Description: Article from Pension Section News, May 2007, No. 64, highlights a book by John Turner on international perspectives of individual accounts. In clear and concise language, Turner, a senior policy advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute, explores the first-hand experience of other countries that have implemented, either partially or in full, aspects of social security reform that have been proposed for the U.S. system.

Description: Description of Social Security COLA for December 2020 and wage-indexed program parameters for 2021.

Description: Personal highlights of a pension actuary's 10 years with the U.S. Social Security Administration and Senate staff, applying his experience and skills to emerging issues. He recommended that the Thrift Savings Plan for federal employees use index funds for common stocks, giving employees an attractive way to invest while keeping politics out of stock selection.

Description: This article introduces the special rules that apply to employees of state and local governments that choose to be covered by the U.S. Social Security program.

Description: President Bush is to be commended for making social security private account reform a top legislative priority, but the mixed defined-benefit/defined-contribution model that he has in mind has been criticized for transferring too much investment and longevity risk to account holders. In response, President Bush should consider an alternative approach to private account design - indexed benefit offsets - that would retain the existing defined-benefit model and eliminate this risk transfer. From Pension Section News, April 2005, Issue No. 58.

Description: Two letters to the editor of Pension Section News. Both letters are responses to David Langer's comments which were published in the January 2006 Pension Section News regarding Social Security and its financial projections. From Pension Section News, April 2006, No. 61.

Description: A letter to the editor regarding how the Social Security trustees project Social Security costs: Is it actuarial science or politics? From Pension Section News, January 2006, No. 60.

Description: The article describes an interactive game related to Social Security and how the user can play the game.

Description: This article reviews a paper developed by Rob Brown on the optimal design of retirement income security systems. The article intends to move readers to read Brown's article and consider how actuaries can play a significant role in the development and evaluation of social insurance policy. This will be of value to actuaries as the profession is presented the opportunity to participate in shaping financial security for all people.

Description: The article summarizes a survey conducted by the Pension Section's Research Team. Nearly 2,400 actuaries responded with answers that ranged from abolishing the system to expanding the program to include all workers. The question, What changes, if any, should be made to the current system? is recapped.