Annual Funding Notice Supplement - In Living Color

[Andy the Actuary]

The supplement that accompanies the AFN from my former employer showed an MRC with MAP-21 of $15 million and without MAP-21 of $78 million. My conclusion is they are not adequately funding the plan and I intend to write the IRS, DOL, PBGC, FTC, FCC, WSJ, NY Times, and Al Sharpton. It's totally implausible that a plan participant can feel anything but panic let alone assess the plan's funded position.

For Congress to say you must employ certain assumptions to determine your contributions and then punish you for using these assumptions demonstrates just how little understanding they have for pension issues. It is of interest to note that unlike the prior Summary Annual Report, the AFN does not disclose how much the employer funded or intends to fund (in 2012). It's possible they might even fund the $78 (or more) rather than the $15 million..

[david rigby]

For Congress to say you must employ certain assumptions to determine your contributions and then punish you for using these assumptions demonstrates just how little understanding they have for pension issues.

Sentence too long.

[Andy the Actuary]

Got it! No demonstration required

[Guest timothyhider]

There was a great article in May's issue of Int'l News Society of Actuaries. Funding just got more complex. The article was written by Zorast Wadia, "Funded Status Measurements for U.S. Pensions".

[Hojo]

It is of interest to note that unlike the prior Summary Annual Report, the AFN does not disclose how much the employer funded or intends to fund (in 2012). It's possible they might even fund the $78 (or more) rather than the $15 million..

I think the original idea was that this was supposed to be addressed in the funding policy of the plan. Of course, it rarely is since the funding policy is generally written as a generic sentance saying that they intend to fund the minimum plus a discretionary additional amount to maintain the funded status of the plan.

More government fun!!! We didn't fund for years and now that we actually have to fund those amounts it's too much...well ok, we'll just use falsely high interest rates to help you fund.

Oh, and government plans aren't subject to the same rules as everyone else.....ugh.

[david rigby]

There was a great article in May's issue of Int'l News Society of Actuaries. Funding just got more complex. The article was written by Zorast Wadia, "Funded Status Measurements for U.S. Pensions".

Link?

[Guest timothyhider]

Did not think I could do so. However, when I did a Google Search I noticed Benefitslink.com had already posted http://benefitslink.com/buzz/subjects/actuarialfundingofpensions.html#.Uazii9I3uSq

Here it is.

http://content.internationalnews.soa.org/InternationalNewsContent/1/1/1/1/1/2/International_News-May_2013.pdf