Social Security is the foundation of retirement security for most people in the U.S. It is one of the very few sources of inflation protected income available to retirees. This article is intended to provide a general understanding of some common situations and help readers understand the financial issues facing Social Security.

In this article, we cover: 1) background information related to Social Security; 2) Social Security retirement benefit calculations; 3) early and late retirement benefits; 4) working after retirement; 5) family benefits; 6) disability benefits; 7) cost-of-living increases; and 8) Social Security’s financial condition.

In this article, we discuss increases in interest rates from historic lows, potential impacts on PERS’ portfolio expectations, and policy issues surrounding changing the assumed rate of return. This article offers public plan stakeholders some considerations about the potential impact of the interest rate increases on the assumed rate of investment return assumption used in actuarial valuations.  

Layered amortization is an actuarial tool that can be used by a retirement plan to help achieve two primary objectives of: 1) paying off the existing Unfunded Actuarial Accrued Liability (UAAL); and 2) stabilizing annual contributions. This article explores the layered amortization approach which may be utilized by a retirement plan to help meet its funding objectives in volatile times.  

A funding policy for a public sector defined benefit pension or OPEB plan is a systematic set of rules and procedures used to determine the annual funding contribution requirements to be made by the employer(s) in a specific year or a series of years. Establishing and reviewing a comprehensive funding policy will help govern decision making that will lead to better financial outcomes and improved benefit security for all members of a public sector pension or OPEB plan. 

Understanding changes in the benefits landscape in the last 50 years can help Dioceses update 1970’s-era benefit policies and better prepare priests for retirement. This article provides a comparison of priest retirement benefits as they appear today versus when they were initially developed in the 1970s. The article concludes with an overview of the “Plan for the Future.”

Retirement plan trustees are tasked with retirement plan administration.  Trustees are responsible for hiring service providers and monitoring the quality of their work.  This article discusses actuarial audits as a due diligence tool for public plan trustees.

Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 415(b) places limits on amounts that may be paid from defined benefit (DB) retirement plans that are “qualified” under Code §401(a). This article summarizes the key §415(b) provisions for governmental DB plans and discusses compliance with §415(b) and the associated regulations.

A critical first step in understanding retirement benefit adequacy is collecting individual data from priests by conducting a pension plan survey.  Since 2011, GRS has deployed a pension plan survey to priests in 15 dioceses. The survey has been proven to be an important tool to help the dioceses understand their priests’ retirement readiness.