Defined Contribution Committee Releases Issue Brief and Executive Summary on Decumulation Strategies
The Academy’s 2025 issue brief, Decumulation Strategies: Creating Lifetime Income from Defined Contribution Plans, outlines the insured and non-insured options available through employer-sponsored defined contribution retirement plans. It also compares these options across key features and strategies. An executive summary of the full issue brief is also available.
()The Retirement Policy and Design Evaluation Committee released an issue brief, Collective Defined Contribution Plans. The issue brief defines Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) plans broadly, provides some examples of CDC plans that exist in various countries, discusses some advantages and criticisms of CDC plans—and considers possible options to address the criticisms.
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The Public Plans Committee released an issue brief, Public Pension Plans: Helping Members Evaluate Buyout Programs and Other Lump Sums. The issue brief suggests critical information that would help members compare the value of an offered buyout—a lump sum payment in exchange for some or all of their pension benefits—to the value of the lifetime benefits.
()The Social Security Committee released an issue brief, An Actuarial Perspective on the 2024 Social Security Trustees Report. This detailed brief provides perspective on the latest detailed annual assessment by the federal government of the program’s solvency.
()The Public Plans Committee released ‘Surplus’ Considerations for Public Pension Plans, an issue brief that examines plan “surplus,” what it means and does not mean, historical lessons for public plans regarding “surplus,” and considerations for plans at or approaching 100% funding in the future.
()The Pension Committee released an issue brief, Aligning the PBGC’s Single-Employer Premium Structure With Its Objectives, which discusses options for modifying the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) single-employer premium structure to better support the single-employer defined benefit system, while preserving a strong level of retirement security. For more information, read here.
()Social Security Committee issue brief on 2023 Social Security Trustees Report examining the latest detailed annual assessment by the federal government of the program’s solvency.
()The Pension Committee released an issue brief, Church-Sponsored Retirement Plans—Overview and Considerations. This issue brief discusses the broad range of church plans and practices. Among other considerations, it discusses the impact on a participant of being in a church plan when the ERISA protections and provisions for U.S. tax-qualified single or multiemployer pension plans generally do not apply.
()Social Security’s combined trust fund reserves are projected to become depleted around 2034,1 at which time its income would be able to pay only 80% of the benefits scheduled for its 80 million beneficiaries. It is important that Congress immediately focus on this issue because delay makes the solution more difficult, as it gradually limits the viable options to those relying on increasing taxes.
()The Social Security Committee released an issue brief, Assumptions Used to Evaluate Social Security’s Financial Condition. The issue brief describes the assumptions that must be made in any actuarial projection of the Social Security program’s finances and explains how variations in the assumption values affect the projections.
()The Pension Committee released an issue brief, Enhancing Retirement Security Through Changes in Plan Design and Related Requirements, that examines modifications to defined benefit (DB) plans that would make them more attractive for modern employers, and looks at ways to incorporate some of the more desirable attributes of DB plans into the more common defined contribution (DC) options that many employers are currently offering.
()Pension Committee issue brief examining issues pension actuaries may consider when performing an actuarial valuation using sex/gender expansive data—data on sex/gender that is either missing or nonbinary.
()Academy Senior Life Fellow Nancy Bennett and Paul Navratil, chairperson of the Life Investment and Capital Adequacy Committee, presented to the U.S. Department of Labor’s ERISA Advisory Council public meeting on pension risk transfers on July 18. They gave an overview of life insurance regulations focused on the regulatory framework governing solvency requirements, including the establishment of liabilities and required capital for benefit obligations that are the result of a pension risk transfer. Additionally, the Academy submitted the Pension Committee’s recent issue brief, Buy-Out Group Annuity Purchase Primer, for the meeting record as a resource on “buy-out” annuity contract transactions from a pension actuarial perspective.
()Pension Committee issue brief on pension plan sponsor role and considerations regarding “buy-out” annuity contract transactions.
()Issue brief authored by the Lifetime Income Joint Risk Committee considering Experience-Sharing Lifetime Income (ESLI), a retirement income approach that shares features of both lifetime annuities and structured drawdowns.
()The Academy's Social Security Committee released an issue brief that explores a wide variety of proposals made over the years for changing the formulas for determining benefits by members of Congress, government-appointed panels and commissions, and outside experts, with an eye toward how the proposed changes would affect the balance between individual equity and social adequacy.
()The Academy's Social Security Committee released an issue brief that explores a wide variety of proposals made over the years for increasing the system’s revenue by members of Congress, government-appointed panels and commissions, and outside experts.
()The Academy's Lifetime Income Risk Joint Committee released an issue brief that provides a discussion of the various types of insured annuities available to individuals and their potential uses, as well as some relevant tax implications.
()The Academy's Lifetime Income Risk Joint Committee released an issue brief providing a discussion of Qualifying Longevity Annuity Contracts (QLACs), which are insured annuities paid out one or more years after purchase, possibly starting at an advanced age.
()The Academy's Lifetime Income Risk Joint Committee released an issue brief that that provides a discussion of a variety of approaches for adding annuity options to defined contribution (DC) plans providing for insured lifetime income that begins immediately, is deferred, or is provided under an accumulation product that converts funds to lifetime income.
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