Annual Meeting Public Plan Sessions

In public pensions, as in so many areas, without awareness of context and background of political processes, unintended consequences are likely to occur. This session’s panel of federal relations experts discuss topics of interest for public pensions related to federal policies and politics. The topics they explore include those most pertinent, including any late breaking developments, but may include federal reimbursement considerations and audits, language related to surplus and funding, pressures to extend single-employer funding rules into the public sector, and market value of liability measures.

After three Exposure Drafts, in February 2022 the ASB released a substantially revised ASOP 4, which includes the required disclosure of a market return based liability measure. Other new requirements include enhanced assessments of a plan's funding policy, and disclosure of an actuarially determined contribution by all pension plans. These new disclosures are particularly revolutionary for public pension plans. Panelists explore possible consequences and strategies for meeting these new requirements.

Speakers at this session discuss issues related to the intersection of Social Security and public pension plans. Topics include FICA Replacement Plan requirements, including the Safe Harbors, mandatory coverage, and Section 218 Agreements. Additionally, the implications of the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) on these topics are also addressed.

COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on operations of our principals, forcing actuaries to re-assess assumptions and inputs used in actuarial models. Speakers at this session review multiple perspectives on how COVID-19 has impacted pension and OPEB assumptions. The panelists detail COVID-19 trends in mortality and retiree healthcare costs, employee turnover, payroll growth, and other assumptions. Gain a broader view on latest trends in accounting for COVID-19 impact on mortality, morbidity and other experience by attending this session.

What is their line? Or in this case, opinion? Join us as our participants review and debate the finer points of recent research papers covering topics relevant to public plans. Come, listen, question, AND VOTE on who best presents their views on funding, sustainability, and fiscal stress as it impacts the public plan arena. (Review Papers: Enhancing Sustainability of Public Pensions, NCPERS, January 2022, and Addressing and Avoiding Severe Fiscal Stress in Public Pension Plans, Urban Institute, January 2022.)

Unlike pensions, setting aside significant assets for retiree health plans isn't as common. We will discuss some of the reasons for and against prefunding. Some of the topics that will be covered include trust vehicles, funding policies, discount rate setting, and unwinding trusts.

This is an open forum on topics of interest to public sector actuaries. The topics to be discussed will be selected by the session attendees and may include: Funding to surplus; Volatility management; Impact of higher interest rates on plan design; Economic assumptions including ASOP 27; and ASOP 4’s low-default-risk obligation measure (LDROM).