New York Times Issues Correction Requested by Academy Regarding Role of Actuaries
On July 22, Academy President Cecil Bykerk sent a letter to the editor of The New York Times pointing out that a story regarding Detroit’s pension shortfall mischaracterized actuaries as “running” pension plans and urging the Times to report on “the causes and the fiscally sound and sustainable solutions” for troubled public pension plans. The Times subsequently issued the following correction: “An article on Saturday about a dispute among actuaries over how to calculate the present value of future pensions misstated the role of actuaries in pension plans. The actuary keeps track of plan members’ data, calculates how much money must be contributed every year and advises the board on key assumptions like future investment returns; the actuary does not ‘run’ the plan.”