Private Pensions Implications Of Conversions To Cash Balance Plans Report To Congressional Requesters

The nation's private defined benefit (DB) pension system, a key contributor to the financial security of millions of Americans, is in long-term decline. Since 1980, the number of participants in insured single employer DB plans has dropped from 27% in 1980, to 15% in 2002. Hybrid DB plans like cash balance (CB) plans may be a means to revitalize this declining system. This report: reviews current research about the implications of CB conversions for employee benefits; describes the prevalence & type of transition provisions used to protect workers' benefits in past CB conversions; & estimates the effects of CB conversions on the benefits of individual participants under a hypothetical conversion to a typical CB plan from a typical traditional DB plan.

This book offers guidance for understanding benefits options and plan structures, and making better decisions for your organization. Writing for both HR and finance professionals, internationally respected compensation and benefits professor and consultant Bashker Biswas drills comprehensively into today's most important benefits-related topics and challenges. Employee Benefits Design and Planning covers all this, and much more: Finance and accounting implications of Healthcare benefits Other risk benefits Severance benefits Disability and group life insurance programs Flexible benefits Non-qualified deferred arrangements 409A plans, ESOPs, Money Purchase Pension Plans, Cash Balance Plans, 401(k), 403(b) plans and 457 Plans Employee benefit plan financial reporting, legal compliance, and auditing Employee benefits in mergers and acquisitions Self-funding vs. insurance funding decisions Global employee benefits including umbrella pension plans and multi-national pooling Equity participation in employee benefit plans Biswas introduces and explains key employee benefit metrics and ratios, and demonstrates best practices for forecasting costs and budgeting appropriately. For all compensation professionals, benefits professionals, human resource professionals, accounting professionals, labor attorneys, financial analysts, and finance professionals. Readers will have roles in benefits-related consulting, finance, accounting, and human resource management, both domestic and international.

In the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession, the health of state and local pension plans has emerged as a front burner policy issue. Elected officials, academic experts, and the media alike have pointed to funding shortfalls with alarm, expressing concern that pension promises are unsustainable or will squeeze out other pressing government priorities. A few local governments have even filed for bankruptcy, with pensions cited as a major cause. Alicia H. Munnell draws on both her practical experience and her research to provide a broad perspective on the challenge of state and local pensions. She shows that the story is big and complicated and cannot be viewed through a narrow prism such as accounting methods or the role of unions. By examining the diversity of the public plan universe, Munnell debunks the notion that all plans are in trouble. In fact, she finds that while a few plans are basket cases, many are functioning reasonably well. Munnell's analysis concludes that the plans in serious trouble need a major overhaul. But even the relatively healthy plans face three challenges ahead: an excessive concentration of plan assets in equities; the risk that steep benefit cuts for new hires will harm workforce quality; and the constraints plans face in adjusting future benefits for current employees. Here, Munnell proposes solutions that preserve the main strengths of state and local pensions while promoting needed reforms.

The book explores the lessons to be learnt for retirement planning and long-term financial security in view of the massive shocks to stock markets, labour markets, and pension plans caused by the financial crisis. It aims to rethink the resilience of defined contribution plans and how defined benefit plans reacted to the financial crisis.