Description: This is a summary of the employer costs for pension plans published by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as of December 2013.

Description: Discussion of competing theories for valuing public pension liabilities. Emphasis on revised Actuarial Standards of Practice that focus on the purpose of the measurement.

Description: The article outlines a shareholder value framework for pension risk management and applies this framework to pension funding decisions in light of rising PBGC premiums due to 2013’s BBA legislation. The article finds that the new legislation significantly incentivizes plan sponsors to increase pension funding. Moreover, many tax-paying pension plan sponsors can increase shareholder value by increasing pension plan contributions.

Description: This research report, based on Ontario pension plan data, examines differences between going concern and solvency valuations.

Description: Introduction of a symposium of papers that arose out of the discussions of the Committee on Retirement Systems Practice Education regarding the adequacy of defined benefit pension plan funding.

Description: The article discusses the Texas Pension Review Board's Guidelines for Actuarial Soundness applicable to Texas state public retirement systems (including the system's amortization period), and how these guidelines are consistent with and complementary to both the current GASB 27 ARC disclosure, and the imminent GASB 67 & 68 disclosures. The GASB requirements will change from a de facto funding standard to strictly disclosure requirements, with a focus on plans whose funding trajectory is the poorest.

Description: This paper proposes principles to serve as the basis for revising the pension funding rules established in 1974, and also suggests a set of revised rules. From Current Pension Actuarial Practice in Light of Financial Economics Symposium, M-RS04-1.

Description: Pension Forecasts, Part II: The Model Has No Clothes by Lawrence N. Bader from Risks and Rewards Newsletter, July 2001, Issue No. 37.

Description: Diminished equity returns and historically low levels of interest rates are compelling plan sponsors to look at new ways of fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities. In response, new frontiers in asset/liability management have arisen. This article will discuss strategies aimed at reducing the volatility of pension expense and decreasing the likelihood of significant funding deficits, all without increasing pension contribution rates. From Risks and Rewards Newsletter, August 2005, Issue No. 47.

Description: This is the abstract of a paper that analyzes the effects on the funding and the contribution rate in hybrid pension schemes when the only source of unpredictable experience is through volatile rates of return.