrawal behaviors and provide guidance in pension plan design, using data from China

Description: Drivers for mortality are apparently linked to socio-economic differentials within different societal groups. Actuaries are not the only profession interested in unravelling the mystery of why different groups within society experience such different mortality rates. The author gives examples from occupational pension plans in Canada, the UK and Germany.

Description: This is a summary of a new research paper entitled: “Determining Discount Rates Required to Fund Defined Benefit Plans” by John Turner and three other economists, which describes a new way to look at pension funding for ongoing plans that is a variant of using expected returns (currently used in public plans) that takes into account the risk that contributions will be needed in the future for this year’s benefit accruals.

Description: Exploration of sources of volatility in retiree health valuations, noting how volatility arises and might be mitigated, with discussion of valuation parameters more problematic for retiree health benefits than for pensions. Three significant influences on retiree health valuation volatility are covered-- changes in benefit level, fluctuations in cost level, and alterations in eligibility for, or duration of, benefit – and attention focused on the last two. Specific conclusions result in recommendations, which are supported by practical examples contrasting volatile measurement results with those likely from the recommended practices. Theoretical discussion includes health claim variation, health trend usage, financial economics, option pricing, discount rates, and deterministic vs. stochastic modeling.