Description: The adoption of FAS 158 forces sponsors of post-employment health benefit plans to consider how to manage the volatility that changes in medical care inflation create in the other postemployment benefits (OPEB) liability. By choosing carefully how the nominal discount rate used for the liability is decomposed into real rates and inflation, I illustrate that the true exposure to an OPEB plan is to the spread of medical care inflation above (or below) the overall inflation rate. The implication is that an effective immunization strategy exists that can eliminate most of the volatility in the OPEB account.

Description: This paper talks about the risks of defined benefit and defined contribution plans.

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.

Description: This paper will focus on default distributions and why they are important.

Description: In this paper, we derive three important longevity Greeks on the basis of an extended version of the Lee-Carter model that incorporates stochastic volatility.

Description: This article is a summary of the authors’ two other articles where they discuss pension systems and whether they do in fact distort retirement decisions.

Description: This paper discusses retirement planning information and the signals it provides. It focuses on the issue of communicating lump sum versus income benefits. It discusses challenges in communicating income benefits and provides some alternatives.

Description: This paper reviews the life cycle of a typical pension plan, examines the issues relating to its funding, and proposes a new funding approach that tries to balance the various concerns. From The Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure Monograph, M-RS05-1.

Description: This is a web page containing links to papers presented at the Retirement 20/20 conference held in Washington, D.C. on November 17 & 18, 2008.

Description: This paper talks about the Swedish pension system reform.