Session from the 2010 CCA Annual Meeting
35 - Saving DB Plans: A Call to Action!
10/26/2010 - 10:00 – 11:40 AM
Session Category: Employee Benefits - General
Credits:
EA Noncore 2.00 CPD 2.00
Private sector defined benefit pension plans are continuing to die a slow death. What are we as representatives of the actuarial profession/retirement community doing about it? Are we talking to Congress trying to help them understand that without a major shift in retirement policy, corporate defined benefit plans will continue to disappear? Are we explaining what the death of defined benefit plans means for the retirement security of the average American worker? Have we created any new and effective plan designs that might help save defined benefit plans?
Despite some minor initiatives in these areas, generally the answer is NO. In fact, too many of our best and brightest actuaries and the leaders of our profession are focused on the details of PPA – discussing how to apply multiple interest rates and different credit balances and creating our own ever growing alphabet soup of pension acronyms. Instead of staying mired in the details, we need to take a step back and focus on the bigger issue of how we as a profession can save private sector defined benefit pension plans.
This session features three actuaries who approach this challenge from three different perspectives:
- Ken Porter from the perspective of a broad-based employee benefits organization and preeminent advocate of employer-sponsored benefit programs in Washington, D.C.;
- Frank Todisco from the perspective of the American Academy of Actuaries -- the voice of the actuarial profession on public policy and professionalism issues; and
- Jim Holland from the perspective of a consulting actuary as well as a longtime IRS veteran and one of the nation's leading experts on the pension provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA.
This is an open and interactive session in which no idea is a bad idea. Our goal is to get the actuarial profession motivated to create a real action plan to save defined benefit pension plans.
Speakers:
1.
Lance J. Weiss
- Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company
2.
Kenneth W. Porter
- Benefits Leadership International, LLC
3.
Frank Todisco
- U.S. Government Accountability Office
4.
James E. Holland Jr.
- Cheiron, Inc.
Session Coordinator/Recorder:
Diana Du Boi Diep
- Buck Consultants
