Moody's Aaa Bond rates for lump sum

[Gary]

A pension i am reviewing uses Moody's Aaa monthly bond ratesas the interest rate for lump sums.

Does anyone know where I can find historic data for these rates?

Thank you.

Gary

[MGB]

These rates had been regularly posted on Moody's website, including histories. However, as of August 31, 2001, they no longer provide this information free. It costs a $5,000 annual subscription to find out any Moody's rates and it is illegal (copyright infringements) for anyone else to publicly display their indices unless under contract.

Many actuaries use the Moody's Aa rates in their decisions on an appropriate discount rate because the SEC announced a few years ago that it was an appropriate gauge for SFAS 87 discount rates (this was when they got upset that too many firms were using too high of a rate and understating liabilities). Due to this, the Society of Actuaries pension section is trying to arrange for a contract to disseminate Moody's rates to actuaries, but that may take a few months to work itself out. They are concerned about making sure Moody's Aa rates are made available. I do not know if they will include Aaa rates. However, it is my understanding that the contract would allow any Moody's rate. If this is a big enough concern of yours, I would contact the SOA and request they include it in the contract (the actual contract was sent out as an RFP for someone to keep up the "statistics for pension actuaries" that had been published by one consulting firm in the past and no longer wants to do it -- whoever gets the contract will then need to pay the fee to Moody's to get the necessary rates).

[Guest Doug Goelz]

The Federal Reserve Board's H.15 release has the historical monthly averages of the Aaa rates (but not the Aa rates). The G.13 release provides the Aaa rates each month, but this release will be discontinued after January 2002.

Try this link:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/H15.../data/m/aaa.txt

I believe that Moody's also has a smaller fee for a limited use to their web site that allows access to the bond rates. I think it is $2,000 annually, but I can't remember for sure. You can call the number on their site to check.