The Academy held a webinar exploring various applications of yield curve rates in determining the elements of pension accounting cost. Academy members can access the webinar here.
Pension Practice Council submitted comments to the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service regarding final regulations concerning Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts (QLACs) and their advantages.
( )The Academy released a new interactive Social Security Game that allows users to explore various options and their consequences to make Social Security sustainable for generations to come. The game, which is compatible with smart phones and tablets, debunks various myths about Social Security and illustrates the options of reducing benefits or increasing revenues necessary to make the program sustainable for the next 75 years.
( )The Academy held a forum on issues surrounding aging securely at the U.S. Capitol that explored long-term care, lifetime income, and the sustainability of public programs like Medicare and Social Security.
( )The Lifetime Income Risk Joint Task Force released three issue briefs in the Risky Business series: one explores financial literacy and education for prospective retirees, and refocused plan design and federal retirement policies; another provides actuarial insights regarding lifetime income planning; and a third examines risk sharing by retirees. The task force also released an issue brief that explains general retirement planning considerations, and another designed to provide a high-level perspective on key aspects related to lifetime income.
( )Pension Committee sent comments to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) regarding the proposed changes to the §4010 reporting requirements.
( )In the Fall 2015 edition of Retirement Account, read about the issue brief on cost recognition by the Pension Accounting Committee and Pension Committee; the ASB public hearing on public pension policy; the Social Security Committee’s issue brief on the Disability Insurance Trust Fund; news and announcements on upcoming Academy pension events, and more.
( )Social Security Committee released an issue brief on the Disability Insurance Trust Fund shortfall and ways to improve its long-term financial viability.
Multiemployer Subcommittee sent comments to the IRS and Treasury on proposed regulations on suspensions of benefits under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014.
The Pension Accounting Committee and Pension Committee released an issue brief on alternative expense methodologies and their theoretical rationales and implications.
The Financial Reporting Committee, Pension Accounting Committee, Casualty Committee on Property and Liability Financial Reporting, Health Financial Reporting and Solvency Committee, and Life Financial Reporting Committee sent comments to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) on its “The Auditor's Use of the Work of Specialists” consultation paper.
( )The Medicare Subcommittee published an issue brief offering an actuarial perspective on Medicare's long-term financial condition in the wake of the 2015 Medicare Trustees report, and the Social Security Committee also released an issue brief on the Social Security Trustees latest report that examines the social insurance program’s long-term solvency challenges.
( )The Social Security Committee released an issue brief on the 2015 Social Security Trustees Report that examines the social insurance program’s long-term solvency issues and recommends that Congress should act soon to improve the long-term financial outlook of the program.
( )The Academy updated its Essential Elements reports on Medicare’s Long-Term Sustainability Challenge and Securing Social Security with information from the newly released 2015 Medicare and Social Security trustees reports. The Essential Elements series is designed to make actuarial analyses of public policy issues clearer to general audiences.
( )The Lifetime Income Risk Task Force submitted comments to the Department of Labor regarding the proposed regulations defining fiduciaries and conflict of interest.
The Pension Committee submitted comments to the IRS regarding the timing for release of the mortality tables under §§430(h)(3) and 417(e) of the Internal Revenue Code for 2016.
( )Two Academy members participated in the NAIC Center for Insurance Policy and Research (CIPR) Symposium on retirement issues earlier this week. Lifetime Income Risk Joint Task Force member Mark Shemtob presented on lifetime income insurance products and related issues. Warren Jones, chairperson of the LTC Terminations Work Group, was a panelist on a discussion about the future of long-term care support and services.
( )The Pension Committee released an update to “Selecting and Documenting Mortality Assumptions” for Pensions to reflect a new mortality improvement scale (BB) published by the Retirement Plans Experience Committee (RPEC) of the Society of Actuaries in 2012, mortality table RP-2014, and mortality improvement scale MP-2014 published by the Society of Actuaries in 2014.
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