Description: This study explores whether public pension plans have contributed enough to reduce unfunded liabilities, absent other influences such as investment returns.

Description: Overview of the prevalence of employer withdrawals from multiemployer pension plans in the United States and their impact on the multiemployer pension plan system.

Description: Updated longitudinal study of metrics for measuring contribution adequacy at paying down unfunded liabilities in corporate DB pension plans in the U.S.

Description: Updated metrics for measuring financial stress among multiemployer pension plans in the United States.

Description: Based on work performed by Bob Howard, a former member of RPEC, the SOA developed a spreadsheet-based program that allows users to create a customized mortality improvement scale using the RPEC_2014 model. The RPEC_2014_v2018 model found here is a new version of the tool updated by the SOA and RPEC to reflect historical U.S. mortality experience through 2016. The tool can be used to model different assumption sets while utilizing the same methodology underpinning the development of Scale MP-2018.

Description: This is a study of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) mortality experience. The study consists of data furnished by the PBGC for the time period of September 30, 2009 through September 30, 2014. All of the data come from single-employer pension plans taken over by the PBGC in a distress termination. This is the SOA’s first study of PBGC experience and provides another comparison point of retirement plans mortality experience for work performed by pension actuaries.

Description: Based on work performed by Bob Howard, a former member of RPEC, the SOA developed a spreadsheet-based program that allows users to create a customized mortality improvement scale using the RPEC_2014 model. The RPEC_O2_v2018 model found here utilizes the same projection methodology underpinning the RPEC_2014 model except that the historical rates have been developed using “order-2” Whittaker-Henderson graduation rather than “order-3”.

Description: The article and guidebook of the same name use a stochastic simulation model to examine potential impacts of public pension plan risk-sharing policies on government employers and plan members. Policies examined include simple policies such as COLAs and employee contributions that are contingent upon investment returns or funded ratios, and more-complex policies similar to those used in the Wisconsin Retirement System.

Description: Article from Pension Section News, May 2007, No. 64, discusses the Pension Protection Act PPA and the related misconceptions. The PPA has removed significant legislative uncertainty around pension funding rules. But there are lots of details. This article discusses the many unresolved issues related to near-term funding decisions.

Description: Summary of the annual cost-of-living adjustment and changes in other wage-indexed programs parameters for Social Security in 2024.