Recent Activities
Academy Annual Meeting
At the Academy’s Annual Meeting and Public Policy Forum in Washington on Nov. 13-14, the Academy released five assessments of retirement plans and systems using the framework laid out in its Retirement for the AGES initiative, which is based on four principles—Alignment, Governance, Efficiency, and Sustainability—for evaluating retirement plans and systems (both private and public) and retirement-income public policy proposals.
The five retirement systems that were assessed by the Academy’s Forward Thinking Task Force were:
For more information on the assessments and the AGES initiative, visit the Retirement for the AGES website.
The other Annual Meeting panels relating to retirement included:
- Multiemployer Plan Reform. Multiemployer plans overseen by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) cover about 10.4 million workers and retirees, but the PBGC’s multiemployer program has a 75 percent chance of becoming insolvent by 2023 without reforms, according to panelists. Panelists discussed current legislative initiatives that attempt to address these deeply troubled plans and foster innovative approaches that could strengthen the multiemployer system and prevent future crisis.
- Public-Sector Pension Plans Plenary. The funded status of state and local government-sponsored pension plans is a major concern for the millions of public-sector workers, retirees, and family members who are beneficiaries of those plans, as well as the current and future taxpayers who share in the financial burden of providing those benefits. The discussion focused on what makes a public pension plan sustainable or unsustainable and what the actuarial profession can do to provide more reliable information to the public.
- Lifetime Income. In today's aging society, retirees are concerned with securing an assured income stream for life. Public policy makers, the retirement industry, and consumers are exploring alternative solutions and legislative changes to increase access to lifetime income. In this session, speakers addressed initiatives designed to bring about more widespread access to and use of lifetime income options.
Social Security Testimony
The Academy was invited to testify Dec. 9 before the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance hearing on “Social Security: Is a Key Foundation of Economic Security Working for Women?” Janet Barr, former chairperson of the Academy’s Social Security Committee, urged lawmakers to consider legislative reform options in the context of the Social Security program’s competing principles of social adequacy vs. individual equity. She also noted that, while the current Social Security law is gender-neutral, “it contains spousal and subsidized benefit provisions that mitigate, but do not eliminate, the impact of gender-related factors that produce lower benefits for women.” Read the written testimony and news release, or watch the full hearing video.
Issue Brief on 2014 Social Security Trustees Report
The Social Security Committee released its issue brief on Oct. 21 on the 2014 Social Security Trustees Report examining the social insurance program’s solvency. The issue brief suggests that Congress should act soon to improve the long-term financial outlook of Social Security and must act no later than mid-2016 to pay fully scheduled disability benefits.
Letter on Hybrid Plans
The Pension Committee sent a comment letter to the IRS on Dec. 18 regarding the updated final and newly proposed regulations for hybrid retirement plans. The committee wrote that it believes that the “regulations should eliminate much of the uncertainty plan sponsors have experienced during their sponsorship of hybrid plans” and it hopes that “this clarity will encourage the creation of new hybrid plans.”
Comments to ASB on Public Pension Plans
The Pension Finance Task Force, Pension Committee, Public Plans Subcommittee, and
Joint Committee on Retiree Health each submitted comments to the Actuarial Standards Board regarding actuarial standards of practice (ASOPs) related to public pension plan funding and accounting.
Intersector Notes
The Intersector Group released reports to the Pension Practice Council that contain notes from its October 2014 meetings with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. and the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service.
Brookings Discussion on Longevity Annuities
Senior Pension Fellow Don Fuerst represented the Academy at the Brookings Institution event “Better Financial Security in Old-Age? The Promise of Longevity Annuities.” Fuerst provided the actuarial perspective in a panel discussion exploring barriers to market development for longevity annuities. | 
