The Retirement Practice Council (RPC) provides objective technical expertise to policymakers and regulators on major retirement policy issues, including Social Security and retirement plans.
Financial sustainability and other topics related to the Social Security program.
State and local government employee benefit plans’ funding, financial reporting, financial risks and plan design, and actuarial standards of practice related to public plans.
Long term retirement policy, including the effects of legislation and regulations on retirement benefits, and emerging issues affecting retirement plans.
Financial reporting related to retirement plans, developments from national and international accounting standards-setting bodies, recent policy developments, and new regulations and standards.
Multiemployer plans’ funding, financial reporting, financial risks, and plan design.
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.
Read the Academy news release.
( )The Social Security Committee released an issue brief on the 2023 Social Security Trustees Report examining the social insurance program’s long-term solvency issues.
( )The Public Plans Committee released Introduction to Service Purchases for Public Pension Plans, a practice note considering a variety of service purchase programs that can be found across public sector pension plans, as well as plan administration topics that actuaries should be aware of when working with them.
( )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.
( )The collaborative U.S.-based actuarial organizations’ Intersector Group released notes from its September meetings with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and the IRS and U.S. Department of the Treasury.
( )The Social Security Committee released an issue paper, Social Security and Financially Disadvantaged Groups, focusing on how benefits received by different groups are shaped by features of the program interacting with circumstances and trends associated with members of financially disadvantaged groups. The paper also discusses various reform proposals and how they might affect members of certain groups.
( )The Social Security Committee released an issue brief, Reforming Social Security Sooner Rather Than Later, which notes that earlier reform action would allow for tax increases and benefit reductions to be phased in gradually and provide individuals more time to plan and adjust to the changes. Read the Academy news release.
( )The Pension Committee and Multiemployer Plans Committee responded to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s (PBGC) request for comments regarding the proposed rule on Valuation Assumptions and Methods.
( )The Pension Committee submitted comments in response to the Department of Labor (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration’s (EBSA) Request for Information on a number of SECURE 2.0 provisions that impact the reporting and disclosure framework of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
( )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.
( )An issue brief released by the Pension Committee, Valuing Gender Expansive Data, examines 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. It also discusses several possible approaches to handling such data and setting reasonable actuarial assumptions.
( )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.
( )The Pension Committee released an issue brief focusing on “buy-out” annuity contract transactions, one of the ways pension plan sponsors transfer pension payment responsibilities and associated risks to other parties.
( )The Lifetime Income Joint Risk Committee released Experience-Sharing Lifetime Income (ESLI), an issue brief considering a retirement income concept now being used in many other countries, which shares features of both lifetime annuities and structured drawdowns.
( )Comments, analysis, or explanatory material prepared for an external audience on behalf of an Academy group or the Academy as a whole; these include letters, memos, reports, and fact sheets.
Analyses of major actuarial or public policy issues written primarily for policy-makers, regulators, the news media, and the public.
Include white papers and monographs which are longer, more detailed analyses of major actuarial or public policy issues written primarily for policy-makers, regulators, the news media, and the public. Includes monographs and white papers.
Slides presented by the Academy at webinars, seminars, briefings, hearings, or other meetings and events.
The Academy works with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) on the creation and refinement of sensible, effective regulation. These reports and related documents highlight the NAIC-related work of the pension practice councils.
Written and oral testimony provided to Congress or to other governmental and quasigovernmental bodies.
Practice notes offer examples of current and emerging approaches to selected actuarial tasks. They are intended to supplement the available actuarial literature, especially where the practices addressed are subject to evolving technology, recently adopted external requirements, or advances in actuarial science and other applicable disciplines.