Society of Actuaries issued a call for research papers examining public pension plan finance, particularly the current practice of actuaries applying financial economics principles differently between public plans and private plans, and the issue of reporting financial information by market value.
The society seeks papers addressing a range of perspectives on elements of public pension fund finance from academics, practitioners, plan executives, actuaries and analysts, among other researchers. Topics the society suggests include the advantages or drawbacks of public pension plans reporting market-related financial information.
Abstracts must be submitted by Oct. 15 and complete papers by March 1. The society hopes to host a symposium in spring to discuss selected papers.
Information on the call for papers is available at http://www.soa.org/research/other-research-projects/data-requests/cfp-2008-public-plans.aspx.
The Government Accounting Standards Board and Actuarial Standards Board have separate reviews under way to consider whether they should overhaul accounting and actuarial standards for public pension plans, respectively, including ways to measure and disclose pension plan liabilities.
Some public retirement system officials have been campaigning against efforts to force plans to disclose liabilities discounted by market rates.
The society is an educational and research professional organization with 18,000 members.
