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: This interview provides information on Retirement Health and Happiness, the first in a new series of publications designed to improve retirement literacy.

Description: Introduction to 2012 Pension Forum covering Retirement 20/20 call for models papers. These papers outline specific ideas and designs for new retirement systems.

Description: This presentation from Session 56 of the SOA June 2005 New Orleans Health/Pension Spring Meeting discusses the risks faced by sponsors of defined benefit pension plans and how actuaries can help these plan sponsors adopt plan design strategies to manage these risks. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 31, No. 2.

Description: An interview with actuary Lee Gold reveals preliminary results of a recent SOA research project which surveyed employees on what retirement plan features they prefer.

Description: While the Pension Protection Act resolved a lot of issues about how employers could fund defined benefit plans and how they could safely put 401k plans on autopilot, the legislation didn’t solve the bigger problem of making sure that all employees have enough savings for retirement, observers say. For this reason, groups of employers, actuaries, academics and industry experts have come together to introduce new plan designs that address many of the elements that the Pension Protection Act left out. This article summarizes these proposals.

Description: The Total Career Benchmark Model, consistent with Retirement 20/20 principles, focuses on reconstructing and maintaining a consistent and reasonable sharing of risks and rewards amongst the four stakeholders: Individuals, Society, Employers and the Markets. Modern technology provides the necessary tools. A series of benchmarks are used for tax limits, target pensions, accrual to date etc. The self adjusting, consistent benchmarks under the TCB Model, means that all stakeholders speak the same language. Individuals and Employers can easily compare what they have to what they need – and more importantly can see how to accrue what is needed. An individual’s ability to tax shelter income over a career is not dependent on the design of any employer pension plan. All funds allocated to an individual remain the individual’s and are not used to subsidize another person – except for the inherent risk sharing of an annuity – by hidden transfers of value.

Description: This paper is a comment on the Tracker Plan, a concept for U.S. pension reform.

Description: This issue of The Retirement Forum presents the four prize-winning papers from the Retirement 20/20 Call for Models for Public Pension Plans Contest, which was conducted in 2018, and includes commentary from reviewers of these papers and replies from the authors.

Description: Recently completed research projects from the Society of Actuaries.