Description: The Society of Actuaries, the SOA Pension Section, the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and the American Society of Pension Actuaries are contributing funds in support of efforts to get the actuarial profession more involved in modeling that addresses national retirement income policy and health care reform. The first project will be a feasibility study to analyze each major existing database/model and investigate whether it would be practical to access it or to extend it into a new macrodemographic model.

Description: This is a summary of topics discussed at the 1996 Bowles Symposium: “The Old Age Crisis: Actuarial Opportunities,” September 26-27, 1996, at Georgia State University, Atlanta.

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decades, the number of private-sector employees covered under these traditional plans has decreased dramatically and been replaced by defined contribution (DC) plans.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: Discusses help those who do not have enough quarters of work to qualify for Social Security.

Description: This 1976 article discusses provincial regulation of private pensions in Canada, with a focus on Manitoba’s legislation, expected to be operative later in the year, and how it compares to regulation in other provinces.

Description: The Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 87. Employers’ Accounting for Pensions, became effective in 1987. This is an accounting/actuarial standard with significant income statement and balance sheet implications. This article discuses the results of a survey of selected affected companies regarding the impact of this standard.

Description: Provides an overview of several EBRI studies on spending by older Americans and brings together with Society of Actuaries research on shocks in retirement.