Mr. Clark said he was surprised at the level of disagreement among the 50 experts over what had gone wrong, such as why so many sponsors of corporate defined benefit plans were struggling to meet liabilities, as well as over ways to remedy problems. That's why Mr. Clark decided to enlist P&I's assistance in hopes of enlarging the universe of survey respondents, and seeking input from as many industry participants as possible.
The P&I/Oxford survey is using the questionnaire from the May conference, although it has been tweaked somewhat to improve the profile of respondents, said Mr. Monk.
All responses will be anonymous.
P&I readers can visit the website https://surveys.ehr.com/oxfordsurvey/pi and complete the 25-question survey. Respondents will be asked to measure the extent to which they agree with a particular statement. The survey should take no more than 15 minutes to complete, said Mr. Clark.
The online survey will end Jan. 19. Messrs. Clark and Monk will compile and analyze the results for a P&I story planned for Feb. 19, and for an academic paper they will write.
"For the sake of the DB industry, it is in the interests of the players to participate in this survey," Mr. Clark said.