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

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: 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decades, the number of private-sector employees covered under these traditional plans has decreased dramatically and been replaced by defined contribution (DC) plans.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: TECHNICAL UPDATE 00-4 PBGC’s Full Funding Limit Exemption From The Variable Rate Premium from Pension Section News, October 2000, Issue No. 44.

Description: This is a research project on possible replacement indices for the 30 year treasury rates used to value current liability for defined benefit pension plans in the US.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Vancouver Meeting discusses recent economic developments leading many companies to reduce their workforce, examines the impact of this activity on the pension plan, nondiscrimination rules and explores design options that have been used in conjunction with downsizing. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 3a.

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.