Description: This article addresses how the ARPA has lessened the financial burden on sponsors of corporate defined benefit plans.

Description: This article focuses on retirement planning and knowledge and how the SOA Research Institute has added to our understanding of what consumers know and how they plan. It is the first of a series that offer insight into where consumers are today, identifies gaps in understanding, planning and managing retirement issues, helps us understand how consumers act at various life stages, highlights consumer information collected by the SOA Research Institute and provides some recommendations for working with different stakeholders to improve retirement planning. This article identifies the components of the research and how they fit together and provides a summary of major findings with regard to gaps in knowledge and planning. The research includes focus groups and in-depth interview, consumer surveys, a conjoint study, a study of future issues by Futurists, and more.

Description: Patrick Ring chaired the Retirement Section Council’s (RSC) Communication Committee for many years before stepping down earlier this year. Learn more about his insights on the RSC Communication Committee's work.

Description: Collective Defined Contribution Plans offer an option in plan design that lies somewhere between defined benefit and defined contribution plans. This is achieved by fixing the contributions to the plan, but allowing benefits to fluctuate based on experience. This article provides a basic summary of how they can be structured. There are limitations to their use in the US, but are gaining in popularity elsewhere around the globe.

Description: An interview with Michelle Richter-Gordon which provides a look at how DC participants feel about their financial security in retirement and suggests how retirement professionals can improve the financial security of retirees during the decumulation phase.

Description: This article is a summary of the SOA Research Institute report published in April 2023 on Megatrends Impacting the Future of Retirement Plans.

Description: COVID-19 has changed the lives of most Americans and there are very important issues for retirees and near-retirees to consider.

Description: This article is an interview of two fraud experts who talk about the feedback on retirement fraud they received from surveying record keepers.

Description: Actuaries can be well suited to provide consulting to both DB and DC plans. We focus on DC design and the important nondiscrimination test requirements that need to be at the core of a plan design project. Plan design for DC plans seems easy, but should not be looked at any less seriously than DB plan design. The key steps are the same as DB plan design. We review key concepts that plan design actuaries want to know.

Description: This article describes several uses of pension surplus assets and makes a case for maintaining and growing a surplus.