Description: Acquiring a U.S. Operation—A Primer by Valerie Lopez-Zinzer from International Section News, October 2004

Description: This article provides an overview of the laws and regulations governing pension funding and suggests analysis which will enable the plan sponsor to capitalize on contribution options and coordinate long and short term funding strategies.

Description: In Pension Dumping: The Reasons, the Wreckage, the Stakes for Wall Street the reviewer finds that Fran Hawthorne provides guidance through the myriad of ERISA rules, PBGC regulations, bankruptcy laws, and investor expectations that have failed to prevent, and have perhaps even have contributed to, many high profile plan terminations. From the Pension Section News, September 2008, Issue No. 68.

Description: An “eligible combined plan”allows the promise, funding and delivery of both pension benefits funded by the employer and salary deferrals funded by the employees

Description: During the past few years, the Society of Actuaries Committee on Post-Retirement Needs and Risks has come to realize that employees are called on to make many decisions about their benefits, and increasingly, as more benefits are provided by their employers, the retirement security of the employee depends largely on the decisions they make. During the last two years, the Committee has moved into a new area – with two projects on the topic of Retirement Financial Advice. The first is a research paper focused on employer approaches to retirement financial advice, and the second is a guide for employers. Greg Ward, CFP®, Think Tank Director at Financial Finesse, served on the Project Oversight Group for the employer guide and the research paper. Greg works with employers and employees to promote financial wellness. This article offers some perspectives on the SOA reports.

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: Experienced actuaries will discuss various ethical problems faced by retirement actuaries in everyday practice. Actuaries practicing in other consulting disciplines will find the broad concepts of dealing with these retirement-specific scenarios instructive in dealing with the ethical dilemmas that may occur in their business.

Description: The traditional defined-benefit (DB) plan is a type of plan structured to provide the greatest degree of retirement income security, designed to pay out a guaranteed retirement income for the life of the retiree (and, when applicable, a beneficiary). However, over the last several decades, the number of private-sector employees covered under these traditional plans has decreased dramatically and been replaced by defined contribution (DC) plans. In contrast, public-sector retirement plans, which are exempt from ERISA, have seen a much smaller decline in DB plans. There are many differences in the private and public sector that likely contributed to this phenomenon, but ERISA and the many amendments to it has been a major factor.

Description: The SOA Research Institute tasked the Workforce Science Institute to investigate how retirement benefit plans can affect a plan sponsor’s workforce and business results. The following is an interview with Rick Guzzo and Haig Nalbantian co-founders of the Workforce Science Institute who are the researchers on this project. The interview gives a helicopter view of the project as well as provides some “food for thought” on how retirement plans can be designed to produce an effective workforce.

Description: This article covers considerations when an international parent may be faced with responsibility for a US retirement program.