Industry News

In the April 2021 issue of The Retirement Forum, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) republished four prize-winning papers from the “Retirement 20/20 Call for Models for Public Pension Plans Contest” conducted in 2018. The new issue includes commentary from reviewers of the papers and responses from the authors.

In 2005, the SOA began the Retirement 20/20 initiative to study retirement designs beyond traditional defined benefit and defined contribution plans. Among other designs, the papers examine risk-sharing plan designs administered by the Maine Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) and the South Dakota Retirement System.

According to the report, “With the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world are spending more time contemplating and evaluating risk. We hope that reading these papers will provide insights into the risks that public sector retirement plans face and offer ideas for managing those risks.”

Brian Murphy, Senior Consultant at GRS, was included as one of the reviewers that commented on the principles-based approach used for the South Dakota Retirement System.

The report is available here.