Retirement Practice Council

Retirement Practice Council Highlights

The Retirement Practice Council:

• Testified, jointly with the Life Practice Council, before the Treasury and Labor departments at a public hearing on lifetime income options for retirement plans. The public hearing provided an opportunity for the Pension Practice Council to follow up on the councils’ May 3 response to a request for information issued jointly by the Treasury and Labor departments earlier in the spring.
• Testified at a Joint Board for the Enrollment of Actuaries (JBEA) public hearing regarding JBEA proposed regulations, for which the Pension Committee previously submitted a comment letter.
• Presented an informational webinar on the Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s (GASB) preliminary views on Pension Accounting and Financial Reporting by Employers. The webinar featured three members of the Public Plans Subcommittee and was viewed by nearly 300 Academy members and interested parties working in the public plans arena.
• Testified at a public hearing and provided written comments to the GASB in response to its preliminary views on Pension Accounting and Financial Reporting by Employers.
• Published an updated version of the Academy issue brief: Social Security Reform: Changes to the Benefit Formula and Taxation of Benefits.
• Sent a comment letter regarding harmonization of Cost Accounting Standard Nos. 412 and 413 with the Pension Protection Act of 2006.
• Provided comments to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) responding to an exposure draft of proposed amendments to International Accounting Standard 19, Employee Benefits. The committee supports the IASB’s efforts to improve employee benefit accounting and the comments focused on areas of concern related to implementation, measurement details, minimum funding requirements, and disclosures.
• Provided two letters to the Actuarial Standards Board addressing proposed changes to ASOP No. 41, Actuarial Communications, and proposed changes to ASOP No. 35, Selection of Demographic and Other Noneconomic Assumptions for Measuring Pension Obligations.
• Sent a comment letter with suggested changes to the 2011 Schedule SB and Schedule MB instructions and forms.
• Provided two comment letters to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). One letter responded to a PBGC request for comment concerning the purchase of irrevocable commitments prior to initiating a standard plan termination under Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Section 4041. The second letteraddressed proposed regulations concerning reportable events under ERISA Section 4043.