Dave Baker

PBGC Executive Director David Strauss testified about SMART plans on March 11 to the House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight of Pension Issues; other witnesses had some stuff to say, too. (Found it using the Search page on BenefitsLink. The Search page is wicked-kewl, if I do say so myself.) BenefitsLink also has , taken from the "Green Book" issued February 2. [This message has been edited by Dave Baker (edited 08-19-98).]

Sounds like your plan might have been amended to use the "GATT" interest rates, authorized in a piece of legislation called the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade. It's one of the few times the government has expressly allowed benefits to be cut back, by changing the interest assumptions ("discount rate") to be used in converting a promised stream of monthly payments at retirement age to a single-sum equivalent in present value. Have you been told anything to that effect?