Tag: American Academy of Actuaries

Actuaries Call on Obama to Address Aging Issues, Retirement Security in State of the Union

capitol

The American Academy of Actuaries is urging President Obama and the U.S. Congress to tackle retirement security issues through public policy over the next two years.

That includes addressing the solvency of Social Security, improving the governance and disclosure requirements of public pension plans, and ensuring adequate retirement income for seniors who are living longer.

From the AAA:

The American Academy of Actuaries is calling on the president and the 114th Congress to commit to a focus in the next two years on addressing the needs of an aging America. A concerted national strategy on policies to support systems such as retirement security and lifetime income, health care and long-term care for the elderly, and public programs such as Social Security and Medicare, is long overdue.

[…]

As President Obama prepares to address Congress and the American people this evening, the Academy (which celebrates its own 50th anniversary this year) would point out that the state of our union is inextricably linked to the demographic transition of proportionately greater numbers of Americans entering retirement, coupled with increased longevity, or life expectancies, that will compound the fiscal challenges to both private systems and public programs in the years to come.

The AAA goes on to provide specific points that comprise a public policy “wish list”:

* Take immediate steps to address solvency concerns of key public programs like Social Security and Medicare to ensure that they are sustainable in light of changing demographics. The Academy also urges action to allow the disability trust fund to continue to pay full scheduled disability benefits during and beyond 2016.

* Evaluate and address the risk of retirement-income systems not providing expected income into old age, especially in light of increasing longevity. The Academy’s Retirement for the AGES initiative provides a framework for evaluating both private and public retirement systems, as well as public policy proposals.

* Encourage the use of lifetime-income solutions for people living longer in retirement. The Academy’s Lifetime Income initiative supports more widespread use of lifetime-income options.

* Improve the governance and disclosures regarding the measurements of the value of public-sector (state/municipal) employee pension plans. The Academy’s Public Pension Plans Actuarial E-Guide provides information on the nature of the risks and the complex issues surrounding these plans.

* Explore solutions to provide for affordable long-term care financing, and address caregiver needs and concerns through public and/or private programs.

* Address the impact of delayed retirement, either voluntary or through future retirement age changes, on benefit programs, as well as the needs it may create with increased demand for early retirement hardship considerations and disability income programs.

Read the full release here.

Is 80 Percent Funding All It’s Chalked Up To Be?

numbers and charts

When it comes to pension funding, an 80 percent funded ratio is the benchmark for a “healthy plan”.

But over at the STUMP blog, actuary Mary Pat Campbell has penned a post taking issue with the 80 percent “rule”. According to Campbell, 80 percent isn’t a magic number that makes pensions “okay”.

The post is published below:

______________________

By Mary Pat Campbell, originally published at STUMP

I have just about had it with the 80 percent.

Unlike the commonplace idiocies of ‘You only use 10% of your brain’ or ‘The Great Wall of China is the only manmade object visible from space’, the 80 percent myth is dangerous.

I speak, of course, of the supposed percent fundedness level at which public pensions are “okay”.

The American Academy of Actuaries has a brief on the 80% pension funding myth, and I will give loads of examples of how even “100% funded” plans have been shown to be shaky.

But that’s not for today.

Today, I have decided to keep track of every idiot who refers to this 80% funding level (or something even worse) as proof that a pension plan is or is not okay. Generally, reporters fall afoul of this, and this is not necessarily concerning. People don’t think of reporters, as a group, as expert in anything.

But when there are politicians directly making decisions about public pensions, union leaders arguing about their public pensions, and dear lord, public plan TRUSTEES putting this bilge forth, that is super dangerous.

If you want to follow yourself, just create a google news alert on ‘80 percent pension’ — google news alerts don’t necessarily work the same for everybody, so feel free to email me at marypat.campbell@gmail.com if I missed any good (or, rather, horrible) examples.

So here goes:

Congrats, New Jersey Senate President Steven Sweeney — you are the inaugural member of my 80 Percent Pension Funding Hall of Shame!

TRENTON — State Senate President Stephen Sweeney is floating an idea to move the goal posts for funding public workers’ pensions in order to take pressure off the state budget.

Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said today the state — which by law is supposed to fund the pension system 100 percent by 2018 — should instead focus on getting the pension system 85 percent funded to put it in line with private sector plans that are considered healthy.

New Jersey’s pension funds are currently funded at about 54 percent, in part because the state skipped or made only partial payments for a decade. Under a 2011 law pushed by Sweeney and signed by Gov. Chris Christie that included cuts to workers’ pension and health benefits, the state is required to ramp up its payments to once again fully fund the system. However, Christie cut the payments by more than $2 billion for this budget year and the previous one.

Yes, yes, he picked 85 percent, but anything less than 100 percent is questionable. Especially with New Jersey math.

Here’s a nice kicker:

“The governor paints a very bleak picture by saying ‘look at what a big hole we’re in,’” said Sweeney. “The governor’s focus is basing everything on us being fully-funded. That’s not a realistic number. And a lot of pension systems live being 85 percent funded, or in the 80s.”

Yeah, they live right up until they don’t.

Ask the Detroit retirees what they think of their supposedly almost-100-percent-funded pension – pension benefits that got cut (note: it was not as fully funded as they thought, but that’s for another time.)

NEWS ALERT SENATOR SWEENEY: lots of public pensions aren’t doing well. While 85% funded would be a lot better than where NJ pensions are right now, that is not a laudable end goal.

I’ve already got THREE OTHER EXAMPLES for my new Hall of Shame from just this week, so this Hall of Shame is going to be filling up rapidly.

With respect to politicians, or union leaders, or other such, there is no cure (that is, I, personally, can’t do much about it other than mock them on the blog).

But at least with regards to reporters, I will be writing them and/or their organizations with links to the Academy’s brief. And maybe the blog posts where I call them idiots. We’ll see.