The Pension Practice Council (PPC) and Pension Finance Task Force (PFTF) submitted letters to Congressional leaders on concerns about proposals to raise revenues by changing private sector pension law to offset unrelated spending increases.
Several Academy members presented at the National Conference of Insurance Legislators’ summer meeting in Boston, July 9-13. Mike Angelina, vice president of the Casualty Practice Council, presented on the evolving role of the private market in providing flood insurance, and Senior Life Fellow Nancy Bennett offered an update on principle-based reserving (PBR) implementation that included a legislation-in-brief document and FAQs. Ellen Kleinstuber, vice-chairperson of the Pension Committee, discussed NCOIL’s proposed Pension De-Risking Model Act in the wake of the Pension Committee sending a letter to NCOIL on the proposal last week.
( )The Pension Committee submitted comments to the Society of Actuaries’ Retirement Plans Experience Committee on the RP-2014 and MP-2014 exposure drafts.
( )The Social Security Committee released an issue brief that analyzes Social Security design changes to create a defined contribution system within the program for workers to accumulate contributions in individual accounts to fund their retirement income.
( )The Social Security Committee updated its issue brief on the quantitative measures policymakers can use while evaluating Social Security reform.
( )Intersector Group releases a report to the Pension Practice Council containing notes from its March 2014 meeting with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
( )The Academy hosted Retirement for the AGES: Measuring for Success, a forum that brought together retirement community leaders for an in-depth discussion and thought-provoking assessment of retirement plans and current proposals, based on the Academy’s Retirement for the AGES framework for retirement-income systems.
( )The Academy published a new Essential Elements paper, The 80% Pension Funding Myth, which adds to its series designed to make actuarial analyses of public policy issues more accessible to widespread audiences. Visit the Essential Elements webpage to read this paper and others in the series.
( )The Pension Practice Council and Pension Finance Task Force both sent letters concerning recent proposals to use pension policy as an offset for unrelated spending increases. Read the news release.
( )Senior Pension Fellow Donald Fuerst provided written testimony to U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Policy hearing on the state of U.S. retirement security.
( )Academy members made well-received presentations at the National Conference of Insurance Legislators’ Spring Meeting in Savannah March 7-9. Ellen Kleinstuber, vice-chairperson of the Academy’s Pension Committee, presented on a March 7 panel, “Longevity Risk & Insurance.” She also offered comments at a special point-counterpoint discussion on a proposed pension de-risking model act. Joyce Bohl, a member of the Federal Health Committee, presented on March 8 as part of a panel on the Affordable Care Act and underwriting.
( )The Social Security Committee released its updated monograph, Social Security Reform Options, that analyzes proposals to address Social Security’s financial challenges. Click here to read the news release.
( )The Pension Committee sent comments to the Internal Revenue Service regarding Notice 2014-5, Temporary Nondiscrimination Relief for Closed Defined Benefit Plans and Request for Comments.
( )The Public Plans Subcommittee published an issue brief introducing the objectives and principles for funding pension plans for state and local government. The brief states that policies used to establish funding for these plans should be formulated to maintain an appropriate balance among the competing objectives of benefit security, generational equity, and contribution stability. Read the news release.
( )The Joint Committee on Retiree Health submitted comments to the Actuarial Standards Board on revisions to ASOP No. 35, Selection of Demographic and Other Noneconomic Assumptions for Measuring Pension Obligations.
( )The Pension Committee submitted comments to the Actuarial Standards Board on revisions to ASOP No. 35, Selection of Demographic and Other Noneconomic Assumptions for Measuring Pension Obligations.
( )The Pension Practice Council’s Forward Thinking Task Force released a public policy monograph that introduces a framework to examine retirement plans and policy proposals designed to provide a secure and sufficient retirement as part of its Retirement for the AGES initiative. In conjunction with the release of the monograph, the Academy hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on the initiative. Read the news release here.
( )Senior Pension Fellow Don Fuerst sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives regarding their request to make Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) consistent with the pension funding rules in the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21). Read the news release.
( )The Pension Committee submitted comments to the Internal Revenue Service on Notice 2013-49: Updated Static Mortality Tables for the Years 2014 and 2015.
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