Description: The general theme of discussion was pension plan funding and cost. The specific topics discussed included: impact of ERISA on corporate funding strategies, ethical considerations involved in deciding how to address inflation in pension plan costs, actuarial cash flow projections, actuarial role in evaluating alternative investment strategies, effect of ERISA's imposed Funding Standard Account, and discussion of the paper titled Introduction to Dynamics of Pension Funding. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, 1976 Vol.2 No. 1

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: Paper examines the asset allocation behavior of state and local pension plans.

Description: Eric Friedman’s comments on ‘The Case for Stochastic Present Values,” by Dimitry Mindlin

Description: The current financial model put forth as the market value of public sector pension benefit liabilities is simply the expected cash flows of the accumulated benefit obligation, as defined for current private sector financial reporting, discounted using a risk-free yield curve. This model is in serious need of an overhaul. This monograph addresses this issue.

Description: The abstract for the paper Globalizing Work and Retirement in the 21st Century.

Description: This paper explores the context for retirement in the future, sets forth alternative scenarios for retirement and considers the public policy, individual, and family implications of these scenarios.

Description: This paper proposes a mandatory universal pension system MUPS which would be a system of fully portable IRA accounts piggy-backed on to existing Social Security withholding.

Description: This guide is a compilation of references providing an overview of the pension environment in Canada. It is designed to assist a non-pension practitioner or an actuary from outside of Canada who wants to learn about the Canadian Pension System.

Description: This paper suggests that two opposing pressures are at work in the United States. One is the limit to the number of retired adults that the nation can support. The other is the growing diversity of needs and desires of older people and employers. These two opposing pressures will frame the issues of the future.