Pensions

  • 1967 - GOV (JEC) - Old Age Income Assurance: A Compendium Of Papers On Problems And Policy Issues In The Public And Private Pension System
    • [PDF- p-GooglePlay]
    • Submitted To The Subcommittee On Fiscal Policy Of The Joint Economic Committee Congress Of The United States 
  • 1973 - SOA - Investment Performance of Pension Plans, Society of Actuaries - 78p
  • 1976 - SOA - Introduction to the Dynamics of Pension Funding - 38p
  • 1976 - SOA - Pension Funding Vehicles, Society of Actuaries - 18p
  • 1983 0928 - GOV (House) - ERISAs Single Employer Pension Plan Termination Insurance Program - [PDF-193p-GooglePlay]
  • 1992 - LR - The Effects of the Insurance Industry Insolvency on Pensioners' Incomes: A Plan for Federal Insurance, by Lee Anne LeBlanc - 33p
  • 1991 0627 - GAO - Insurance Company Failures Threaten Retirement Income - Testimony - Joseph F. Delfico,  Director, Income Security Issues, Human Resources Division - 24p
  • 1993 03 - GAO - Private Pensions: Protections for Retirees’ Insurance Annuities Can Be Strengthened - 78p
  • 2014 09 - SOA - Trading Places: Life and Pension Actuaries Find Common Ground to Express Funding Concepts, By Tom Herget and Evan InglisThe Financial Reporter, Society of Actuaries - 6p
  • MOST LOSSES ON PENSION PLAN INVESTMENTS NOT INSURED BY STATES
    • Approximately one-third of all pension plan assets are invested with life insurance companies.9
    • When insurance company insolvencies occur, plans may incur losses.

9American Council of Life Insurance, 1990 Life Insurance Fact Book.

1991 0627 - GAO - Insurance Company Failures Threaten Retirement Income - Testimony - Joseph F. Delfico, Director, Income Security Issues, Human Resources Division - 24p

  • From a dollars and cents viewpoint, the need for a $6.00 premium is undebatable.
  • Our liabilities exceeded our assets by $333 million as of September 30, 1982 and that situation has not improved.
    • In fact it has worsened.
  • Without a premium increase, we will not be able to pay our debts as they mature.
  • The PBGC's deficit when we first appeared before Congress in May 1982 to request a premium increase approximated $ 190 million.
  • The deficit by September 30, 1982 had increased to $333 million.  (p99)

--  Prepared Statement of Edwin M. Jones, Executive Director, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

1983 0928 - GOV (House) - ERISAs Single employer Pension Plan Termination Insurance Program - [PDF-193p-GooglePlay]

  • INSURANCE ANNUITIES NOT COVERED BY FEDERAL GUARANTEES
    • An estimated 3 to 4 million retirees and their survivors receive pensions in the form of annuities purchased by their pension plans from life insurance companies.1
    • Almost all of these pensioners came from defined benefit plans, which are guaranteed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a corporation created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974.
      • 1 Most of these retirees received their annuities through ongoing (rather than terminated) pension plans. Some defined benefit plans routinely annuitize retirees each year, thereby lowering administrative costs and avoiding PBGC premiums.
      • For more information, see Private Pensions: Millions of Workers Lose Federal Benefit Protection at Retirement (GAO/HRD-91-79, Apr. 25, 1991).  -  [link]  -  28p

1991 0627 - GAO - Insurance Company Failures Threaten Retirement Income - Testimony - Joseph F. Delfico,  Director, Income Security Issues, Human Resources Division - 24p

  • From Evan: Tom, public pension plans are in the news in Illinois, but everywhere else too!
    • I’ve been following the issue and working and thinking about it for many years.
    • While some systems are in reasonable shape, there are many city and state plans around the country that are heading for disaster.
    • I know it’s a complicated issue when even other actuaries like Tom don’t fully understand it.
    • Of course, I’ve always wondered about the actuarial numbers behind life insurance products, so when he described his idea to translate pension information into life insurance terms and vice versa, I said, “Sign me up!”  (p4)

2014 09 - SOA - Trading Places: Life and Pension Actuaries Find Common Ground to Express Funding Concepts, By Tom Herget and Evan InglisThe Financial Reporter, Society of Actuaries - 6p

  • (p540) - What do I mean by changing the nature of property?
    • I mean that, starting with the theory of separating ownership from control, in a variety of ways, more and more Americans own property that they do not control.
      • They have no control over $240 billion of pension monies, for example, which are used for investment purposes as decided by a few large insurance and banking institutions.
      • Of course, they own billions of dollars of shares in U.S. companies; but they do not control the use that pertains to that ownership. Management does.
    • The severence of ownership from control, in effect, reduces ordinarily middle class and lower economic class people to much less economic influence in the economy.

--  Ralph Nader

1977 0503, 0504, 0505, 0511 and 0512 - GOV (Senate) - Oversight of Antitrust Enforcement - [PDF- 915p-GooglePlay]

  • Traditionally, actuaries have concentrated their attention on the liability side of the pension fund balance sheet, paying only limited attention to the other side, namely, the pension fund assets and their rate of growth.
    • While some actuaries may have discussed the potential impact of improved investment results on costs and/or benefits, few would have felt a responsibility to help plan sponsors seek means of improving performance.
    • Nor was there any demand for actuarial assistance in this area.
    • Indeed, until recent years few financial officers of corporations sponsoring pension plans paid attention to pension plan investment performance.
  • ⇒  Nowadays all this has changed.

--  Murray L. Becker

1973 - SOA - Investment Performance of Pension Plans, Society of Actuaries - 78p