Description: This paper was the results of an invitation by the SOA’s Pension Section Research Team to explore the current state of defined benefit plans in Canada and future visions of them.

Description: This paper examines the following three questions by reviewing literature that identifies and evaluates the tradeoffs among annuitization and self-managed drawdown strategies: 1. How DO Retirees Draw Down their Financial Savings? 2. How COULD Retirees Draw Down their Financial Savings? 3. How SHOULD Retirees Draw Down their Financial Savings?

Description: At the outset, this paper discusses the current rules governing benefit distributions from defined contribution plans in the United States and other countries. Next, this paper explains the various types of financial products that can be used to provide defined contribution plan participants with lifetime retirement income. Finally, this paper considers how distribution rules and regulations can be used to encourage retirees to take their defined contribution plan distributions in the form of annuities or other lifetime income products.

Description: The objective of the Phase I research effort was to further the Committee’s work by defining relevant and actionable consumer segments among middle-income / mid-level net worth households. This report updates the Phase 1 analysis using data through 2010.

Description: This report presents the results of six focus groups with retirees who have at least $100,000 of investable assets and must depend on that money to maintain their lifestyles because they do not have sufficient amounts of annuitized income from Social Security and defined benefit plans to meet all of their expenses. The purpose of the focus groups was to gain an understanding of how current retirees approach key financial decisions about managing their money in retirement. The benefits of this qualitative study are multidisciplinary. It can help: 1. actuaries design better retirement financial systems, 2. the financial services industry understand areas of misperception and causes of poor management, and 3. provide policy-makers an understanding of how to drive public policy goals.

Description: The Society of Actuaries Health Benefit Systems Practice Advancement Committee sponsored this review of recent academic literature on the US healthcare system covering quality, access, costs

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

Description: This page contains research and research tools related to U.S. population data.

Description: Actuarial modeling has gone through several distinct phases largely defined by the underlying technology platform. Today, cloud computing is again redefining the technology foundations of actuarial modeling and related processes.