Society of Actuaries' Survey on the Prevalence of Traditional and Hybrid Defined Benefit Pension Plans

Research Projects – Pension

This report presents the results of a survey intended to examine the prevalence of traditional and hybrid defined benefit pension plans in large organizations with operations in the United States. It is hoped that the report will prove useful to pension practitioners and policymakers wishing to gauge the effect of a recent US court ruling with potentially widespread implications for pension plans commonly referred to as cash balance plans.

The results of the survey show that approximately forty percent of private sector and a quarter of public sector defined benefit plan participants' benefits are determined by some form of hybrid benefit design feature. The survey was sponsored and originally conceived by the SOA's Committee on Retirement Systems Research. Mathew Greenwald and Associates, Inc. administered the survey and prepared the resulting report.

Survey on the Prevalence of Traditional and Hybrid Defined Benefit Pension Plans

Thank You

Members of the Project Oversight Group Include:

• Kevin Binder, Chair
• Kenneth Kent
• Ho Kuen Ng
• Tom Lowman
• Emily Kessler, SOA Staff
• Steven Siegel, SOA Staff

Questions Or Comments?

If you have comments or questions, please send an email to research@soa.org.