Description: This article reviews the new standard of practice, ASOP 6, and its impact on the actuarial assumptions that actuaries use for valuations of retiree group medical and life benefits.

Description: Exploration of sources of volatility in retiree health valuations, noting how volatility arises and might be mitigated, with discussion of valuation parameters more problematic for retiree health benefits than for pensions. Three significant influences on retiree health valuation volatility are covered-- changes in benefit level, fluctuations in cost level, and alterations in eligibility for, or duration of, benefit – and attention focused on the last two. Specific conclusions result in recommendations, which are supported by practical examples contrasting volatile measurement results with those likely from the recommended practices. Theoretical discussion includes health claim variation, health trend usage, financial economics, option pricing, discount rates, and deterministic vs. stochastic modeling.

Description: An excerpt from the 2002 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds which describes the basic methodology and assumptions used in the estimates for the intermediate assumptions. Also, projections of program costs are presented under two alternate sets of assumptions.

Description: This paper models the extent of the tax dollars being lost by the government today because of Qualified Pension Plans and IRAs, and then goes on to project the extra revenue that will accrue to the government from these same pension plans when the baby boomers retire.

Description: ASOP No. 6 Exposure Draft Provisions Relating to Community Rated HMO Contracts by J. Richard Hogue from Pension Section News, February 2002, Issue No. 48.

Description: This excerpt from the 2001 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund describes the basic methodology and assumptions used in the estimates for the intermediate assumptions. Also presented are the projections of program costs under the twp alternative sets of assumptions.