Actuarial Notes

Fundamentals of Private Pensions

By Dan McGill, Kyle N. Brown, John J. Haley, Sylvester Schieber and Mark J. Warshawsky · Oxford University Press · 2010

Study guide: Exam RET-201

The ninth edition of a text the Pension Research Council describes as, for five decades, the most authoritative on private pensions in the US. The revised and updated edition adds to past knowledge while providing new perspectives on the provision of retirement income, for academics and professionals working in pensions and pension management. The volume is organized into eight sections.

On the syllabus

  • Exam RET-201 — Fundamentals of Private Pensions, McGill, Dan, 9th Edition, 2010; Chapter 27, Investing for Defined Benefit Plans; outcomes 4a-4d.

Section I Introduction/Overview

  • 1 Underlying Forces

Section II Broad Public Policy Environment for Retirement Plans

  • 2 Social Insurance in the U.S. Retirement System
  • 3 The Politics and Economics of Tax Preferences

Section III The Role of Pension Plans

  • 4 Overall Objectives in Designing a Retirement Program
  • 5 Human Resource Incentives in Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans
  • 6 Financing of Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans
  • 7 Total Retirement Income: Setting Goals and Meeting Them
  • 8 Changing the End of Work: Phased Retirement
  • 9 Dealing with Risks of Outliving Resources in Retirement

Section IV Structure of Retirement Plans

  • 10 Defined Benefit Design: Retirement and Ancillary Benefits
  • 11 Defined Contribution Plan Design Features
  • 12 Hybrid Defined Benefit Plans
  • 13 Individual Tax-Favored Savings Plans

Section V Regulatory Environment for Retirement Plans

  • 14 Historical Review of Pension Regulation
  • 15 Basic Regulatory Environment and Plan Qualification Requirements
  • 16 Coverage, Nondiscrimination, and Integration with Social Security
  • 17 Tax Consequences: Distributions and Contributions
  • 18 Form of Doing Business and Transactional Considerations
  • 19 Fiduciary Responsibility and Participant Rights
  • 20 Plan Termination and Plan Benefits Insurance

Section VI Actuarial Requirements and Practices and Accounting for Pensions

  • 21 Actuarial Cost Factors
  • 22 Pension Cost and Liability: Concepts, Illustrations and Forecasts
  • 23 Funding Requirements for Single-Employer Plans
  • 24 Funding Requirements for Multiemployer Plans
  • 25 Pension Accounting

Section VII Pension Risk Management and Investments

  • 26 The Basics of Investments for Retirement Plans
  • 27 Investing for Defined Benefit Pension Plans
  • 28 Investing and Defined Contribution Retirement Plans

Section VIII The Future of Pensions

  • 29 The Future of Pensions

Appendix

Sources