26 pages. Excerpt: Although there is no clear definition of the time period for the 'current financial crisis,' this testimony defines it as the first nine months of 2008. During that time, major equity indexes were negative, with the S&P 500 Index losing 19.29 percent. Fixed-income investments fared much better during this period, with the Lehman Aggregate Index gaining 0.63 percent and three-month T-bills gaining 1.54 percent. The impact of the current financial crisis on defined benefit plans is impossible to quantify, but it is obvious that a marked reduction in funding ratios and/or increase in volatility may make continued sponsorship of these plans less attractive under some forms of pension accounting modifications.

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