Have you been putting off an actuarial audit of your governmental pension plan? Why postpone peace of mind? Actuarial audits of government retirement plans are considered a best practice by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) and should be conducted at least once every five years (more often if there have been significant unexpected changes in assets or liabilities). An independent review can enhance trust – for both the fiduciary and the public – that the pension plan is being governed properly.

If you sponsor a frozen defined benefit pension plan, a mostly “vanilla” individually designed defined pension plan or a defined benefit pension plan already on a pre-approved format, you will want to think about restating your plan now in the most recent IRS pre-approved format. The restatement satisfies the need to update the plan for the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (“PPA”). This is true for traditional defined benefit plans, as well as cash balance plans.

If a single employer overfunded pension plan is terminating and its participants and beneficiaries are on track to receive full benefits, the plan sponsor will likely ask if the excess is theirs. In other words, will the surplus revert to the plan sponsor? The answer is maybe.

With many retirement nest eggs still recovering from the 2008 economic downturn and its effect on 401(k) and other retirement savings, those who thought they were close to retirement have found themselves working longer and later in life than they had originally planned. Employers with a defined benefit plan may have more employees working beyond their plan’s normal retirement age.

A plan sponsor may be unable to implement a de-risking strategy currently because of cost, market conditions, or resource availability. Even if implementing a de-risking technique is not feasible at the present time, plan sponsors may wish to develop a plan and begin their preparation for eventual implementation.